C'mon, Spring!

February has come and gone. Winter has been fairly mild this year, with only one serious snowfall and that was a mere 4 inches! The temperatures have dipped to single digits, but not below and not for long. We've not worn boots or parkas all that much, in fact. Maybe we'll pay for this in July and August, but for now we're okay with a mild winter!

With March here our thoughts are definitely aiming at spring. Those who are into gardening are anxious to get outside and start to do their activity. At Kendal at Granville, the outer perimeter of 6-8 feet around our cottage, villa, and apartment, is pretty much ours to do what we want in terms of landscaping and gardening. If we want to tend roses, mums, and daffodils, we can do that. If we want to plant corn and soybeans...well, not many of us do!

I'm not a gardener. I learned my lesson early when my father tried it and ended up providing a banquet for the squirrels and rabbits. I prefer to have a professional landscaper create a nice appearance to our cottage with creative and elegant plantings which are not expensive, require minimal maintenance, and don't appeal to the local wildlife. I'm a fan of hostas and day lilies and they look good outside our patio.

Speaking of patios, each cottage, villa, and apartment comes with one. Most are enclosed “three season rooms” and ours is a lovely, carpeted room, about 10 by 10 feet, which we can use whenever the outside temperature is above 50 F, with the help of a small space heater. The room is all glass on two sides, with three sliding doors that can be opened in warm weather (protected by screens), and it faces the woods in back of our cottage. It contains two lounge chairs, two rocking chairs, a bookshelf for my wife's library of knitting books, and a sewing cabinet with leaves that fold down. There's a lamp on the cabinet, an overhead lamp on the ceiling fan, a wall sconce, and her high-intensity lamp for knitting. It's our favorite place to sit and relax, enjoy happy hour or a meal, watch the birds in the trees, and see an occasional resident walk by on the paved path between our cottage and the woods.

We got a fleeting taste of the patio last week, after a long hiatus of not being able to use it since November. We had a warm Sunday and it was really nice to have one day when it was comfortable on the patio. The woods are still bare and the grass is still brown, but the sky was blue. This one day of warm weather, teasing though it was, was enough to revive our spirits in anticipation of a great spring season ahead!

Hanukkah Kendal-lighting

Ok, so that was a bad pun! Hanukkah at Kendal was a big success this year. On all eight nights we participated along with 15-20 others who diligently showed up with us in the main lobby. We said the blessings (one-sentence prayers giving thanks) first in Hebrew, then in English, and lit the candles in the menorah (candelabra – an electric one, actually). It was wonderful to have volunteers to read the English version and do the actual lighting.

After that my wife and I presented a mini-lesson each night lasting 5-10 minutes on some aspect of the holiday. We covered the historical aspect of the military victory of the Maccabees reclaiming the Temple in ancient Jerusalem and dedicating it to worship service once again, the rabbinical de-emphasis of the military victory and their new emphasis on the miracle of the oil lasting 8 days in the ancient Temple in Jerusalem, the traditional foods we eat for the holiday, the dreidle (top) that is used in the game we teach the children to play, the menorah as an art form, Hanukkah music and songs, liturgy, and more.

It was a delightful 8 days, and the dining room staff made traditional latkes (potato pancakes) for everyone one night, and sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts) on another night. The Festival of Lights was fun, entertaining, educational, and uplifting. And while Kendal may have its roots in the Quaker tradition, the characteristic of diversity and inclusion certainly prevails here at Granville.

Christmas Music at Kendal

Last evening the Granville High School Chamber Singers visited Kendal to deliver a smooth and delightful performance of seasonal tunes. The residents turned out in large numbers, and the Amelia Room, decked out in seasonal colors and markers, provided an appropriate setting. Before the program began the ensemble's talented director, Kristen Snyder, explained that in recent days they had been making the pre-Christmas rounds of performance venues. Happily, we were on their schedule and in fact became the appreciative beneficiaries of their final concert before the high school and the Chamber Singers began their Christmas breaks.

The singing was marked throughout by close harmonies and precision of elocution. From the opening number – "Go Tell it on the Mountain" – to the rousing, concluding performance of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" (including vocal romps on the words "figgy pudding"), the Chamber Singers proved themselves a skilled and well-trained ensemble. Along the choral way, Santa Claus came to town, chestnuts roasted on some fires, jingle bells rocked, and silver bells enchanted. An unexpected encore brought attention to a smaller ensemble, the Blue Notes, who sang a dazzling arrangement of "The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies," featuring the difficulties of chromatic passages and tight harmonies.  

The residents loved the show. And once again we were all made to realize how fortunate we were to have so many exciting performance organizations in our vicinity. The holiday season is well and truly under way a Kendal.

Thanksgiving 2015 at Kendal at Granville

What a great Thanksgiving holiday we had at Kendal! Last year we were invited to join family in St. Louis, and we dutifully made the trek. This year we were again invited there, and also to relatives in New Jersey, but on November 9, I came down with a cold that quickly morphed into bronchitis, and it soon became evident that I wasn't going to be fit to travel, so we resigned ourselves to stay home and join the festive dinner here if I felt better.

I fully recovered from my illness just before the holiday so we went to dinner and we weren't disappointed at all! The dining room was decorated in colorful tablecloths and napkins, We had traditional turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie, but there were several other choices available, too. All of it was prepared perfectly and we thoroughly enjoyed the dinner. The food was fantastic.

But then, come to think of it, it's fantastic at almost EVERY meal and that was one of the reasons my wife and I moved here last year. It's not only the food but the opportunity to join other residents and engage in lively and interesting conversation. Rarely do we talk about our aches and pains, which is stuff no one else really wants to hear anyway. I call that kind of conversation an “organ recital.” “Oh, my spleen really bothered me last night...hah!”

No, we talk about current events, personal experiences, fashions, science, books, movies, sports, business, and a variety of interesting topics. And if the subject at one moment doesn't interest you, wait a few minutes and we'll be onto something else.

There are so many well-educated and knowledgeable people here in so many different areas, everyone has a story to tell, and that's what makes Kendal a special place. I've liked everyone I've met here, and I really look forward to meal time in the dining room.

Mary Poppins Pays Kendal a Visit

On Sunday, November 1, five outstanding performers from the Weathervane Young Artists Repertory Theater (WYART) came to Kendal to entertain the residents with songs from the wonderful score of Mary Poppins. They are preparing a stage performance of the musical, and they visited to Kendal to share their gifts and enthusiasm.

It's hard to imagine a happier play. Everyone from our Kendal generation has recollections of this enchanting film, starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. The young singers – ranging in age from ten to thirteen – brought those happy memories back to mind even as they brought the joys of the story back to life.

The talented performers were Chris Curran, Brant McFarland, Keilan Stuart, Kayleigh Stuart, and Laine Stultz. They were introduced by Erika Wills, the woman who is directing this enterprise. Among the pieces they performed were the delightful "Spoonful of Sugar," the instructive "Perfect Nanny," and the haunting "Chim Chim Cher-ee."

It is a bromide of the stage that performers should leave their audience asking for more. That's what happened on Sunday. The sheer cheeriness of the young people, the liveliness of the music, and the skills they displayed delighted the audience. Besides, we oldsters like to have opportunities to share space with youngsters. For all these reasons Kendal residents were grateful for the visit.

A Grand Concert at Kendal

Last Friday, October 9, Richard Marshall offered a viola recital for the residents of Kendal at Granville. The Amelia Room was packed and the audience delighted by the performance. 

For many years Marshall has been a member of the Minnesota Symphony. He is also the son of an emeritus member of the English Department at Denison University. This local tie meant that his appearance at Kendal provided an opportunity for many of his relatives and friends to hear him perform. Since his accompanist, Philip Everingham, was also a local figure – the organist at the First Presbyterian Church – the occasion was altogether a memorable and happy get-together of music lovers and friends.

Before playing, Marshall set the stage for the evening by speaking a bit about his enterprise and his instrument. He called his diverse program the "Marshall Plan." He followed that remark by immediately referring to his imminent performance as a "Marshall Art." We had been alerted by quips. A chuckling audience was prepared for an evening of entertainment.

The program was varied. Marshall began with an unaccompanied bouree by J. S. Bach. As he proceeded through his diverse program he evoked the schmaltz of Vienna with several lush compositions or arrangements by Fritz Kreisler, shifted eras by introducing us to a lovely work by Maria de Paradis (a contemporary of Mozart's), brought the room to silence with the haunting Vocalise by Rachmaninoff, and concluded the evening with the familiar "Smile Though Your Heart is Breaking" by . . . Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin? Who knew? I sure didn't. 

A standing ovation followed the concert. No surprise there. The music was lovely, the performance splendid, the entertainment value high, and the sense that we were welcoming a local boy home gratifying. It was a memorable evening for Kendal.

Opportunities for a Lifetime of Learning

Like all Kendal affiliates, Kendal at Granville declares itself a supporter of lifelong learning. The ambition is grounded in the belief that any effort to transform the experience of aging must foreground the importance of being engaged with the world. No kind of engagement rivals education as a path toward enriched lives, widened curiosities, and enlarged hopes. So education is what Kendal encourages.

My mind was turned to these sorts of thoughts as I reflected on how so many of my friends and I are seizing upon the opportunities that are available to us by virtue of living right here in Granville.

First of all, there's Denison University. Our partner in many activities, Denison welcomes senior citizens into its classrooms and laboratories. Denison has long sought to be a welcoming neighbor to Granville residents who want to get back into the classroom after lives and careers in fields as diverse as the clergy and the military, medicine and homemaking, farming and the law. One of my friends is enrolled in a German class because he wants to visit and talk with relatives in Europe. Another took a class in classical and medieval philosophy because he was curious about natural law teaching. A third has taken so many classes in the studio art department that she has been allowed to offer a pottery course to Kendal residents, using the University's studio facility.

In the recent past I know of Denison classes taken in art history, earth science, English poetry, the history of Islam, macroeconomics, music theory, and the Old and New Testaments. So far as I know, in every instance the senior enrollee has come away from the experience of reentry into the classroom exhilarated by the subject and delighted by the chance to talk with the young women and men who attend Denison.

But Denison isn't our only source of opportunities. The Lifelong Learning Institute, operating under the sponsorship of the Central Ohio Technical College, is offering a rich array of courses this fall, and – switching completely to personal experience now – I have found four that I'm signed up for. The first, just wrapped up, was a humdinger – "The Civil Rights Movement and Black Power." Our instructor teaches at OSU, Columbus, and thanks to her well-organized presentations I now have a much better understanding of the sequence and meaning of various tumultuous events which occurred during my lifetime but which had all become rather muddled in my mind. 

I'll soon be taking a course with the provocative title of "Beethoven and Berlioz did WHAT?!?" It is designed to be a "light-hearted" classroom experience, and our instructor is a conductor, composer, and arranger affiliated with Muskingum University. Sounds good to me!

Next in line will come a course on the Cold War. It's another of these large historical moments that I lived through but need instruction on. Our guide will be an award-winning emeritus professor from Miami University, who has written widely on the subject.

Finally, in an effort to guard myself against terminal fuddy-duddiness, I've signed up for "Introduction to Facebook." Almost every week I have an occasion to feel embarrassed by what I don't know about my Facebook account, and so I hope to begin to remedy my ignorance. Our instructor is a retired trainer for JP Morgan Chase, and I'm treating this course as my "Facebook for Dummies" experience.

There's much else on offer from the Lifelong Learning Institute – a POW's story, for example, or a tour of Union Cemetery in Columbus, or the history of Columbus aviation. My point, however, is broader: Kendal takes seriously its commitment to fostering lifelong learning, and our happy proximity to Columbus and Granville – to Denison, COTC, and two branches of The Ohio State University – allows the community to connect with an array of educational opportunities. It's another of the benefits of living at Kendal.