one of the elderly, literally. She wore tight gloves so she wouldnt be able to perform easy tasks, also she wanted to heighten her awareness of being elderly by taking off her glasses wearing ear plugs and using the heaviest pair of shoes she could find in the Center. She practiced participant observation so that she could become elderly and see the world from their viewpoint. Not knowing enough and being young affected her study. They continued to make her feel guilty about who she was and what she stood for. She also felt a sense of resentment, but other times she felt admired and honored. Myeroff knew she didnt understand and was told that she wouldnt. "You have not set your eyes on any part of the place we lived in. How can you expect to understand?" (Myerhoff, p. 88) The research methods she developed affected her data by concentrating on what the elderly people were all about and how they perceived life. While Myerhoff was wearing their garb she felt a sense of vulnerability and wanted to avoid from falling because of observing the elderly even though she knew she was in good health. " This recognition occurred after I had been watching two very old women walk down the alley with great concentration, arms tightly linked, navigating impediments in slow-motion. So great was their concern with balance they might have been walking on a high wire." (Myerhoff, p. 88) She felt as if she became the ethnic joke where she could eat and they could not digest, where they had to wait for her at her convenience, and knowing she had her husband and many had no one. Still many of them have been through so much in life and still enjoy everything life has to offer. She was left with the satisfaction of knowing what the elderly stood for and what they had accomplished in their life and look forward to becoming old. "Getting In" by: Ruth Horowitz started her field research using Chicano residents of the 32nd street neighborhood in Ch...
