By By Barbara Wells / guest columnist
May 30, 2004
Above my desk at home is a framed cartoon from ZAP comic books, "The Adventures of Fat Freddy's Cat." The cat is telling his friend cat that he does not need a little swinging door to get into his house, he has a remote controlled door … and he demonstrates. MEEYOWL! (in large squiggly letters)!
Fat Freddy comes to the door in his BVDs, and the cat races inside.
My cat at home sits on top of my car at night far away from the terror of the crawling critters in the bushes. He is the King at 15 pounds! I retrieve him just before bedtime, stretching him across my arms, and drop him inside the door.
We are registering now (May 24-June 4) for summer classes at the Senior Citizen Center. The door is open for anyone over the age of 21 to come in and take a break from the tensions and stress of the "real world."
The following classes are being taught and have room for new students:
Stained glass
Machine quilting
Hand quilting
Smocking
Crochet
Knitting
Watercolor
Oil Painting
One-stroke painting
Floral
arrangement
Ceramics
Beginning computer
Yoga and exercise
Short-term classes
In addition to these regular classes, we plan to offer several half-day and full-day workshops that will be a lot of fun. We have already scheduled the following:
1) Mosaic birdhouses will be constructed on July 26. All you need to do is find some broken pottery, jewelry, etc. to decorate the provided birdhouse.
2) Washi egg decorating is another fun, hands-on class taught by Edna Manley on June 18, two classes, one morning and one afternoon. Washi paper is an especially strong, pliable Japanese rice paper. They are wonderful decorations.
3) An educational workshop being provided by AARP is the 55 Alive Driver's Training in the afternoons on June 23-24.
4) Betty Melton will return in July for more word processing classes, as well as Eric Hill with some advanced computer training. Our regular computer classes on Wednesday and Thursday will resume in July. In June we still have room in our Wednesday computer classes. These are for four weeks.
Summer seems an excellent time to learn about canning and food preservation. I am planning to have workshops during the month of July and August, so keep in touch. We will continue our Thursday lunches (except for the second Thursday of each month). Pasta Primavera was last week's dish. Sorry if you missed it. (It was soooo good…..)
Games and concerts
Bingo has been so much fun during the month of May, we will be playing every week during the summer months. That is, the usual first and third Mondays and the Thursday of the week in between those days.
Have you ever heard of pinochle? (Pea-knuckle?) We have a lady who is going to teach a class on June 9 at the Center. Come and learn a new card game or join our regulars in the card room.
For a little musical entertainment, come listen to Marvin Weir and the Good Timers on June 11 (Friday this month) beginning at 6 p.m. There is plenty of parking.
The doors may not be remote-controlled but they are always open. Come by and see what we have to offer! Call 485-1812 and ask for Barbara Wells for information and class times.
Barbara Wells is the director of Meridian's Senior Citizens Center, 3300 32nd Ave.