Grandmas are active, belong to rec centers

Heloise

Dear Heloise: I just finished reading your hints on “what to get a grandmother for the coming holidays,” and you have missed the current activities that we grandmas who belong to recreation centers and YMCAS participate in. We no longer bake homemade bread and stay in slippers all day. Please include an updated list of gifts, such as tennis balls, racket cases, sun visors, bicy- cling accessories and other related items. We golf, and we travel, too; plus you left out the fastest-growing sport in America — pickleball. Just drive by a tennis court today and observe all the grandmas out there playing pick- leball! — The Modern Day Grandma, Jane Woodford

Donate calendars to prisons

Dear Heloise: I wanted to write in regarding the let- ter from “A Reader in San Antonio.” In the letter, the reader suggested that “the lady from Gardenia, California, consider donating any calendars or greeting cards she receives to her local senior center or nursing home.”

I suggest that such donations also be extended to the men or women, as well as juveniles, who are incar- cerated in the many prisons and similar facilities that exist across our country. This should also include those confined in any of our many psychiatric facilities. Simi- larly, books can be donated to the Prison Library Proj- ect, which exists here in Cal- ifornia and, hopefully, other locations in different states. — Old Man in Claremont, California

Household Hints

New use for plastic hangers

Dear Heloise: I have been reading your column in the San Antonio Express News for years. Some things I have found very helpful, and oth- ers I was doing already. I have been mildly handicapped for most of my life, but in the last few months, I’ve pro- gressed greatly. I found that I needed a hip replacement, and my right leg and knee are in much pain. I also lost the range of motion below my knees. I was unable to pick up my pants from the floor, and my dressing stick was in another room. Then, I saw a plastic coat hanger, and it worked perfectly. Now, I have hangers in various spots in the bathroom and my bed- room, and even one in my walker. — Edward Loch, San Antonio