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I'm wondering if any of the posters here on the Retirement Forum have used or are using Senior Centers in their cities. I have read about many excellent centers around the country with extensive programming and excellent facilities. Other centers are more modest but offer a gathering place and social activities. Is anyone who is retired utilizing a Senior Center in their area? What activities are offered in your center?
We've covered this before but it's worth discussing again. Very few senior centers (judging from previous threads) have much to offer to anyone below the age of about 80.
Mostly it's bingo and cards. Ours has $2.00 lunches which are pretty good. We also have exercise and yoga but they start early in the morning. One time ours had a really interesting speaker. Most classes are dumbed down.
I would attend a yoga class but I'm retired and not wanting to run around trying to get ready to be somewhere at 9 in the morning. I'd like to see book discussion groups, volunteer groups that make or create something to help others, exercise groups that meet at a convenient time--like 10:30 or 11am or even in the afternoon. I'd appreciate a good drawing class.
I don't/can't knit or crochet and have tried and still don't want to. I'd like a chance to play ping pong but I guess that's too weird as I already mentioned it at our senior center and they told me they already have shuffleboard. To me, shuffleboard went out with high button shoes but ping pong was popular in our lifetimes and would seem to be a good substitute for tennis without the physical stress and strength needed.
I'd like to see a genealogy group but they told me to go to the library. I know that, I just thought it would be fun to share with a group of seniors. It would be an informal drop in chat and exchange where people could also help each other out. If you do genealogy/family history you know how bored other people are with it and how exciting it is to connect with other people who share your passion. The town I live in was settled in the early 1600s and has a lot of history--you'd think there would be more interest.
I was thinking of joining the board since they are asking for volunteers but they seem so closed mined and insensitive to what our generation wants. I'm in my late 60s and this stuff they have is from a bygone era even for me. I don't want big band music, for instance, that was my parents' music. I've just about given up. I just hope that when WE are 80 years old, senior centers will have caught up with our generation. (Picturing us sitting in our wheelchairs humming along with Dylan or the Stones. Wondering if senior centers will have discovered The Beatles by then...................)
We're lucky here in Virginia, the senior centers here seem pretty good and geared for the younger seniors as well as the older ones. Even if you aren't interested in the classes, you can just hang out with other people your age. They also have helpful programs such as seminars on practical issues, rides to non emergency medical care and rain barrel programs. In my neighborhood, the library is next door, so if you don't see anyone you know at the senior center you can just head next door and find a book to read. They also hold a farmers market on Sundays, and this is where you vote and find the blood mobile.
They're not for everyone, but I think they're a good way to make friends and connect with people, especially for those who have just moved to an area and don't know anyone at all.
One thing I like about the senior center in my neighborhood is it's located in a large "town center" style shopping plaza. So the seniors can arrive at he center by our community shuttle, and then go grocery shopping, go to a drug store, see their dentist, use the library, get a bite to eat, whatever, without needing to drive. Very handy, since not every senior around here lives within walking distance of stores--but if they can get to the senior center most things they need are within a few blocks.
I'm wondering if any of the posters here on the Retirement Forum have used or are using Senior Centers in their cities. I have read about many excellent centers around the country with extensive programming and excellent facilities. Other centers are more modest but offer a gathering place and social activities. Is anyone who is retired utilizing a Senior Center in their area? What activities are offered in your center?
My mother in law lived for her senior centers while she was alive, she would have lunch, play dominos and go on day or longer trips all the time, in Ca, WV, VA and Texas. In NM I did take exercise classes for while and in our neighborhood in Dallas we had some awesome activities but I only used them a few times. Hubby has never used them. Here in NWA we have so many retirement aprartments, etc and so many activities for seniors, including several bridge groups, church activities, golf and fishing etc no one seems to be interested in an acutally center. So, to answer your question: it depends on where you live, obviously.
We've covered this before but it's worth discussing again. Very few senior centers (judging from previous threads) have much to offer to anyone below the age of about 80.
Mostly it's bingo and cards. Ours has $2.00 lunches which are pretty good. We also have exercise and yoga but they start early in the morning. One time ours had a really interesting speaker. Most classes are dumbed down.
I would attend a yoga class but I'm retired and not wanting to run around trying to get ready to be somewhere at 9 in the morning. I'd like to see book discussion groups, volunteer groups that make or create something to help others, exercise groups that meet at a convenient time--like 10:30 or 11am or even in the afternoon. I'd appreciate a good drawing class.
I don't/can't knit or crochet and have tried and still don't want to. I'd like a chance to play ping pong but I guess that's too weird as I already mentioned it at our senior center and they told me they already have shuffleboard. To me, shuffleboard went out with high button shoes but ping pong was popular in our lifetimes and would seem to be a good substitute for tennis without the physical stress and strength needed.
I'd like to see a genealogy group but they told me to go to the library. I know that, I just thought it would be fun to share with a group of seniors. It would be an informal drop in chat and exchange where people could also help each other out. If you do genealogy/family history you know how bored other people are with it and how exciting it is to connect with other people who share your passion. The town I live in was settled in the early 1600s and has a lot of history--you'd think there would be more interest.
I was thinking of joining the board since they are asking for volunteers but they seem so closed mined and insensitive to what our generation wants. I'm in my late 60s and this stuff they have is from a bygone era even for me. I don't want big band music, for instance, that was my parents' music. I've just about given up. I just hope that when WE are 80 years old, senior centers will have caught up with our generation. (Picturing us sitting in our wheelchairs humming along with Dylan or the Stones. Wondering if senior centers will have discovered The Beatles by then...................)
Oh, the centers I am thinking about offered lots of activities: yes, cards and lunch were the number 1 atractions,plus binge, but they had exercise classes, in fact some have exercise rooms, trips, movies, entertainment, classes and other activities. I think it depends on where you live.
Ours does have trips and computer classes for beginners. I'd love an exercise room. Maybe what I'm wanting is to take classes at a college and I'm not in a college area.
I'd be very interested in basic drawing with ink or colored pencil. Not hauling paint and brushes around, the mess, the smell. I can't do watercolor either--tried it many times during my life and cannot do it. So simply a basic drawing class. One time I took a figure drawing class and I loved it--we just used charcoal. Of course I can't imagine drawing nude seniors--well, some of them aren't too bad. lol
But if the senior center would offer a class on drawing--the Y has it. Different ways of rendering, how to add shading, using perspective, quick sketching or time consuming sketching, I don't care. They could set up still lifes (to me, the plural of still life is still lifes, not still lives--will someone confirm or correct me please?) or have us bring our own objects to draw. My personal goal would be to get competent enough to take my sketching materials with me and draw wherever I go. Sit on the beach and sketch the children, sit in my car by a farm and draw the horses, or even in my own backyard--draw the flowers.
I haven't had the time to draw since high school days except for the figure drawing class after college when I was working. I'm rusty and would like to get up to speed and get motivated and excited about it again.
My wife worked for Aging Services for a number of years. There are three Senior Centers in the county in which we reside. I have serious questions about whether the centers are worth the amount of their budget or whether they belong to a "by-gone era".
My 93 year old mother and father who died at age 84 wanted nothing to do with them. Both felt they had better ways to occupy their time. I am not sure my father ever really thought of himself as a senior. My wife felt that only a small percentage of the seniors in the county took advantage of the Senior Centers. The vast majority of seniors--at least in this part of the country--occupy their time differently. My suspicion is that here in Utah, extended families use up most of seniors' spare time.
The activities that go on at the Senior Centers here are not well designed, IMO. If one likes card games or bingo, one will be satisfied. If one wants something that feeds the mind the centers are not the place to go. A low priced lunch is provided at the centers and I've been there to visit a couple of clients and a time or two and have partaken of the food while I was there. Honestly, I've had better meals at fast food establishments.
I hope the experience in other states with Senior Centers is better.
I have been to many senior centers and their activities. The people who go to these centers are not to my requirements of intellectual stimulation; an euphemistic way of saying the activities cater to members of limited education. I have tried so hard to find something of interest in these centers. Usually I find a bunch of men playing pool or other seniors engaged in some activities that to me seem child like; I do understand that some activities are there for those who have mental deterioration and reduce physical capabilities. For me, I never enjoyed playing cards or bingo or pool. I find craft activities very boring.
It has been suggested that these centers have outlived their usefulness and I can agree. Years ago, we did not have all these recreational centers. Now there are many recreational centers that offer a broader range of programs and facilities which welcome seniors.
The old senior centers are just a bunch of rooms to meet and play cards; there is a kitchen with a lunch room; sometimes a pool room and a little library, There may be a little physical activity room. None of them look like modern recreation centers. Many of the selected senior activities are held at the recreation centers.
It is interesting in my area, the description of a center as a "Senior Center" and is now being called "Activity Centers". Perhaps the professional managers of these activities know that the time has passed, and they are slowly merging these senior centers into the overall recreation programs that are offered. It would be much better to have a room or a wing off the main recreation center where seniors can go to get away for some activities of their own and perhaps a little quiet space. If they desire, they then can join in to the broader activities and see children and families, instead of being isolated. I have seniors sitting in recreation centers, looking through the glass at children playing in the pools; it provides to them stimulation. It would be cheaper to build and manage as the senior centers would not have to duplicate some already existing activity spaces.
Livecontent
Last edited by livecontent; 07-11-2012 at 06:38 PM..
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