Oldsters

Ruminating on the boredom of old age, an old man in Elgin, Ill. recently came to the conclusion that many an octogenarian would be better off if he had something to occupy his mind. "Medicine can do little," he declared. "The mind becomes ill while the body remains healthy." Charles Edward Sharp should know what he is talking about. Now 76, he has been one of Elgin's leading physicians for nearly half a century, still has a large & lucrative practice, in addition runs a philanthropic six-cottage sanatorium whose patients are required to pay practically no fees, are taught to help themselves. Last week, carrying out his theory, Dr. Sharp announced his plans for opening not an old people's home but an old people's school, in a 16-room house he is refurbishing for the purpose.

Prospectus for Dr. Sharp's School for Maturates contains no customary scholastic rules. But no student may be under 70. Classes will be held from 1130 p. m. to 4. There will be no entrance examinations, tuition, compulsory attendance, class or racial distinctions. Classrooms are on the ground-floor to obviate stair-climbing for the incapacitated. Upstairs are living quarters for those unable to go back & forth. Food costs will be shared. Dr. Sharp's widowed sister, Mrs. Jean Torson, will act as housemother. What courses will evolve remains largely a matter of what subjects interest the oldsters most.

Among early enrollers was Mrs. Calista Fowler, 106-year-old resident of the Elgin Old People's Home who has been confined to a wheel chair for almost a quarter of a century. But Mrs. Fowler and 49 other charter students, who expected their school would start this week, were last week informed that opening had been delayed until Sept. 13. That was because of the Midwest's current infantile paralysis scare (see p. 35).

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