I used to have a great mind for trivia. While answers to critical college exams might escape me, the names of obscure actresses in forgotten films tripped off my tongue with ease.
Not so any more. These days it takes longer and longer to retrieve information from the recesses of my mind. Facts that would have taken mere seconds to pull up a decade ago now dodge my cognitive processes for minutes, hours or even days. Either I’ve accumulated too many mental files for my brain to sift through quickly or the neural connectors to my memory banks are just frayed and worn.
You’d think that the best remedy for an overstuffed brain would be to avoid inputting more data. But oddly enough, using our minds more keeps them healthier as we age. Learning new knowledge and skills actually helps improve memory rather than bogging it down.
That’s why we are continually looking for new things to learn and try here at the Senior Center. Some of the ideas we’re playing with for the coming year include a Spanish class or even a language course for beginning Korean, if we can find any takers. Our oil painters will be tackling portraits in the next few weeks and we’ll soon be offering a training session for anyone interested in becoming a volunteer for income tax preparation assistance.
Of course our program favorites will continue, such as the computer classes every Monday, Tuesday morning Domino 42, Bingo on Wednesdays, Wii Bowling on Thursday afternoons and our monthly dances and movie nights.
Before long it will be time for the center’s annual Gigantic Garage Sale, held March 8-9, in the [City of Mineral Wells Activity Center in the Fort Wolters Industrial Park].
Our participants are already busy sorting and pricing donated items as they come in. Volunteers are welcome to come join the process any time between now and March.
Tomorrow evening’s dance will begin at 6:30 p.m., with a $3 admission for anyone over 16 years old. The Movie Night next Monday, Jan. 14, will feature Bette Davis and Glenn Ford in “A Pocketful of Miracles.” We’ll serve the free soup and salad supper at 6 p.m.
Many thanks to the Movie Night sponsors, preferring to remain anonymous, who paid our Motion Picture LIcensing Corporation license renewal fee for 2013. We appreciate your gift very much!
Why not make this the year you join other senior adults who are trying and learning new things at the Senior Center. Let’s keep those brain cells healthy!
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