J-O-H-N-N-Y J-O-H-N-S-O-N, 81 of Temple, has been keeping a “crossword dictionary” to help him complete the crossword puzzles the Temple Daily Telegram runs Mondays through Fridays for more than 20 years.

In a 6-inch binder, neat hand-written entries listed on loose-leaf paper contain hundreds of words with entries organized in alphabetical order and by subject.

Johnson, a serene man with a humble disposition, said he began to work crossword puzzles after retiring after 30 years as a postal worker in the 1980s.

“I said after a few years, ‘I’ll just put it in a book,’” Johnson said. “There’s stuff in here you can’t find in a regular dictionary.”

For example, the Aug. 8 puzzle called for a three-letter word for “Ludacris’s music”.

Johnson scoured through the hundreds of aged pages of lined paper.

Under the section he marked “l” he found the answer.

“Rap,” said the World War II veteran confidently. “See? I didn’t know that.”

In the section marked “Rap”, one also finds the names of rappers Ice-T and Jay Z. Johnson also keeps answers on subjects such as baseball and the movies, he said.

“You can learn a lot about different people, what they do, authors you could never think of,” Johnson said. “You learn words you didn’t know, you can learn actors and singers are.”

With the help of this dictionary, Johnson said he could finish a crossword puzzle in 15 to 20 minutes, he said. About 10 years ago, said his wife, Candy, people even started calling him for the answers.

“I guess you’d call it a hobby, it gives your mind something to do besides worry,” he said. “It’s good for your brain. It gets your mind working better. It keeps me healthy.”

This is not a conclusion that Johnson has come to himself.

Graham McDougall, a professor at the University of Texas’s School of Nursing conducted a five-year study funded through the National Institutes of Health to determine whether mental training and exercises, such as working crossword puzzles, could help in the retention of memory of senior citizens.

The study found that there are certain activities that can be done to improve memory.

“We try to encourage people to do novel things like crosswords,” McDougall said.

But McDougall advises seniors not to record information, such as in a dictionary. Instead, he encourages trying to remember information without help.

“We focused on teaching people how to use internal type memory strategies,” he said. “Everyone knows about calendars and post it notes, but it’s those internal strategies that engage you to think.”

Despite that, he said mental activity is key.

By no means, are crosswords the only hobby Johnson has taken up during retirement. Scattered around his house are various objects of his creation, he made the hope chest in the couple’s bedroom, painted some of the art hanging on the wall and hand drew some coloring books for his grandchildren – although he admitting being more interested the books than they were.

“You’ve got to find something to do to keep you active and keep your mind active,” Johnson said. “Although I do forget things once in awhile.”