Are there any rest homes available with tracks?

[Xr4ti]

where I can spend time trying to qualify against Alzheimers patients, with like 5 lap enduros? I guess I'll have to start Rest Home Raceways as a traveling circus with a city Championship, County might be better, then the statewide County Incarcerated Finale. All you need to qualify is $10 for the National Title. Being sedentary is just not right and the incarcerated, the shut-ins, the infirmed could qualify. How about a jail ministry with a portable track. Huge untapped market. Why aren't we selling into prison's? Have a nationwide prisoner slot car challenge, how demented would that be?

What better way to screen the aged to see who's still got it? That's a fun idea and could answer a lot of unasked questions like "is slot car competition really the cure for Alzheimers"?
Or does slot car racing cause more mental degradation than most people realize? To my knowledge a study has never been done.

All I know is when the time comes I would prefer a room with tracks available, ovals, drag strips, rally tracks, hill climbs.

As far as format just start with 1 lane, one person at a time.
Every time there is an incident, hit pause until that driver has time to collect themselves.
You don't get any more kind than that, huh?

Ever heard golden agers talkin' smack when they're racin'? Maybe start out with the Senior Center Invitational and then spread out into the rest homes for the more feeble in our community.

This could be huge!

Xr4ti

[thatguy01]

From The Ratings Game (1984):

Parker Braithwaite: How can The Senator and Stinky get a zero share?

Francine Kester: Not one of the fifteen hundred Computron sets were tuned into it. In short, nobody watched.

Parker Braithwaite: Nobody watched, huh? It just so happens that we received four hundred letters complaining about the show... so somebody's watching.

Francine Kester: None of the Computron households.

Parker Braithwaite: Households. That's the flaw in your system! You don't take into account college dormitories... prisons... Our shows get a lot of fan mail from mental institutions. That never shows up in your ratings!

[MrFlippant]

WHAT am I reading??

[Wet Coast Racer]

I dunno, but cannot understand the 2nd Post, either.

What better way to screen the aged to see who's still got it? That's a fun idea and could answer a lot of unasked questions like "is slot car competition really the cure for Alzheimers"?
Or does slot car racing cause more mental degradation than most people realize? To my knowledge a study has never been done.

I'll respond as best I may to Bruce, who started this thread; perhaps with some useful insight. In my 1:1 life, I work with seniors at various levels of competence (I'm a Driver Trainer, specializing in small bus operation, including driving tasks), so I interact on a constant basis with many - from those who can be dropped at the mall for a couple of hours and be relied upon to be there for the return trip, to those who will wander off if not monitored constantly just on the way to getting from the front door of the residence and onto the bus for a scenic drive. Wheelchairs and Walkers, Keypad doors and Elevators.

And I lost my Dad in 1999, I think he had something like 14 strokes in his last few months (never-mind the Parkinson's) - by then, so far out of his mind that he actually quit cigarettes as he forgot that he smoked, despite a habit that he'd started 60 years earlier. My Mum died three weeks later, a victim of diabetes who didn't survive her second amputation; but I think she just didn't want to go on anymore, they had been together since 1942.

It's bad, you know. It's so hard, to deal with losing a parent, or seeing them deteriorate; Alzheimer's is cruel, to the person afflicted with it, and to those who are close to them. Thanks to modern medicine, on average people live much longer than they would have even a few decades back.

In my opinion, it might be helpful to try introducing a group of them to slot cars, perhaps with a portable track with all the necessary controllers and cars etc, brought to their residence for a fun session. But I doubt very much that attempting to learn this new skill/hobby would be practicable. Way too late in life.

One of the most interesting things that I've come across, in terms of refreshing cognitive memory, the Glen Campbell I'll be me documentary on Netflix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC374jwyrkM

As for prisons and schools? I think there's potential for developing our hobby there.

[MrFlippant]

Music is a powerful thing. I keep telling my family that when I'm in a bad mood because I can't remember their names, they should play some songs by my long time favorite musicians.

[RichD]

You would want to use a table with short legs so people in wheel chairs could see the track. My own track has 24 inch legs so you can sit on a regular stool while you are racing. When I was building my table I still was racing with a couple of people in wheelchairs and later on we had a racer with MS who could not stand for very long.
It does not hurt to consider accessibility when you design a track, physical limitations will creep in as you get older.

[Z28Racing]

The sad thing is that this hobby is almost there! Look at the average age of most in the hobby. We aren't far away from most races already being in senior citizen's homes (not Senior Citizens Homes). We need to find a way to get more young blood in this hobby, even if the "young blood" are in their 40's and 50's.

[Robert]

Young Blood

I live in a 55 plus seniors complex, none of us don't get together to race slot cars, the first thing they think of, when you mention the word slot is a slot machine in a Casino. I have had relatives over and some of the younger kids in joy the race track time. The parents sit in front of the Boobtube and think what I do is childish for my age. I can't tell you the good times that I have with their kids and my track. I have had adults in my complex come over and they would sooner watch TV than get involved in racing (toy cars) ,most adults can't get beyond it's a toy. Getting back too rest homes I think this would be a great idea if someone was there to assist and guide them along. It's never too late too late too help others regardless of their age.

[Xr4ti]

tysm for all of your thoughtful responses. Last week my mother-in law, 94, got on the oval with me and my wife but was thinking out loud that "this is what you're going to be doing for the rest of you're life?" Yes, Estelle this is how I can escape the daily humdrum of everyday life, won't you join me?
**** right. Day care centers also need tracks for the youth and modular plug and play like what I've got with my setup is doable. When I had my commercial track, day care centers would have a group race every month and the kids loved it. Think of it. Race day arrives at your place of residence and you have a choice, do something fun with others or sit, by your own lonesome self, in front of the Boob-tube doing nothing fun, as you grow old and die. What a waste of a life.
I lost both my parents last year within a few months of each other, they never raced but have supported me in this hobby from the time I first started with Aurora 'Vibes'. My own experience with the golden agers in slots at Port Angeles Slot Car Raceways, has been all positive and all these people that are in assisted living quarters need is an opportunity to have fun.
I intend to pull it off, somehow, someway.
Wish me luck.

Xr4ti

[ramcatlarry]

It would be better than darts or pingpong in any of the homes where some of the residents are mobile enough.
I have a stroke impaired friend still building model kits in a nursing home.