Moncton — This week, a nostalgic nursing home in Moncton is helping its residents relive their childhoods in the Dirty Thirties.
Manoir Notre Dame de la Pauvreté is sponsoring a “Great Depression” theme week for its residents to help them call to mind their resilient youths in the impoverished early- to mid-1930s.
Activities director Pepper Toylette excitedly kicked of the week’s activities at lunchtime yesterday. “To get things started, we got a bunch of pots and pans and firecrackers to make a really loud crash noise over the P.A., you know…to represent the stock market crash! Those of our residents who have good hearing got a good scare from that!
“Then we had our first activity: ‘bread line dancing!’ We got everyone in the nursing home into a very long line, and did a little dancing while they waited for a crust of bread and cup of soup. It was a hoot!”
Later that day, the nursing home staff started rationing supplies for the residents, telling them that they could have only two rolls of toilet paper per week. Also, facial tissue was no longer distributed at all. “We also told them that they could only flush once per day…so make it count! Think of it like a game!” laughed Toylette.
Other activities to celebrate Great Depression Week include:
- Naps will be slashed by 50%
- Residents will be wheeled around out front wearing sandwich board signs saying, “Will work for prune juice”
- Hard candy will now be twice as hard
- “B-I-N-G-O” games will be reduced to “B-I-N-G” games effective immediately
- Decks of playing cards will have the diamonds removed
- All medication will be mixed together in a big pail and distributed “peanut scramble” style
- Oxygen tanks will now contain 25% “mystery air”