PLATTSBURGH — Lucy Ricardo is a fixture on CVPH Medical Center's sixth floor.
"Remember the episode where she makes the candy?" Director of Nursing Joy Cummings asked the ladies gathered around the TV in the Skilled Nursing Facility lounge.
Betty Palmer chuckled. "She was eating more than she was making, almost."
At lunchtime Monday, Marshal Matt Dillon strode across the screen in a "Gunsmoke" rerun that never gets old to folks who enjoy the trip through time television gives them.
Betty, Theresa Sheffield and Marion LeBrecht, 89, all have TVs in their rooms, but they, as do other residents, like the society of the common area.
"A lot of times, I hear them talking in here about the things they're doing" on TV," Cummings said.
The interaction is great for folks, for they thrive on visiting with one another. And the old shows on the ever-popular TV Land network summon up the past, sometimes, even for those who struggle with memory issues.
"We just put ('I Love Lucy') in, and then they'll start remembering," Cummings said.
MOVIE NIGHTS
Evenings, staff turns on a nature channel. Or sometimes, it's movie night (for the residents who stay up past 7 p.m.), with home-made milk shakes or popcorn.
The news is popular, too, the registered nurse said.
"Especially during the election — they were really into that."
Betty shook her head.
President-elect Barack Obama, she said, "has got his hands full."
The Malone woman, who gets around in a wheelchair with a multi-colored fabric-sculptured flower nodding over her shoulder, has lived at CVPH for just a few weeks, and it's the camaraderie of the lounge that has helped her make new friends.
Television moves the day along faster.
"A lot faster," she said.
Within a month or so, the nursing home will have a new, flat-screen television for its common area. Along with it will be a Nintendo Wii, the video-game system for TV that will let the residents enjoy simulated activities such as bowling and even fishing.
"We got the sports package," Cummings said.
LUCY REIGNS
Betty remembers her family's first TV many years ago.
"It was black and white, and it only got Channel 5 and a Canadian channel — in French," she said. "There wasn't much on."
But the shows of the 1950s and '60s became part of the fabric of her life, and she relishes seeing them now.
"Jackie Gleason," she said. "And that one with Barney Fyfe on it."
Then there was the "Carol Burnett Show."
"She was a riot," Betty said, laughing.
Theresa follows the soaps.
"Days of Our Lives," she said.
She gets a charge out of cowboy movies, as does Marion, and she puts her mind to work with games shows such as "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune."
She's content to play the game from her wheelchair — has no dreams of being a contestant.
"I'm not that smart," she chuckled.
Judge Judy is popular — in fact, any of those "judge shows," Betty said.
"I can't believe some of the things that people say."
Lucy reigns as queen of comedy, though, even if her reruns don't move along with the times.
One resident, recalled Activities Coordinator Vicki Tolosky, made a particularly astute observation about that one day.
"She said, 'You know Lucy's pregnant,'" Tolosky chuckled. "'But her and her husband sleep in separate beds.'"
Skilled Nursing has maybe 50 episodes of "I Love Lucy" on DVD, but no one ever requests a specific one.
There's no need.
"I watch 'Lucy' whenever it's on," Marion said.
E-mail Suzanne Moore at: smoore@pressrepublican.com
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November 25, 2008
Television a vital nursing-home fixture
<img src="/homepage/images_image_276103054" alt="•"> TV serves as a time machine, reminding residents of younger days
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