I was called for jury duty on a Thursday along with about 50 other Lake County residents.

We were ensconced in a smallish court room designed for less than 50 and they had to bring in extra chairs for the overflow.

I had the extreme displeasure of seating myself in the old-style, fold down, straight back, narrow, less-than-comfortable 1920s theater seats.
 
My first thought was that they didn't want folks to just hang out for long periods of time in the audience section. This also would have the benefit of eliminating folks from falling asleep and snoring during the trial. This same seating is provided for the jurors at the front of the courtroom, perhaps to the same end.
 
After about two hours in one of these diabolical torture devices I began to experience pain in my posterior, back and leg. I had managed to make it through six hours of this discomfort when we were dismissed until the following Friday.

As my pain carried through to that night and the next day I was forced to call in damaged and missed the final jury selection process.
 
I would think that if enough of us retired antiques are eliminated from the juror pool in this manner, this county will lose folks who are willing and have the time to stay the course – folks who have life experience, patience and understand human behavior often clearer than younger crowd.
 
So it has occurred to me that we will have a large population of baby boomers retiring in this county soon. Most of these folks will in all probability have the same age-related pains that many over age 60 experience.

My thoughts are that perhaps that this county could set aside a few extra funds for truly comfortable seating.
 
Frank Hodges lives in Lucerne, Calif.