I've been falling, but am not giving up my hikes. (And I'll make at least one change.)

QUINCY – Walking in the woods seems to have become hazardous to my health.

Three times now in the last few months, I've found myself tripping over hidden tree roots, small and jagged rocks or cut-off tree stumps and taking a tumble.

I'm on the ground almost before I know it. I haven't been hurt, just bruised. I took a class a few years ago on how to fall, so I was able to stay loose as I went down and sort of roll with the momentum.

In the winter, I was on cross-country skis and it was a bit icy when it happened. In the spring, there can be tricky, slippery mud patches.

Often when I have a medical appointment now, I receive a questionnaire that asks, "Have you fallen in the last six months?" I'm tempted to say "no" because I don't fall in my house or when I am doing everyday things.

"Get some walking sticks," my doctor told me a year ago. She believes they are almost essential equipment for older walkers and hikers. I resisted because I thought I kept my balance better by just using by upper body and arms. Learning to use poles seemed distracting.

Now, I will get some. I see more people over age 50 using them, up into their 90s. I don't lift my feet as high as I used to. My balance is OK but not stellar. And there are just a lot of things that can trip you up.

Inattention is one. In my latest fall, I was with a hiking group and probably was talking too much and not looking down enough, just as we reached one of the trickier parts of a trail at The Trustees of Reservations Moose Hill Farm in Sharon.

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It was a small hill. All of a sudden, my left foot caught on a small rock and I lurched forward, couldn't regain my balance and down I went. I luckily just banged up my left shin and scratched the right side of my face.

A fellow hiker told me she had fallen twice in the past year or so, and had broken her glasses both times when she hit the side of her head.

If that wasn't enough, the next day I went out for an easy walk, came across a tree that had fallen right across the trail and slowly lifted first one leg and then the other over the trunk. I grabbed a branch on the tree trunk for balance. It snapped off (the dead tree wood was all dried out) and I went down again.

I've also picked up long branches from the ground to use to cross streams, and found they broke as soon as I put any weight on them.

On Saturday, I joined Quincy's Environmental Treasures program for a walk in the salt marsh off Fenno Street. I spotted Ginger Grassa and Andy Richardson, of Braintree. Both use walking poles. Ginger said she uses two poles because they give her an upper-body workout and more exercise as she walks. Andy uses one pole for balance because his vision is impaired by cataracts, and he has bad knees. They got their poles online.

Hiking friends have suggested several outdoor stores to look at the poles, which come in a variety of styles and sizes. It is easy to find tips and guidelines online. AARP has an article: Walking poles help boomers stay active.

Paper boy nostalgia

Thanks to readers who shared their good memories of serving as Patriot Ledger paperboys in their youth.

David Traub, director of communications in the office of Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey, said "both enjoyed the 'A Good Age' column" about the switch to mail delivery.

"(Morrissey) had the same Ledger routes his father had a generation earlier, then passed it along to his siblings when he was done. I had the route my brother had in the center of Sharon. He used his earnings to buy himself his first boat. I used mine to buy myself my first electric guitar. I still play that guitar (a 1980 Gibson Sonex) but he has moved on to other boats. He joked that it was 'the best tax-free job I ever had.'"

"True story: When we were looking for houses after we got married, Carrie and I pulled into a driveway in Sharon Heights to look at a tiny house there. We got out of the car to greet the Realtor and we heard a voice call out from the next driveway over: 'HEY PAPERBOY.'"

"Sure enough, it was Mrs. Tilley from Summit Ave., who liked her paper between the screen door and the main door to keep it dry. (It was the second or third property we had gone to in Sharon where someone from childhood had come up to say hello.) My wife looked at me and said, “We can’t live in Sharon. I’ll always be ‘David Traub’s wife."

More: A Good Age: You'll still get a (mostly) daily paper. Just not at your door.

"So we bought a house in Norwood."

Peter A. North of Woolwich, Maine, emailed: "I was a Patriot Ledger delivery boy in the 1960’s in Westwood. It was a great job. It was outside riding a bike where I was. I had about 17 customers, enough to easily cover after school and before dinner. The activity taught me a lot about people and money. I hope kids have some way of picking up similar learning today, but I worry that they don’t. I still read my daily paper delivered to my mailbox here in Maine, but now it is the Wall Street Journal."

Remembering John Quinlan

Sad news came last week that John Francis Quinlan Jr., of Weymouth, died at age 101 at home. On his 100th birthday in February 2021, John's family arranged a drive-by parade as six men from the town public works department came to his house in a street sweeper, a six-wheeler and other equipment. John had a 35-year career with the Weymouth highway division, from 1955 to 1990. He was the center of his three-generation household, surrounded with attention and love.

Reach Sue Scheible at sscheible@patriotledger.com

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Walking poles help seniors stay active; happy memories of paper routes