Yoga Trumps Bingo as Centers for Aged Try New Approach (NYTimes.com Article)

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Yoga Trumps Bingo as Centers for Aged Try New Approach

 

December 29, 2002

By N. R. KLEINFIELD

 

There was the matter of bingo.

 

Fredericka Mabon did not really want to have bingo at the

Lenox Hill Senior Center at St. Peter's Church in

Manhattan. No knock on bingo, but elderly people hunched

over bingo cards brought to her mind an uninviting image of

old age. The game fed a stubborn stereotype of senior

centers.

 

People who came to the Lenox Hill center said they did not

want bingo, either. But Ms. Mabon, the director, wanted to

see if they meant it. So she got a bingo cage. Set up a

game. One woman played. She won everything.

 

The marketplace spoke. That was the first and last bingo

game. These were Ms. Mabon's kind of people.

 

The elderly who patronize the center, which opened a year

and a half ago inside St. Peter's, at Lexington Avenue and

54th Street, view old age more robustly than past

generations. For instance, many of them don't care for the

word "senior." To them, it hangs heavy with the

symptomatology of frail, sedentary people. That's not them.

 

 

So even though the official name of the center has "senior"

in it, they prefer to call it St. Peter's Place, a

destination for the "new older adult."

 

"The new older adult is someone who still has something to

contribute," said Ms. Mabon, a warm woman of 63, whom

everyone calls Ricky. "Doesn't want to be seen as an

anachronism. Still active. Still healthy. Well educated.

Better off financially. A lot of these people never thought

of themselves as going to a senior center. But when they

came here, it didn't feel like a senior center."

 

The center bustles with vigor. The average age of members

is about 70, compared with 77 for regulars at other centers

throughout the city. There are many 60-year-olds.

 

Outlook as well as age defines the members. While some will

gladly elaborate on their innumerable afflictions, most

exercise restraint. They are upbeat. One day, the center

had a doctor come to talk about cancer. No one attended.

Who wanted to hear about that? Someone suggested setting up

a bereavement group, but the members didn't want it.

 

Many old people no longer act or think like old people. So

a concern for senior centers is how to make themselves

relevant to the "younger" elderly while continuing to serve

the "older" elderly, who are themselves rapidly enlarging

in number. Centers now attract people from 60 to more than

100.

 

Edwin Mendez-Santiago, the city's commissioner of the

Department for the Aging, which finances and advises

centers for the elderly, said directors are trying to wrap

their imaginations around this challenge by experimenting

with their program blends - offering things like yoga,

meditation, Shakespeare classes. Some serve occasional cold

meals and salads for the younger elderly who are mindful of

their diets.

 

Mr. Mendez-Santiago mentioned that the United Hindu

Cultural Council Senior Center, a new center in South Ozone

Park, Queens, catering largely to the Indian population, is

the first in the city to serve all-vegetarian meals. He

said the department has urged centers to start walking

clubs for more active members.

 

"Senior centers are much more than a place for bingo," he

said. "That's what we're trying to promote."

 

But the effort to embrace a broader mix of people and

activities is complicated by constricting budgets - an age

boom colliding at considerable velocity with an economic

bust. Many centers could use spiffier and larger spaces,

more programs, more staff, more everything.

 

Being new, St. Peter's Place occupies an airy, well-kept

expanse on the plaza level of the church. The center is a

joint enterprise of Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, St.

Peter's and United Neighbors of East Midtown. In the late

morning of a chilly day, it vibrated with activity.

 

Centers for the elderly are often a refuge from loneliness

and despair, the contagions of old age. Mary Bates, 75,

wandered past with a blissful smile. She began coming in

April. "I was going through a little state of depression,"

she said. "A close traveling companion passed away, and I

was left adrift."

 

Someone told her about St. Peter's Place. "I envisioned it

as a sort of soup kitchen with Oliver coming around asking:

`More? More?' " she said. "It's nothing like that. It's

like a picnic."

 

She likes to have the lunch, and does an exercise class

twice a week. She is a notary public, and on Friday she

offers members of the center her services. The only

remuneration expected is a thank you.

 

Carmela Zein, 67, was reading the paper. She walks to the

center from nearby. She used to sell cars on Long Island.

Her husband died last year, and she sold the house in East

Moriches and moved to Manhattan. Her daughter and

son-in-law insisted she get out and connect with a senior

center. She chose St. Peter's because of its vitality.

 

"Selling cars, I'm used to an interactive, active

environment," she said. "I'm not ready to just sit."

 

Lunch was sausage and peppers. People sat at tables of six.

No saving seats - that way people mixed more.

 

Richard Rowe, 70, who was dressed smartly in a tie, said:

"This is a cheery place. It's not a warehouse."

 

Anna Caruso, 73, said: "It's a very friendly place. You get

to know everyone."

 

Mr. Rowe added, "We emphasize sharing thoughts and not

kvetching."

 

He shared some information about his mother, who died at

94. "She was a recluse," he said. "Her idea of a good time

was to sauté mushrooms at midnight with a brandy and watch

`Dracula.' "

 

A tablemate said, "No kidding, `Dracula'?"

 

Mr. Rowe continued: "My motto is `Life is not a dress

rehearsal.' I go out dancing as much as possible. I think

seniors should just get out and not be intimidated by

youth. You should just go out and have fun at your pace and

not worry about what you're doing incorrectly."

 

Ms. Caruso said: "I do meditation. Does me wonders."

 

Ms.

Mabon, the director, said: "In running the center, I try to

think about how I would like to be treated. And I do

identify with some of the members. I've noticed how your

knees get a little stiffer. You lose family. And in the

back of everyone's head is, `How valuable will I be?'

That's a real existential question: what is life after the

working life? What do you do with yourself?"

 

The arts and crafts group was making ornaments.

 

Bibi

Gajraj, 71, comes from Elmhurst, Queens, to participate.

She tried a center near her but didn't care for it. "They

were interested in cards," she said. "Many were invalids.

They seemed older."

 

Doris Diez, 78, who commutes to the center from the Upper

West Side, said: "This is a center where I don't feel 78. I

feel 16. The people who go to some of the other places come

in with their backs crooked and grumble, grumble, grumble

this and grumble, grumble, grumble that, and `Who opened

the window?' Here we laugh."

 

Another day. The Seniors Resourcing Solutions group was

holding its weekly session. In essence, it is a business

group for members not ready for full retirement from work.

 

Around the table, members spoke in turn about their

activities. A woman was crocheting handbags. Someone else

was doing part-time work at H & R Block. A man stressed,

"I'm not retired or semi-retired, I'm working." He was

doing word-processing, graphic design and bookkeeping for

small businesses. Molly Blayney, the chairwoman of the

group, said she was a writer and editor and was hunting for

a new project.

 

A member mentioned that someone had noted that he was 65,

and he wanted to point out that he actually would not be 65

for another 20 minutes.

 

There was discussion about a flier advertising the group.

Some members didn't like a graphic that depicted an elderly

man and a not-so-elderly woman.

 

"She looks about 40."

 

"She looks about 12."

 

"Why don't we show that we're

reasonably attractive people at 60?"

 

"I have a picture of Grandma Moses you could use."

 

There

was discussion of a good idea that Julian White had had. He

learned that a bank was paying a $20 bonus for new accounts

opened by seniors: $10 to the applicant and $10 to the

person who recommended the bank. Mr. White told the group

to identify him as the person who had referred them and he

would contribute his $10 bonuses to the group.

 

A member mentioned a friend, a jazz pianist who wanted to

talk to the group. He was interested in advice to help

revive his career.

 

Someone said: "I've got connections in the music field. I

was just on the radio with Joe Franklin, and I could get

him on Joe Franklin."

 

At the other end of the center, Gloria Jaeger, 74, was

bouncing around. She is a regular.

 

"I'm here almost every day," she said. "There's an

atmosphere that makes me feel young, even though I'm 74. My

feeling is I'm going back to school, and I was a happy

student."

 

She rarely misses lunch. "It's so hard to cook for one,"

she said. "If I make a beef stew, I have to eat it for a

month. Who wants to eat beef stew for a month?"

 

The Stretch n' Strengthen group was well into its paces.

The class is mostly for those not limber enough for the

yoga group, which has members who can still stand on their

heads. A tai chi group meets on another day.

 

"Hands on the table," the leader said. "Now step back as

far as you can go and stretch. Bend down at the waist. Keep

bending as far as you can. Keep bending. And relax."

 

In the back room, French lessons were in progress. This was

fun French. No grammar. Just words to use. Today, parts of

the body: "la bouche,l'oeil,le bras."

 

Most of the students were learning because it was enjoyable

and they found the language beautiful. Or they were still

dreaming. One woman said she planned to win the lottery and

buy a house in France, adding, "You're never too old for

that."

 

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