The cake in room 31; nursing homes are seen as a wellspring of oral tradition.

She was 87 and the last of ten children when she moved into the nursing home. My sister and I were our aunt's only family near enough to visit her. Our visits soon introduced us to her new home which some characterized as dull and depressing, but we found drama and memories - legacies that bound the future and made peace with the past.

The older Americans making their homes here had varying personalities and a range of professional backgrounds. Their lives spanned the fastest and most dramatically changing period in history. Most of them had seen it all, from the horse and buggy days to a man on the moon.

Mingling with the residents, we learned that here were the resources of many lifetimes and every life had had one or more cross - roads that was a living story worth telling. When recalled, the experiences, along with everyday happenings, revealed real drama - colorful patterns, blends of fact and fancy, delightful bits of humor and fantasies emerging with dramatic overtones.

Conversations with individuals invariably brought them to a point in their lives that they wanted to talk about.

One day, Mrs. Moore asked, "Have you seen or flown in a US Gruman airplane? My son flew one and landed it perfectly every time on a big airplane carrier in the Pacific." Mrs. Moore, the mother of an outstanding Navy pilot and a daughter who had made a name for herself as a nurse, was proud of her life. A broken marriage had left Mrs. Moore the sole support of her two young children. Having come from a wealthy family, she was not trained in a profession, so resorted to teaching French and Italian in a girls' finishing school. She also painted portraits of children and did freelance writing to supplement her income. Her story had elements of a good movie.

Another much traveled lady, inspired by Mrs. Moore's story, added her most memorable moment to our conversation. "While traveling in India I was locked in the Taj Mahal. Imagine being locked in the most photographed building in the world. Now, I should like to be the first woman on the moon!"

The mood changed and a gentleman volunteered, "When I came here to live they asked if I wished to share a room with my wife. I said 'no.' For 20 years I have listened to her nagging. Just give us separate rooms and we can visit from time to time." Strange as it may seem, it worked. They were good friends, visited each other often, and she washed his socks because she felt the home did not get them clean.