WHERE FRIENDS GATHER AND PUZZLES ARE SOLVED

It’s a little before 8 a.m. on the Wednesday morning before Christmas inside the Crossville Senior Center in DeKalb County. The furniture, decorations, piano and artwork look and feel homey. Center Manager Teresa Tomlinson offers a friendly welcome.

The action is happening in the back part of the center near the kitchen. The truck delivering meals to those who can’t come to the center just pulled out of the driveway. Senior volunteers Violet Davis, Pat Shipp, Judy Denning and Ron Thorpe are cleaning up the kitchen. They helped Teresa prep the meals for delivery.

Once everything is in order, they sit down for a spirited game of Rummikub and talk to a visitor. Violet, 72, describes herself as an immigrant from Attalla. She used to go to the Boaz Senior Center but has been coming to Crossville for the past three years. She comes three days a week.

Pat, 87, was born in Crossville but lived a chunk of her life in South Huntsville because of her work with Army Missile Command on Redstone Arsenal. But when she retired and moved home, she got her EMT license and worked with the Rescue Squad until its building burned. But she also started delivering meals for the Senior Center. She also enjoys Rummikub and singing.

Pat, Judy, 80, and Ron, 74, come to the center every day. They’re sitting, joking around and playing Rummikub when the others stop in, and the bus arrives with four more participants.

Judith Rusk, 85, gives an update to the group on a friend’s health condition before the gathering starts breaking up for different activities. A card game of Rook gets underway in one of the front rooms, which also houses a small library of books.

Lyman Chumley, 88, and Fayrene Davis, 88, pair up against Ann Black, 86, and Freida Coker, 87. There’s much banter between dealing, bids, trumps and the widow.

Linda White, 75, pops in saying “Merry Christmas” to everyone. She’s returning a book before heading to the dining area where two tables of Rummikub games are underway. Linda is a newcomer to the center, coming about six months, and thankful to her friend, Judy, who invited her.

Judy has moved from the first group of Rummikub players to a second table to play with Linda Doeberyl, 76, who is originally from upstate New York and Florida before moving to the area in 2007.

“I love it here,” said Linda Doeberyl, wearing an Alabama Crimson Tide sweatshirt. “We went on vacation driving to Tennessee, and on our way back we stopped in Fort Payne and were just really impressed by the small town … I got a job at a nursing home here and have been here ever since and no regrets.”

She said she believes she should have been born in the South and added it didn’t take her long to choose Alabama as her football team. “I don’t like those other colors, and Alabama wins a lot, so that’s a bonus.”

Linda White sits at the table with Judy and Linda Doeberyl.

“I don’t play because I like to talk too much, and it messes everyone up,” Linda White added.

Off in a room by herself, Judith is working on a puzzle of a stormy sea with a rainbow. She’s been coming to the center since 1985. She said the building was once a doctor’s office in the small town.

“I come one day a week and it used to be on singing day. We haven’t had that in a while, Covid messed everything up, but we’re starting back with Judy playing the piano, and we have a better piano now, too,” Judith said. “But I love to sing, and sometimes I play some games and work on puzzles.”

She talks about growing up on the family farm with her brother Lyman, playing cards across the hall. She and her husband went to St. Louis, and Lyman went to California for work because there were no jobs in the area. Both eventually migrated back home.

“We are so blessed to be back living on the farm where we grew up,” Judith said as she slides another piece of the puzzle into place. It’s one of many that have been completed at the senior center by all center particpants. Many are framed and line the halls and hang on the walls in each room.

“This is a puzzle place,” Lyman said, as the foursome wraps up another game just in time for lunch. Everyone walks to the kitchen where they find a hot meal of beef and rice casserole, capri vegetables, cabbage, wheat bread, and chocolate cake, with milk, grape juice or water to drink.

On top of Sand Mountain, Crossville is a town of about 1,800 residents. Of those residents, nearly 330 are age 60 or older. The Crossville Senior Center serves meals to 25 people each day. Teresa, who has been the manager since 2009, says her goal is to make those who come to the center feel at home and accepted.

“I think there’s a misconception about what a senior center is, but once they get in here one time, they understand,” Teresa added. “We are a family and we care about each other.”

Senior Fun Fest for the entire TARCOG Region — DeKalb, Jackson, Limestone, Madison and Marshall counties — is scheduled for Tuesday, May 14, 2024.

The event will be at Sharon Johnston Park in New Market. More details to come but for now, save the date!

The Jackson County Council on Aging will host its Senior Expo on Friday, Jan. 26, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Goosepond Civic Center in Scottsboro.

The event, sponsored by Devoted Health Plans and One Love Hearing, will provide an opportunity to learn about the agencies, groups and resources that enhance the lives of people 50 and older.

For more information or to volunteer contact 256-574-5733.

If you are 55 and looking for a paid part-time community service role, TARCOG can help. John Sanders, director of Senior Employment, says low-income seniors may qualify for paid job training opportunities through the program, funded by the Center for Workforce Inclusion and Alabama Department of Senior Services.

The program provides paid job training opportunities in which people may learn new skills or enhance existing ones, with the goal of finding employment opportunities.

For more information or to see if you qualify, call TARCOG at (256) 716-2666.

A celebration in Fort Payne isn’t complete without musicians and for the combined 50^th Anniversary of Senior Center programs and Annual Health Fair for DeKalb County, residents enjoyed a performance by the band Homegrown.

Nearly 200 people participated in the Nov. 16, event held for people aged 60 and their caregivers at the VFW Fairgrounds. It was sponsored by the DeKalb County Council on Aging and the Times-Journal.

Emily McCamy, director of the DeKalb County Transportation and Council on Aging, thanked everyone for attending and highlighted each of the county’s Senior Centers in Collinsville, Crossville, Fort Payne, Fyffe, Geraldine, Ider, and Rainsville.

DeKalb County Commissioner and TARCOG Board Member Lester Black talked about the importance of services provided to seniors in the community over the years and into the future.

In addition to vision and blood pressure checks, there were 40 vendors who provided free materials and useful information. Lunch, and door prizes were provided, along with live music.

The four-member senior band has been together about four years goes by the name of Homegrown. But the band has also been called Billy Roberts and Friends, and the Good ‘Ole Boys. One time, DeKalb County Commission Chair and TARCOG Board Member Ricky Harcrow joined them with his banjo and called the group the Ball Bearings, Martin said. None of the members are overly concerned about the name, for them, it’s about the music.

They typically get together to play at assisted living facilities, nursing homes, Mayberry Days and holiday celebrations. And they were glad to help celebrate DeKalb County Council on Aging’s 50^th anniversary of its Senior Centers and Rural Public Transportation.

Lifelong musician’s Billy Roberts, 76, guitarist, Jack Martin, 80, guitarist, Donnie Owen, 72, fiddler, and Kenneth Whited, 71, bass guitarist, make up the group, which plays a variety of tunes — gospel, country and a little rock ‘n roll.

Growing up in Fort Payne, it’s no surprise the band has ties to country super group Alabama as well as their own musical successes. Back in high school, Roberts played in a rock ‘n roll band with Jeff Cook. Donnie and Randy Owen are cousins, and Whited played in a rock ‘n roll band with Teddy Gentry.

Martin fondly recalls playing in an FFA Band in Scottsboro and winning third place in a district competition in the 1960s. And Owen won multiple bluegrass competitions all over the state, participated in fiddler’s conventions all over the U.S., and performed at Opryland for nine years. Whited remembers opening for Paul Harvey and being on the same Ralph Emory Show as Porter Wagner and Dolly Parton in the late 1960s.

Today, this group of men say they are happy to still be able to play and bring enjoyment to the community, no matter what age, which they did to rounds of applause at the anniversary celebration.

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