Learning in Retirement

I decided that I was becoming too reclusive in my 'old age' and needed to do something about it. I always seem to hibernate a little in winter...usually from Christmas until spring but this seemed a little more than that. I pretty much stopped doing some of my usual stuff. I haven't been to my SAR meetings since September or October and haven't been to church since Christmas. So I decided to look into "Learning in Retirement", a program that is based at Lincoln University that offers classes and various activities for retired people.

Joie and I looked into this back in 2004 but she broke her hip in February and we didn't get to follow through. I was struck by how regulated and paper-bound the program was back then and it hasn't gotten any better. You have to fill out forms for everything and the different classes and activities can't seem to share information so you are always filling out more paperwork and paying fees. If you take a class then you need a parking permit for Lincoln University or else you will get a ticket.  The fees are cheap. There is a basic membership fee of about $40 but then classes are only $12 each and the various clubs are free once you pay the membership fee.

I signed up for a class "The Czars of Russia" and for a trip by bus out to local Cole County and Miller County towns just to see what they are like. The trip was full so I went on a waiting list until they had enough for a second trip...it goes next week. I also joined the Hiking/Walking Club and the Bocce Club.

The Czars of Russia was taught by a former school teacher who essentially taught the class from various copies of family trees of the Czars with emphasis on the Romanovs. The teacher was just another retiree who was interested in the topic and decided to share her interests with the class. Her interests tended to focus on the sordid and gossipy side of the Romanovs...plenty of material to work from. Dr. Phil would have had his hands full.  The family trees were confusing because there isn't any real standard way of spelling some of the Russian names and they, of course, used names over and over again. Must of the Russian Czars were really Germans for the most part with only a drop or two of Russian and Romanov blood. The class was four weeks - one day a week - so we got into some detail. It was interesting, especially since I had just read  the "Young Stalin" biography of Josef Stalin from his early life up to the 1920s. Much of that book provided details on the underground and the workings of the Czar's secret police and the deteriorating social conditions.

The Hiking/Walking Club is basically a walking club -- the word "hiking" hasn't come up yet. Each Thursday about a dozen people show up at a designated spot and we walk for about an hour, usually in groups of three or four waling at the same speed. This is a walking and talking group so we aren't setting any land speed records. We did laps around the county park lake last week and will be walking on the green way this Thursday,

Today was the first Bocce Club meeting at Prison Brews. We had about 15 people for the morning group. There is also an afternoon group but not many showed up because the weather was deteriorating. It is refreshingly informal and casual. There are no permanent teams and we just number off by fours to get the teams together each week. We have a set of rules but they are pretty lax on some of them in favor of just playing the game and enjoying the day. My team lost but we had a good time. The temperature was barely 50 degrees and there was a steady wind so no one was interested in playing a second game  Most of us stayed for lunch and we expected to meet the afternoon group but only one guy showed up.

So next week is the bus trip to St. Thomas and Meta and Tuscumbia or Iberia. This will be interesting. I'll post an update if I survive.  

(I survived....details on Ken Across America blog)