Music of the Season

On Tuesday evening, March 15, the Vintage Voices entertained at Kendal. A fine community chorus composed largely of Granville seniors and noted locally for appearing at holiday celebrations, the Voices were bringing their Easter program to Kendal. The group was introduced by Teddy Westlake, a former conductor of the Voices and a resident of Kendal. Their annual concert here is much anticipated, and this year performance was, as expected, beautiful. 

The program included several numbers that were unknown to me – pieces that were moving and dramatic. It was a mark of the strength of the chorus that at least a half dozen singers had solo opportunities. The highlight for many in the audience was undoubtedly the world premier of a new sacred piece by regional composer Cliff Davis who – no coincidence here – is known to many Kendal folks as the son of Kendal resident Irmagene Davis. It is a work that deserves wider and frequent hearings. When the concert ended with a vigorous performance of the "Hallelujah" chorus from Handel's Messiah, the dazzled audience signaled its appreciation with an explosion of applause. The appearance of the Village Voices on the Amelia Room stage was yet another sign of the vitality of musical programing at Kendal. 

Kendal University – Yes, Really

As home to Denison University, Granville is a college town. The residents of Kendal at Granville have long benefited from the advantages of living in proximity to one of the country’s finest liberal arts college. But the first two months of 2016 have demonstrated yet again that Kendal all by itself itself is a center of education, and the breadth of its curriculum is authentically impressive.

I was prompted to think about this point when the marketing department invited two other residents and me to give lunchtime presentations on subjects dear to our hearts, as part of a once-a-week lecture series. This three-week program was dubbed “Kendal University,” and participants from the priority list could earn a “degree” by attending all of them. All three of us presenters were retired professors, and we chose topics that were at once dear to our hearts and close to our scholarly interests. I drew on my interest in British history to speak on “Brexit,” the short code term for the possibility of Britain leaving the European Union. David Skeen, a professor of psychology in an earlier life, spoke on the reasons some people are happier than others and how we might work to bring more happiness into our own lives. Susan Richardson, a literary scholar and author, spoke about her experience with the editing of Tuyo Suyemoto’s I Call to Remembrance, her memoirs of her internship during much of World War II.

I confess that , yes, “Kendal University” was a somewhat cute-sy term for the series. But it was also apt. And in fact – and this is my broader point – it is not inapt as a description of the entire Kendal at Granville experience, at least for residents who remain curious about the world we all live in. As proof of the claim, I give you the calendar of educational events for January and February, which reveals the flow of academic opportunities that have been available to residents since the beginning of the new year.

When the long holiday season receded, we launched our second semester here on January 19 with a history presentation, as lifelong Roosevelt scholar Dick Lucier spoke on “FDR and the New Deal: What Was It and Why Did He Succeed?” The very next evening David Baker, an award-winning poet at Denison, delivered readings from his his latest book of poetry, featuring “nature or environmental poetry with kind of a political edge to it.” On the 25th the Diversity Book Club discussed Debbie Irving’s Waking Up White, a much-acclaimed examination of her long journey to awareness of the place of race in American society.

The pattern continued in February. On the 10th Alan Miller, the new editor of the Columbus Dispatch, spoke about the general challenges facing journalism in the country today and the specific challenges facing the Dispatch, the state’s best and most ambitious newspaper. For this subject we could not have had a more front-line speaker. On the 23rd the acclaimed string quartet ETHYL, currently in the second year of a three-year stint as artists in residence at Denison, presented a concert of twenty- and twenty-first century music from a variety of countries and culture. On February 29 Marilyn Donahue, a docent at the recently reopened and expanded Columbus Museum of Art, talked about the museum’s history, its collection, and its plans for wider community engagement. In short, across the first two months of 2016 Kendal sponsored presentations in six different academic disciplines: history, politics, journalism, literature, psychology, and music. Kendal at Granville is truly a university for seniors.

And looking just beyond the Kendal campus, there was more to be found. The Lifelong Learning Institute, which holds classes around Licking County, offered a varied set of courses in January and February, among them “Human Trafficking: Modern-Day Slavery,” “Lake Erie: Critical Issues,” “Music Music Music: From the Fundamentals and How to Read Music, to the Trends,” and “Beginning Genealogical Research.” Meanwhile, for those who like theater, the two months offered  nearby performances of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Richard II.

Finally, for those who enjoy getting into a college classroom with real live undergrads, there are Denison courses galore available to Kendal residents. Just offhand I know of residents in at least two of them this semester: Medieval History and Modern East Asian History. (I’d be remiss if I didn’t add at this point that across the past eight years – and this will be a very incomplete list – I know of residents who have sat in on Denison courses in economics, English, geology, German, music theory, philosophy, religion, and studio art.)

The facts speak very much for themselves. Kendal residents have a wide range of opportunities to expose themselves to educational encounters. Perhaps it goes without saying then that at Kendal we pride ourselves on our lively minds.

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.