This story was recently published in The Washington Post, and I think it might inspire some readers to “Horatio Algerize” a young person to work and save for their future.  If you don’t know about the Horatio Alger books, try your library or the used bookstores (photo courtesy John Kelly Washington Post).  

My father passed down many recollections of growing up in Washington, D.C. from l898 to l922.  One of my favorites was his “Horatio Alger” experience with a wealthy, distant relative who was writing his Thompson and Allied Families genealogy, and had located my father’s family – an allied line with the surname of Wheeler.

Once a week Mr. Thompson, who had no children, would send his driver and team of horses to pick up my father, age 13 at the time, and bring him to his large house for a visit.  Mr. Thompson taught him to keep a ledger and record whatever he earned cutting grass, delivering newspapers etc., show it to Mr.Thompson on his weekly visits, and Thompson would double the amount.

Cars were the hot item on the market and my father was fascinated with them. Thompson thought that cars would never replace horses and carriages, but he finally realized they were here to stay so he told my father to research the car market and tell him the best car to buy.

My father went to Packard and told the salesman he would bring in a wealthy

relative to buy a new car if the guy would give him a commission.  The salesman didn’t believe him and told him to “get lost.”  The same thing happened when he went to Pierce Arrow.  Then he went to Studebaker and told the salesman he’d bring in his wealthy  relative to buy a car if he’d give my father $35.00 commission – a lot of money in those days.

The salesman agreed, so my father reported to Thompson that the Studebaker was the best car on the market.  Thompson bought a Studebaker, and his man, Pressly, learned to drive it.

The next time my father was having his weekly visit, Thompson looked at his ledger and asked what work he did for $35.00 and my father confessed. Thompson was so impressed with my father’s spunk that he doubled it, and bought a new Studebaker each year for the rest of his life.

It helped my father go to college.

At the suggestion of my PR agent who thinks my fans would be interested in knowing who I am and what I do other than exercise, I’m going to use this blog to do just that.

Every morning after breakfast (cereal with yogurt and walnuts, fruit, cheese and toast with honey) I sit in a rocking chair by the window and absorb the sun rising asI read a chapter from the book I’m reading (yes, the day does come when you can indulge yourself a bit.)

I just finished reading the most detailed, well laid out, history of the ballet that I’ve ever read – APOLLO’S ANGELS, A History of Ballet by Jennifer Homans.  I raved about it so much to my husband that he’s now reading the chapter about ballet’s start in the French court of Louis the 14th – a particular period of French history that interests him.

The books I read in the lovely morning sun are the ones I don’t want to finish because they’re so good.  That’s why I only allow myself to read one chapter a day, I don’t want it to end.

Then I exercise and think about what I read.  What makes it such a total sensory experiences is to choose a CD of period music to accompany my exercise.  If I’m teaching a class that day I will probably use the same music, and concentrate on the courtly carriage of the upper body, and it will be a good class.

The athlete has always been featured as the epitome of fitness. But not everyone wants to be an athlete, and there are so many non-athletic movement forms that people can choose to satisfy the body’s need to MOVE every day.

I feel I have to keep reminding people that they don’t need to feel guilty about not participating in gym, club, and machine work-outs; they can do any exercise from walking to dancing – even singing. All one has to do is MOVE every day, just as one eats and sleeps daily.

And you can make up your own exercises. For instance – the great singer, Jan Peerce, marched in place every day. It was a habit his father (who was also a singer) taught him, and it kept his circulatory system “in tune.” He also did it while waiting in the wings backstage so that when he was cued on stage, his voice and body were in perfect synchronization.

So think about it. Make up your own daily movement habit that works for you.

That’s what I did in l950 and then “went public” with it when I wrote the first book on stretch exercise. I’ll be 84 this month and I’m still doing my exercise system every morning. I’m not on any medications yet, I have my own hips, knees and shoulders, and since my state of health is directly related to the slow, continuous stretching from the center of the body that I learned from my classical dance training, I do feel justified in recommending my videos to people who haven’t yet found the exercise that works for them.

The latest DVD – MUSIC, MOVEMENT & LONGEVITY, has a section from each of my videos, including INHALE, EXHALE, STRETCH & MOVE, which is a good place to start.

When I first started writing blogs for my website, I was able to write them on a more regular schedule than I have been lately.  The reason is, that not only am I working on two books and traveling a lot, but I’m getting more and more letters (both through regular mail and email) from people who have discovered my exercise videos, and I answer each one – sometimes by phone or regular mail, but usually by email.

Some of the phone conversations last a long time because there’s a lot to say.  For instance, in answering a woman from the southwest (one of many who tell me how my exercise has helped relieve their arthritis), I casually mentioned in a return email how the combination of music and movement is so therapeutic – especially cello music because the cello has the same range as the human voice (the highest female voice and the lowest male voice).

That statement of mine opened up a whole new branch of conversation on the telephone because she IS a cellist, has taught, performed, and even had a class with the great Pablo Casals.  That led to talking about the Bach Cello Suites, how therapeutic they are, and my quoting Mr. Casals who said, during an interview on TV many years ago,  that “If everyone listened to the Bach Cello Suites there would never be war.”

Suddenly, not only had I made a new friend who completely understood my enthusiasm for music and movement combined, for best effect, but she was teaching me things about body posture and  sound when playing the cello that I didn’t know, and found very interesting.  So there goes my blog time for that day.

What I’m really getting at is that for me (and probably all of you who are reading this) is that family and friends come first, then work, getting dinner on the table, doing our taxes, and all the rest.  But I like writing the blogs, and every once in a while – in fact, more and more frequently now that the electronic world has increased my exposure – l get letters and emails full of wonderful testimonials that I’d like to share. So do me a favor:  I’d like to have my web-master post your comments (with or without your name) so others can read them and also benefit.

One that came in last week was from a woman who said she and her friends get together and do my exercise videos in one of their homes.  What a great idea to pass on to others!  I never thought of that.

One of the things that’s different about my exercise system is that the exercise sets are joined and flow together to make one continuous routine.  You don’t stop and start, as you go from one set of repeated movements to the next set.  I call them my pass-through, or transitional movements, and consider them the reason my exercise system is so good at shifting weight concentrations from the stomach/ hip areas and proportioning the body as the exercises are developing a strong, healthy body.  It’s what gives you total body control of your muscle network.

People who watch such an exercise session frequently comment that it looks more like a dance routine than an exercise workout.  To which I reply, “You’re right, and it’s what makes it possible for me to say,  put a male ballet dancer next to a football player and you’ll see that the dancer could probably surpass the football player in flexible strength.”

If you’re familiar with my exercise system you can see and feel it as I start with the head/neck stretching that begins the upper body warm-up, adding the arm stretching to the side, then down, engaging the lower body and legs - all in a smooth, connected way without stopping between sets.

If you were in the military, doing a daily workout, your drill sergeant would be shouting out the instructions, and you’d be doing exercises of physical tension – not just to get you in shape, but to train your mind and body to react to commands.  You see the same cadence in many civilian exercise classes that concentrate on the sport conditioning of exercise science.

But you’re at home, and you’re not an automaton.  Turn on the music, engage the whole body, and maintain the movement transitions smoothly through the entire body.  It’s called joint articulation.  More specifically, call it developing flexible strength, which is going to serve you very well as you age, believe me.