Senior Centers are great once you are retired with nothing to do.

fancicoffee13

fancicoffee13

Senior Member
Location
Texas
I retired a few years ago. So, I decided to join a senior center that had lots of options in it. Pool, card playing, dominoes, quilting, ping pong, pot luck dinners once a month, and much more! I joined it and even managed to learn to line dance! Been there for 9 years now and still making friends and exercising. Tell me if you have been to a senior center and what you thought of it.
 

GAlady said:
I live in an assisted living facility. And we have a lot of fun activities. COVID put us in quarantine a long time, but we have almost all of our freedom back Now.
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That is great! A lot of my senior friends live in, not assisted living, but independent living and they do a lot of card playing, etc. Our center was closed down for a long time, and now it will be exciting to see them again, if they come back to the center.
 

I live in a senior apartment building. We are now pretty much officially back with regular activities in the community room. I moved in during lock down, so this is nice. There is Bingo and other games nights. A once a week coffee hour, people can bring snacks to share if they wish . Also, the community room is open just for us to go and hang out and visit.
The Senior Center is down the street, but I have not been yet.
 
Marie5656 said:
I live in a senior apartment building. We are now pretty much officially back with regular activities in the community room. I moved in during lock down, so this is nice. There is Bingo and other games nights. A once a week coffee hour, people can bring snacks to share if they wish . Also, the community room is open just for us to go and hang out and visit.
The Senior Center is down the street, but I have not been yet.
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I just love making new acquaintances, new friends, and doing things we enjoy. Nice to do things together, getting out and talking to others.
 
fancicoffee13 said:
I just love making new acquaintances, new friends, and doing things we enjoy. Nice to do things together, getting out and talking to others.
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What is great is that I am back in my home town, where I grew up, after being away for over 30 years. I was just an hour away, so not far. Anyway, I have met many who remember my family. I am 67, so am a younger one here,,many are 10-20 years older than me. But one lady used to live down the street from my family and went to school with my one of my older brothers. I never met her before I moved here. At least, I do not remember her
 
Marie5656 said:
What is great is that I am back in my home town, where I grew up, after being away for over 30 years. I was just an hour away, so not far. Anyway, I have met many who remember my family. I am 67, so am a younger one here,,many are 10-20 years older than me. But one lady used to live down the street from my family and went to school with my one of my older brothers. I never met her before I moved here. At least, I do not remember her
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Exactly, the people I meet at the center where we meet are a good 20 or more years older than me. But, we all get along pretty well. I have met some who were difficult, but you never know what they are dealing with personally that makes them that way. So, I love to try to show kindness and listen a lot.
 
Wow this area has never (to my knowledge) had anything like that for seniors (fun activities). The individual living places for seniors have their own stuff for their own residents and we have an Area Agency on Aging but it's always just offered resource information and companions for elders (which is better than nothing, of course). And since Covid, they're offering very little if any of that. I wonder why? Maybe because this is a university town and stuff is geared just to the younger? As far as I know, the nearest town that offers a real seniors center is about 2 hours away unfortunately; I really wish we did have it here. 😔
 
All our ballroom dancing is held at 2 different senior centres
We also go on bus trips up to 150km away from the city as part of the senior centre
(All groups go ) We had 4 big bus loads go
last time , we pay a yearly fee of $10 at one and $15 at the other any trips / food days are party paid for by the club
The last trip was to a place called Victor Harbour ( south Australia ) it included lunch and trip which was about 90 km each way for $25 each .
We also have a spud day , a hamburger day
which cost us $10 for the meal plus desert and 2 hours of great music 🎶 entertainment after lunch 🥗where we will often get up and dance off our food we’ve just eaten
The events usually attract up to 150 members who can bring a friend however any visitors have to a member to get a cheap meal.
I believe we are still restricted to 100 at the moment
 
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There is one here where I'm living in rural Kentucky, but it hasn't resumed activities yet.

Sure wishing it would, since I'm new to the area, and looking for ways to make new friends...

Back in Florida, I lived in a large 55+ community and our clubhouse offered lots of activities.
 
SmoothSeas said:
There is one here where I'm living in rural Kentucky, but it hasn't resumed activities yet.

Sure wishing it would, since I'm new to the area, and looking for ways to make new friends...

Back in Florida, I lived in a large 55+ community and our clubhouse offered lots of activities.
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I wish that the seniors' communities around here would allow non-residents to participate in things but I checked and they don't, residents only.
 
I really thought about it and as a resident misanthrope, I don't think I'd ever darken the door of a senior center. Just can't imagine myself doing that.
 
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I visited the senior center here a few times and they had very little of interest to me. They have a half dozen pool tables, so I played a few games a couple of times, and no one else was in there. They don't have ping pong. There were a couple of rooms with people playing cards, and all of them looked very serious, not happy at all and no one was talking, just looking at their cards.

The last time I visited an exercise class and only one person was there but then more people came, about 8 women total and no men. They were all friendly and welcoming, but they didn't look very active so I left. There's a once a month dinner, but I'm not interested in things like that and prefer my own food. I think senior centers are not for people like me.

The primary community activity I've enjoyed over the last 20 years has been Toastmasters, but they've changed a lot and haven't even been having meetings for the last 18 months. I went swimming at the public pool for a couple of years, and a group of us would sit around talking for 20 to 30 minutes before it was time to get in. They had a small gym, but I prefer my own setup at home.

If the senior centers had speaking groups then I would love to be in something like that. We would always have conversations before and after the TM meetings, so it was a good place to get to know people and share things. I have thought of approaching the SC to help start a speaking club - which might be a possibility at some point - but only when and if they stop trying to poison everyone. I think group casual senior picnics with tables would be nice, where people can mingle and do what they want.
 
John cycling said:
I visited the senior center here a few times and they had very little of interest to me. They have a half dozen pool tables, so I played a few games a couple of times, and no one else was in there. They don't have ping pong. There were a couple of rooms with people playing cards, and all of them looked very serious, not happy at all and no one was talking, just looking at their cards.

The last time I visited an exercise class and only one person was there but then more people came, about 8 women total and no men. They were all friendly and welcoming, but they didn't look very active so I left. There's a once a month dinner, but I'm not interested in things like that and prefer my own food. I think senior centers are not for people like me.

The primary community activity I've enjoyed over the last 20 years has been Toastmasters, but they've changed a lot and haven't even been having meetings for the last 18 months. I went swimming at the public pool for a couple of years, and a group of us would sit around talking for 20 to 30 minutes before it was time to get in. They had a small gym, but I prefer my own setup at home.

If the senior centers had speaking groups then I would love to be in something like that. We would always have conversations before and after the TM meetings, so it was a good place to get to know people and share things. I have thought of approaching the SC to help start a speaking club - which might be a possibility at some point - but only when and if they stop trying to poison everyone. I think group casual senior picnics with tables would be nice, where people can mingle and do what they want.
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"There were a couple of rooms with people playing cards, and all of them looked very serious, not happy at all and no one was talking, just looking at their cards." Same thing I found at, it wasn't a seniors center, kind of just a generalist recreational center, and it was a group of people, male & female both, all appearing to be retirement age, playing pinochle. And you talk about serious, as you found, John c., they all were staring down at their cards literally frowning the whole time, and they did have a refreshment break halfway through; I thought maybe there'd be a little bit of chatting then; nope the few who got up to get a cuppa whatever were frowned at by the players who didn't, as if to say, "Cmon, cmon, hurry up already so we can get back to playing cards!"

There used to be a speaking group in our town called the Cracker Barrel, but it was either shut down or suspended altogether by Covid. I heard it was pretty "take no prisoners", too much so for my tastes anyway. 😄
 
I gave the senior center a try but it is not for me. Everyone is so old in every sense of the word and I'm 78. It's primarily women gabbing about women stuff and run by women so no guy stuff to speak of. Dinners aren't bad but they are at a time when I could be out doing my thing.
 
Chet said:
I gave the senior center a try but it is not for me. Everyone is so old in every sense of the word and I'm 78. It's primarily women gabbing about women stuff and run by women so no guy stuff to speak of. Dinners aren't bad but they are at a time when I could be out doing my thing.
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Just curious, how do you define "old" in this instance?
 
I live in a senior living apartment building and our community room has just opened back up to us. We have a coffee hour once a month which is basically a tenants' meeting where we plan our activities and talk about problems in the building. Just a handful of people go to that. We have a potluck supper once a month where we bring a dish or something. Bingo will be starting up again soon and that is twice a month. This is a fun game, no money, no prizes. Just a social thing actually. And we will be having a movie night soon which is watching a DVD together in the community room and someone will make popcorn. Not that many tenants actually come to the activities but if you do, then you know what is happening around here and I like that. That is enough socialization for me.
 
fancicoffee13 said:
That is great! A lot of my senior friends live in, not assisted living, but independent living and they do a lot of card playing, etc. Our center was closed down for a long time, and now it will be exciting to see them again, if they come back to the center.
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I wanted independent living, but none that I liked in my area.
 
Yes, I found one senior centre (over 1,000 members) just a bunch of women gabbing around and very hard to get into a community when most there have been together for awhile and I am shy and reserved. They did have a class on brain health that I attended and still belong to the website but I just couldn't get into so many people. I did try a smaller centre but the pandemic hit and now that hubby is retired, I was going to see if he would go with me.
 
Classes are a great way to meet others. At least you have something in common.

@officerripley If those people were playing bridge, it’s very intense while playing. It’s good for keeping your mind active. You play 2 or 3 boards, finish & chat, & then move to the next table. Chat with another pair. There’s visiting before & afterwards.
 

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