Prime Time

POSTED: Monday, May. 18, 2009

Living in the slower lane ... Woman uses walking, bus, shared car to enjoy life at a leisurely pace

Name: Penny Cowan.

Age: 68.

Residence: Bellingham.

Children: Three boys and three girls.

Grandchildren: 24 grandchildren.

Has a license, but not a car: "I just wanted so much for our world to be more silent and contemplative," Cowan says. "So, I got a chance to live that out. I think keeping and maintaining a car takes a lot of my thoughts and energy. You always have to be sure the tires are OK and does it need the oil changed. Not having a car, I don't have to worry about those things anymore."

Preferred way to get around: Walking. "Every day I walk," Cowan says. "My children are 13 blocks from my home and the bus terminal is eight blocks. I try to do that, versus taking the bus to link up at the transfer stations."

Walking is a workout: "When you go to the grocery store, and you come home with a chicken in each bag, that is weight- bearing exercise."

Occasional driving: Cowan stopped keeping a car four years ago while living in Denver. "When my husband passed away, I no longer needed a car for doctors' appointments or for the ease of getting him around." Later, Cowan began using Community Car Share shortly after moving to Bellingham.

Change of pace: "I just find that having the necessity to walk and the simplicity of timing my day so I can catch the bus or do whatever, really does make it more of a deliberate life for me, instead of an always chaotic one."

Community cars: Cowan turns to Community Car Share of Bellingham when she needs quick and easy access to a reliable vehicle. "I use their shared cars only every couple months or so. I don't think that is typical, but that is just the way it ends up for me. The thing that works best for me is that they have a 24-hour price."

Sharing makes sense: "I can, for example, go visit a grandson who got married or do something in the Seattle area, and not really pay as much as I would for a rented car. Another great thing is that the Car Share has a pickup truck. It is good for hauling, or if you want to do some garden work that you just can't do with a car."

Firsts and favorites: "My first car was a 1956 Chevy Bellaire," Cowan says. "But my favorite was a Dodge Dart. I am going to say it was a 1974. It was a tan-gold kind of color with a slant six-engine. That just means it had six cylinders. It was just a good old workhorse. After we were done with it, we passed it on to two more generations of the family, and it still kept going."

Life in the slower lane: "The walking part is very freeing to me," she says. "For one thing, in my family, life tends to get speeded up. When I know that I want to get where I am going and that I have to walk to get there, it lets me sense more of the things around me. I notice the sounds and smells, which I don't' think I do when I am driving. So it becomes special."

Tip for other drivers: Cowan encourages older drivers to take an AARP driving class. "I kept my notes and the hints that they give you about anticipating and avoiding bad situations," she says. "I thought they were very valuable."

Family involvement: Cowan says family members should encourage their loved ones to maintain their independence as much as possible. "They let me walk and let me be myself," she says. "At first, I worried about putting additional pressure on my friends and family. But in Bellingham, most often, I can say 'No thanks, I am just making my way home on the bus.'"

Family fear: "At some point, there might come a time where I need to depend more on my family," Cowan says. "And that is a little scary for me."

Sense of community: "In earlier days, I carried mail for a while for the U.S. Post Office, and now something about walking the blocks around my neighborhood gives me a sense of ownership. I know which house the dogs belong to, and what flowers are in each garden."

Lindsay Hamsik is a Bellingham freelance writer.