Creative at all ages

Dear Editor,

Grandma Moses began as a famous folk-art painter when she was in her 70s.

The creativity bug can bite at any time. Talent and creativity are often closely tied.

Very few of us will ever become a Michaelangelo in art, an Ernest Hemingway in literature, an Enrico Caruso in opera or a Thomas Edison in the field of great inventions.

While growing up in Denver, I spent hours imitating Shirley Temple's songs. Then my mother would say "I think we've had enough of Shirley Temple for today."

This didn't discourage me. I sang in an operetta at the Morey Junior High School and was in the East Denver High School's girls glee club. Our accompaniest was Joyce Hershberger, who later became a McCook resident. In the 1970s, I moved to McCook and sang in several community musicals. Both Joyce and her husband, Floyd, were involved in them.

McCook artists Kay Clesson and Connie Jo Kleckner helped me master oil paintings. Don Dernovich, art instructor at McCook Community College, gave me a "hands on" drawing and painting experience.

Working in school newspapers in junior and senior high gave me a desire to do creative writing. After retiring, I won a poetry writing contest at the McCook Senior Center. Writing for the Gazette is fun.

Creativity is an on-going activity.

Helen Ruth Arnold,

Trenton, Nebraska

P.S. In 2010 they have me set to sing a solo at El Dorado Manor at their Christmas party given for its residents.