Groundbreaking!

We've begun!! The long-anticipated Phase II of Kendal construction was formally launched on Wednesday, July 20, with the official groundbreaking ceremony. The weather was sunny and hot for the outdoor event, but with the aid of spacious tents and a bit of a breeze, the overflow crowd could be accommodated relatively comfortably. The audience consisted of residents and staff; people who will be joining our community when the project is completed; local government officials who assisted us in the long planning process; bankers and financial advisers who helped us secure our financing; representatives of both the architectural firm that consulted with us in designing our plans and the contracting firm that will let us realize them; and officers from Kendal Corporation, whose oversight helped us every step of the way.

When the project is completed in about eighteen months, Kendal at Granville will have twenty-four new apartment units, a broadly expanded health center, and a Gathering Room large enough to host musical and theatrical events, large meetings, and all sorts of major social and business occasions. I won't pretend that all residents look forward to the construction noise and the disruptions of life which will inevitably attend this project. But everyone at Kendal acknowledges that we will be a stronger and healthier community when the work has been done. And so we'll look upon the coming year-and-a-half as an adventure.

As for the groundbreaking ceremony itself, it was appropriately celebratory. Five speakers addressed the project. Doug Helman, our Executive Director, thanked all those who had contributed to the realization of the ambition of planting a CCRC in Granville, including the pioneers who, back in the years when the Kendal at Granville project was but a dream of some local visionaries, had given time, imagination, and money to support the idea. John Diffey, President of Kendal Corporation, congratulated us on our achievement and situated the project within the wider conspectus of Kendal's goal of service. Tom Mills, President of the Kendal at Granville board of trustees, commended the board for its hard work. William Mason, Granville Township Trustee, spoke of the amicable and mutually supportive relationship of Kendal and the town of Granville. Harriett Stone, Kendal at Granville's first board president and first resident, directed the minds of the audience back to the groundbreaking of 2003, when Kendal at Granville was launched, and invited us all to believe that similar success will attend our current endeavor.

Everyone has seen the iconic photographs that mark a groundbreaking occasion. We contributed our own set of images for future historians to consult – shots of small lines of familiar and not-so-familiar faces, everyone beaming at the camera while sporting hard hats and brandishing shovels. (Thanks to the foresightedness of the Marketing department, the hats bore the inscription of Kendal at Granville, and the shovels were gilded.)

Unlike many ceremonies of this sort, Kendal's groundbreaking ended before the scheduled termination hour, and given the mounting heat of the late morning, few attendees can have been regretful. At that point we repaired to the lobby, where, in the coolness of the interior, a grand buffet meal awaited us. Everyone will have his or her own favorite dish from the meal, but the offerings that stirred the most enthusiastic commentary afterward were the stacks of clams and the sinfully chocolatey dirt puddings.

The meal was a memorable conclusion to a meaningful morning. Everyone now knew that Phase II – for so long the subject of discussions, analyses, worries, hopes, and predictions – was under way. So let the fun begin!

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

Some weeks ago I was one of five residents who drove to Huntington Park to see a Columbus Clippers baseball game. The Clippers are the triple-A farm team of the Cleveland Indians, and if their play this season is indicative of what the Indians of the future will be like, Tribe followers should have smiles on their faces in the coming years – always assuming they can manage to keep the talent. But what drew us to the ballpark on this sunny day wasn't the success of the team but the prospect of watching minor league baseball in a fan-friendly arena. For Huntington Park, now in just its second year of operation, is widely acknowledged to be a model for successful minor league franchises in the changed world of the twenty-first century - open and clean, and with clear lines of sight, good food, lively inter-inning entertainment, and comfortable seats. Oh yes . . . it offers great baseball games too!

While driving into Columbus we shared tales of ball games attended in the past, of major league stadiums visited, of childhood team loyalties gratified and betrayed. As a son of New York, I had been a Yankee fan in my youth. Others had grown up cheering for less successful teams, suffering with and for such squads as the Reds and the Pirates. We all had our stories to swap. And of course we talked of much else too. If you get a bunch of gabby seniors together, shaped by lifetimes of challenges and joys, there's an agenda for conversation that extends far beyond the temporal confines of drives to and from the ballpark.

One thing we hadn't reckoned on when we bought the tickets in advance: the day turned out to be hot. Hot as hell, some might say. And our seats were in the sun. Why hadn't we chosen a night game?, we wondered. And so even though we had our headgear, our light clothing, and our sunscreen, many of us chose to spend some of game standing in the shade of a stadium overhang or seeking out the comfort of a food stand.

Which brings me to an important point. One thing that hasn't changed is the scrumptiousness of ballpark food. Hotdogs (I skip the mustard, but many don't), French fries, ice cream confections - wow! And I shouldn't forget the ballpark staple of beer, although actually, since I was driving, I passed up on suds for a Coke float on this day. Still, in either case, the satisfaction of feeling a cold drink flowing down a dry throat on a hot afternoon is intense and memorable.

An oddity of the day of our visit was that all the middle schools of the Columbus suburb of Dublin had sent their students on a field trip to a baseball game, and so there were what seemed like thousands of 12-to-14-year-olds doing their thing in the ballpark. Out in the left field stands, for example, a large group of junior high girls cheered on the Clippers with what were probably adapted football chants, while along the promenade that circles the stadium some of the kids ignored baseball completely and just kept strolling. One thing for sure: this is an age group that likes food and can pack it in. And, in what will pass as my only sociological observation, this is an age group that travels in large packs – packs moreover that are single-gender in character. That, we can only presume, will soon change. The sight of this school gang prompted us in the Kendal crowd to summon up childhood memories of the rather more uplifting and sober sort of school field trips in our youths – visits to such sites as museums, concerts, presidential homes, and wildlife preserves. I guess the change is a sign of the times.

What about the ball game?, you may by now be asking. Well, it was a good one. The visitors jumped off to a big lead, aided by some incredibly sloppy fielding by the home team. Then the good guys staged a comeback. But in the end it wasn't enough, and the Clippers went down to a rare defeat. We saw home runs, a double play, some gutsy base running, and several players who seemed destined for the Bigs. By the end, I think the Kendal gang was glad it was over, but even if we were all rather sweaty, we weren't wilted, and our conversation on the drive home was as lively as our earlier one. I suspect we all were looking forward to taking showers before dinner; and it's likely that when we next head off for a baseball game in Columbus, we'll choose a night game. But we'll do it again. For going to a baseball game is, in the final analysis, a very enjoyable experience and an occasion for generating memories. And we all treasure our memories.

A Teddy Bear's Picnic - Living Among the Young at Heart

The July first morning activities of the Gallery Committee turned out to be an example of what it means to "live among the young at heart." That morning we set up a new exhibit in our display cabinet. Its theme: A Teddy Bear's Picnic. Three factors led me to suggest this theme. The first was the indication by several residents that they had teddy bears available for our use. .The second was my quick association of the song "The Teddy Bear's Picnic" with any teddy bear activity. Thirdly I recalled the community picnic which is a part of the greater Granville huge Fourth of July annual celebration. What could be a better theme for an exhibit of teddy bears in July?

In April following my preliminary announcement of our intention to have a "Teddy Bear's Picnic" as the theme for our July-August exhibit I was surprised at how very soon I began to hear from the various persons wanting to bring me their bears. I had only asked at the time if anyone had a red checked tablecloth and/or fitted picnic basket we could borrow. I explained that I had no accommodations for teddy bears at my apartment. Each caller was advised that the anxious little bears would get written invitations in due time with all of the details as to the time and place to report.

Even so I continued to get calls from residents eager to give me the pedigree and personal backgrounds of their bears. Some wanted to let me know they had a Steiff or a Gund bear. Others told me about their bears hand made of fur, quilts, shirts, etc. Still others would be dressed in all sorts of outfits and some would just be bare bears. It became apparent that we would have wee bears, little bears, medium bears, and large bears. A surprising number told me they would bring their own chairs. There were bears who had helped their owners recover from surgery, bears who brought comfort, and bears who had been loved by several generations of children. Altogether the stories told by the owners revealed a rich variety of shared experiences.

As I listened to all of these stories I was struck by the manner in which the community had caught the spirit of the theme and were looking forward to their bear/s taking part in an event which they saw as fun. To me it is evidence of how young in heart they are in spirit although they may not be so young in calendar years.

At the appointed hour on July first the bears began to arrive. Once each one was tagged committee members found places for each of them along with the picnic items which incuded a basket with containers labeled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and potato salad along with a couple of bags of potato chips. Setting on the red checked tablecloth was a container marked pink lemonade, a small basket of grapes, a jar of peanut butter and a jar of honey - a bear's favorite. Two ice coolers sat nearby.

As committee members worked residents kept stopping to ask questions and then staying to listen to the stories of the individual bears. Although it was work to get it all in place, it was the kind of work one enjoys because of the spirit that pervaded - a feeling that for at least awhile we were very young at heart as we joined the teddy bears at their picnic.