Retirement center resident inspires musical for Olympus High School


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SALT LAKE CITY — At age 64, Bill Binger isn’t the typical Highland Cove Retirement Center resident.

“I don’t quite fit the age demographic,” he said.

Not long ago, he had a dental practice and a weekend spot on the Alta ski patrol. During an interview, he sang about it, to the tune of “Love Potion Number Nine.”

“It used to be, I was a good athlete. Ran lots of miles on these legs and feet. But then gradually back in 1999, I noticed that my body was — clearly in decline.”

Binger was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He gave up his practice and three years ago moved into Highland Cove.

“Initially I was pretty resentful about being here,” he said, “and then I yielded into ‘OK, what is there to find positive about here’ and once I gave over to that I started having fun with it.”

He started having fun by chronicling life at the retirement center in verse. Sung to the tune of “On the Street Where You Live”:

*“I have often walked down these halls before, Now it seems the staff is picking me up off the floor. The w*alker that I take is a big mistake. It does not have a working hand brake.”

Binger called Olympus High School choral director Vicki Belnap and asked if her students would be interested in singing his lyrics. The result was “Highland Cove, the musical.”

“Daily life in a care center,” Belnap said. “Trying to be mobile, trying to be OK, having friends, wanting to get out. What a lot of people are feeling or would be feeling about being stuck or having your life turning out differently than you wanted and still having fun with it.”

Belnap and her students recently staged a performance for residents at the center’s Terrace Room. The students sang “Thanksgiving,” to the tune of “Over the River and Through the Woods.”

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*“Over the river and through the woods, To grandmother’s house we go. Not so fast as she once did, s*he’s a wee bit slow.”Binger, the youngest resident at the center, said he was inspired by the oldest resident, Aline Smith, 102, and how she’s learned to face change with grace.

“I can’t drive and I can’t do my needlework and I can’t read and I can’t travel but when it comes to this stage these things don’t matter too much,” Smith said. “You just love sitting in your chair and enjoying a good book.”

“As the opening number says, we’re all prisoners here of our own device and that device is ourselves and our bodies,” Binger says, “but you can be as free as you want to be with your mind.”

“Everyone seems to go through some sort of narrows in their life, and you either collapse or you emerge out the other side,” he said.

Binger recently had electrodes implanted in his brain to try to reduce the symptoms of his Parkinson’s and has high hopes that the treatment may restore some of the quality of life he lost. One thing he still retains, though, is his sense of humor. In fact, while awake on the operating table he serenaded his surgeons with his “Deep Brain Stimulation Blues,” which he sang to the tune of “Love Potion Number Nine.”

“I took my brain up to the U. of U. Bet Dr. House would know just what to do. He looked at MRI, and reviewed every test. ‘Results for you could be our — very, very best.’ ”

“That’s it,” Smith said. “He laughs and we can all laugh about it and it makes it a little more interesting, a lot more fun to be here.”

“If you can’t laugh, I think you’re done or I’m done,” Binger said.

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