Early Childhood Research Paper

Ed was born in 1945, he grew up in a small town in the Midwest, Davenport, Iowa. He grew up with 1 older brother and 1 older sister. Both of his parents died before he reached the age of 8. He experienced immense loss from a very early age. Ed was raised by his older brother and sister, who took the best care of him as they could for being teenagers, but his socioeconomic status was below the poverty line at some points. He even lived in a car at one point in his life. Eventually he was taken in by close family friends from the church and they raised him from grade school on, just like he was their own. He lived a normal and typical middle class lifestyle from this point on. Once he was sixteen he got his first job working on a river boat on the Mississippi river. Ed continued his education until he graduated from high school. Right after high school he went joined the United States Marine Corps.
Early and Middle Adulthood
After joining the Marine Corps right out of high school he went to boot camp, which was his first big move. He attended boot camp in San

Diego, California. After he finished boot camp, Ed was stationed in a boom military town, Hawthorne, Nevada. He was stationed at the army depot, which is the largest in ammunition depot in the world. While being stationed there he met his wife of 52 years and counting. When asked how they met, he explained that she rode through the main gate of the base on her bicycle and she just “caught my eye.” They dated for a short time and quickly got married before he deployed to fight in the Vietnam war. While fighting the war he made some of his best friends. I asked “do you still keep up or have contact with the men you fought in the war with?” he answered “every year, all of us that can, we pick a spot somewhere in the country and all meet up.” They have been keeping this tradition alive since they got out of the war. After fighting in the war for several years, Ed was injured, received a purple heart, and moved back to Davenport, Iowa.
He started his family and then once again moved back to Hawthorne, Nevada where he raised his daughters. He worked for the Sierra Pacific Power Company as a meter reader. Becoming a meter reader was never his goal, but it ended up being a good job and he was able to receive great benefits. He did this from the time he was 25 until he was 65 and old enough to retire. He raised his family and soon watched his family raise their own. He enjoyed going skiing, camping, and on family vacations all over the country with his daughters, wife, and family friends. Ending this portion of the interview I asked what he was most proud of at this point of his life. Ed said “just being able to provide a good life for my family and being able to have the time and money to go all over the country and learn new things with my family, and just enjoy life.”
Current Life
Ed is now 73 and living a comfortable retired lifestyle. He still live in a the small town of Hawthorne. Both of his two daughter live there as well. Both of his children have 2 children, making it a total of 4 grandchildren. On a typical day Ed wakes up, gets ready, and goes to breakfast with his wife and all of their close friends. One of his favorite activities is to golf and “travel with my wife.” For being 73 years old Ed still is on top of his golf game, he explained to me that he golf daily and walks all 18 holes, he participates in a golf league, and often travels to participate in tournaments. I asked him who his closest friends are as he ages he said “the guys I golf with and people who I have known since I first came back from Vietnam.” Ed explained to me that he still keeps in close contact with many of the men he served with overseas as well as people he was friends with in high school. He informed me that he will be driving back to Iowa this summer for his high school reunion and has lots of fun activities planned with all of his friends.
Moving on I asked him if he has had any major changes related to aging.

He said “nothing major, just little things here and there.” He talked about what those little things were such as knee problems and arthritis, but he still remains very active and does not let that stop him from doing much, some days he might just have to take it slower than others. Lastly, I asked him about the “new technology” and if he uses it. Ed replied to my questions “to an extent.” He went on to explain that he does use a lot of newer technology, but he is not an expert. He utilizes his grandchildren to help him figure out how to do certain things on his phone or computer. Ed does have a smartphone he uses and keeps him up to date with current events, golf, and his emails. He also uses a Fitbit fitness tracker as well daily to see his activity, especially when he golfs. Overall, he believes he is quite tech savvy for someone his

age.
Retrospective Summary
Ed, the interviewee, has summed up his life as successful so far. He has served his country, created and raised a family, and watched his family flourish successfully. He has remained healthy thus far in his life and has not faced any serious or life threatening health issues. His most important accomplishments are “having a successful and full life, surrounded by my family and close friends.” When I asked what Ed’s favorite part about aging is he sad “getting to grow old with my wife with my family surrounding the both of us” He talked about the fact he is able to do whatever he wants now and can travel as much as he want to see extended family and catch up with old friends from Vietnam.
I asked him what some of his favorite personal and social things are to do in his aging life and he talked about “golfing with my buddies.” and going to breakfast with his group of friends and their wives every morning and gossiping over a cup of coffee. I asked him if there is anything that he particularly dislikes about aging, he really did not have any complaints besides that “I have bad knees and sometimes they hurt and it's hard to go do things, but I try and push through as much as I can so I don’t have to miss out on anything.” To wrap up this part of the interview i asked Ed if this is where he thought he would be in terms of aging and life over all. He responded “ life is so uncertain, so I didn't have everything planned out, but I am definitely very happy where I am right now.” He said that he knew he would want to be happy, healthy, and around his family, but he really did not have anything planned out any more in depth in terms of where he wanted to be as an older adult in his younger life.
The Future
I asked Ed if there was any advice or tips he would like to give to someone who is my age just starting their life and career. He gave me a few very useful times and advice. The first thing he told me was “ to start saving up for retirement and putting it away as soon as you are able to.” Ed stressed to me how important it is to have a retirement fund, or some sort of fund so that as we age we have resources to comfortably retire or for medical and memory care. He also told me “to travel and do as much as possible before you settle in one place and start a family.” and lastly Ed said “ always continue to learn.” He explain that “you never stop learning.” and “people can take a lot of things from you, but no one can take your education from you.”
I asked Ed if he has any aspirations as he gets older or something more he would like to accomplish before he is unable to have the mobility and even the ability to travel. He responded, “there is already so much I have been able to do and accomplish, I don’t think at this time there would be anything I would regret not doing.” Ed spoke in great detail about the amount of travel he and his wife are still able to do and that he is grateful for that. If he “want to pack up and take a road trip, we can do that whenever we want and we don't have much to worry about.” I personally felt as if this was a great goal to work towards, when I am Ed’s age I would love to be able to have this type of lifestyle with my significant other.

Reflections on the Interview Experience
I choose this person, because he not only my grandfather, but someone who has taught me and showed me the importance of taking care of yourself and how to healthily age. I chose my grandfather because he continues to maintain a healthy lifestyle and meaningful social relationships. My understanding of the aging and the aging field helped me identify certain factors would be categorized as successful aging. My understanding of this field also helped me to ask certain questions about growing old, saving for retirement, and chronic illness, that I think would not be asked or thought about deeply because someone who is not in this field may not see the importance of those questions. Overall I learned how important it is to remain healthy, active, and continue to have meaningful social connections, and how all of these intertwine with each other and an elder mental and physical health. I also learned once again how important it is to start saving and putting money away for when I retire and to have a plan for that money and how it should be delegated in case I need certain medical care or memory care.
In conclusion, I will apply these lessons I learned from this case study interview and apply them to my life both now and in the future. I will maintain working out, and eating a healthy diet, start a retirement savings account, and continue learning as much as I can while traveling while I am still young. As I become older, I will make sure I do my best to maintain social connections with my close friends and make efforts to interact with them as much as possible, make sure I have legally binding documents with my last wishes as well as my wishes regarding and medical interventions I may face. I think overall this conversation really just motivated me to get a head of aging and start implementing certain things in my life so I am able to live a long and healthy life.