My visit to the Oakland Senior Center was initially very nerve-wracking. I was really nervous because I had no idea what to expect. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to engage with them because of the age difference. My thoughts about older people were that they were kind of crotchety and that they would not want to hang out with us young folks. However, it was clear that the people at my table were excited to be around young people, so my thoughts went all out of the door which was comforting because I wasn’t sure what was going to happen.
However, my whole thoughts and feelings changed when I began to engage with the people there, I realized it wasn’t so bad. And I ended up actually enjoying myself!
I was paired with people that actually hadn’t read the story, so I was in a place of meeting them where they were at in regards to the readings. We ended up really focusing our time on the Bambara story. What we all focused on was the idea of sexuality, intimacy, and disrespect towards elders.
When I first read the story, I was completely taken aback by the behavior of the children towards their mother just for dancing with Bovanne. Even the language that they used was completely disrespectful towards their mother. This became a hot topic during our discussion because the folks from the center described in detail how so much has changed and how they would never disrespect their mothers in that way. There was much discussion of comparing the way they were raised and how it had changed over time. The folks from the center were also very open to hearing about how we grew up and about our lives. They were very supportive of our education and how we were able to succeed despite how different it is for college students now.
We came to the conclusion that Miss Hazel just wanted some connection and intimacy with Bovanne. We agreed that there was nothing sexual about the way that they interacted. We discussed the notion of dancing and how dancing could be interpreted as something sexual, but in this case it was not sexual. Miss Hazel was simply trying to connect with Bovanne and that connection was interpreted as something negative. The same thing was interpreted as being negative is the exact same thing that is happening at the Senior Center. They just want connections with one another.
My perspective has completely changed when it comes to older people now. I am actually excited about going back and meeting new people. I also learned that there are different levels to being a “senior citizen.” There are “junior senior, medium senior, and senior senior.” I had no idea about that! I was really surprised about they also did not look really “old” either. I was expecting older people that actually look old, but these people didn’t at all. I am very much looking forward to my next visit.
Coming to Age 