Anita Catron got a little more than she bargained for Saturday night. About 75 area folks, 60 and older, marched into the Iola Senior Citizens Center to dine on Mexican food.
She had planned for 60. As luck would have it, there was enough food.
Once-a-month dinners were started three years ago to “get people out, get them involved and also so they could see what we have at the senior center,” said Catron, of the building at 204 N. Jefferson Ave. Several attendees Saturday night were first-timers.
A main course is prepared in the center’s kitchen, and those who come bring a potluck dish. They also pass a basket to raise money to help with the entree.
“The first time we had 23 people and the meals have grown to where now we’re having 50 to 60 people a month,” Catron said. “We serve something that we don’t at congregate meals,” which are at the center each weekday at noon. “We had fish last month. One time we had liver and onions.
“I ask at the center what they’d like to have special for the meals. Usually, they say, ‘Whatever would be fine.’”
Those attending the meals see a senior center different from the past.
With assistance from Thrive Allen County and Iola’s Community Involvement Task Force, a new tile floor was laid throughout the building and dark wall paneling was painted over with bright colors. The improvements were made in 2007 and 2008.
“It’s so much lighter than it used to be,” Catron observed. “It’s a lot more inviting.”
As site manager, she works 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and often stays on her own later in the afternoon to help with activities.
A television and pool table are available for seniors who want to get away from the four walls of their homes. Cards are played every weekday afternoon except Fridays, when games are in the evening.
LLOYD HOUK provided lively entertainment during the dinner on a keyboard and sang several songs.
Among those listening was Iolan Richard Pearman, who knows a thing or two about entertaining. He will be 94 on March 21, and was eager to note age hadn’t put him on the shelf.
“I still play at Guest Home Estates and Windsor Place and go to fiddlers and pickers meetings twice a month in Fort Scott and Iola,” Pearman said.
He’s had lots of practice, having plucked his first strings at age 10.
“If it has strings — bass violin, guitar, banjo, you name it — I can play it,” he said. “Although with some of them it might take me a few minutes” to get up to speed.
For years he also was lead singer for his band.
DINERS, with Styrofoam trays and plastic utensils poised in front of them, sat at tables Saturday evening with numbers taped in the middle. They got their turns at the buffet style serving area when the table’s number was drawn.
Most waited patiently, what with recollections, conversation and Houk’s smooth music flowing freely.
Sonny Maley, who didn’t want to miss out on a quickly dwindling supply of deviled eggs, jumped the serving line but no one paid any mind. Age has a way of softening concerns about such things that really aren’t all that important.
