Coach still working with those who want to master the game of golf

By Mary Beth Roach

“Golf is not an easy game. It’s the first thing we tell people.“

This is how local pro instructor Chuck Jonick starts off another round of lessons at the Cicero Golf Shop on Brewerton Road.

And some of the parents of the children he’s teaching one Saturday afternoon in May knowingly chuckle at the comment.

Ask anyone acquainted with Jonick, and they would all agree that he knows golf. He’s dedicated about two-thirds of his life to the sport.

“He loves the game of golf, teaches it 24 hours a day every day that he can. Rain, snow it doesn’t matter, he’s going to be there,” said Syracuse University basketball coach Jim Boeheim, who has been coached himself by Jonick.

Jonick’s passion for the game goes back to his teens, when he began caddying at the Lake Shore Country Club in Cicero, hitchhiking to work there along South Bay Road. He became an assistant pro during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and he has been at the Cicero Golf Shop since the early 1980s.

He started giving lessons at about the age of 18, and today, the instructor, who says he’s a little over 65, has helped thousands of Central New Yorkers with their game.

He has worked with some of the more well-known personalities in town — like Coach Boeheim, and golfers such as Jack McCabe and Denise Broton — to little Liam Ryan, 6, from Cicero, who took his first lesson in early May. At the Golf Expo this past February at the OnCenter in downtown Syracuse, Jonick said they did 150 mini-lessons in just two and a half days. And in many cases, generations within the same family have benefited from Jonick’s golfing guidance.

“Everyone I’ve talked to has taken lessons there,” said Wayne Morris, commissioner of the Town of Clay Recreation. The town has offered golf instruction with Jonick for nearly 40 years; and the neighboring Town of Cicero also partners with him.

Jon Cooley, currently director of recreation and public programs for Onondaga County Parks, got to know Jonick in the late of 1970s-early 1980s, when the former served as the director of parks and recreation of Cicero.

“Chuck is extremely hard working, ultra-enthusiastic, reliable,” Cooley said.

Ultra-enthusiastic is a great adjective to describe Jonick.

“The goal — I’ve always had this goal — to be the best in the country. I don’t take second best to nobody,” Jonick said, adding “I’ve worked very hard to be the best.”

He is able to give core guidance to beginners, particularly as they attempt to build an understanding of this fun yet frustrating game, Cooley added.

Jonick admits that the game can be challenging; so what keeps golfers teeing up season after season?
It’s called perseverance, he said.

When one is about to give up, the good shot will sometimes bring them back. But they might not know how they made that shot, he said. He strives to make those good shots more consistent for his players, so they get a better game.

“Consistency is the name of the game,” he said.

And Jonick stays consistent with his method of teaching — keep it simple; no big back swings — and get out there and play.

“If you want to learn to play, we’ll show you, but you’ve got to get out there,” he stressed.

The system Jonick uses is called square to square.

“On the pro tour,” he went on to explain, “more pros are doing this with short swings, meaning less margin for error . . . and the distance is still there.”

Jonick will start the kids’ lessons with a group talk, and then line them up and work with them on an individual basis, reviewing their grips, stances and swings.

The proper way to hold the club is hard, he tells the young golfers, but he continues to offer up encouragement, telling them it’s not going to happen in one day and assuring them it will get better.

The lessons may be firm, he said, but “we want to see them succeed.”

Jessica Sharron, 9, and her brother, Lucas, 8, of North Syracuse, took group lessons last year and they’re back for another round this spring.

“He’s taught me a lot about how to swing and how to hold the club,” Jessica said.

And Lucas must have learned well, if a game he shot with his dad, Dean, last summer is any indication. They were playing at Arrowhead West, when Lucas, hitting from the yellows, drove a shot an estimated 120 to 125 yards.

Whether group or private lessons, everyone will get Jonick’s individual attention. It’s the quality of the instruction that is important to him.

“Chuck is always very willing to work with people,” according to Julie Raddell, recreation supervisor for the Cicero Youth Bureau, Parks & Recreation. “Chuck clearly enjoys working with the public.”

His love of people is also evidenced in his ability to remember people’s name, calling out greetings to everyone coming through the golf shop and driving range.

A lot of the game, too, is in the equipment, Jonick said, remarking on how the technology in recent years, and the briskness of the business in the golf shop is proof of that.

“My hunch is he has given more collective lessons, directly touched more individuals than anyone in town,” Cooley said.

“We still like to look back and say we did something for them,” Jonick said.

SU offers courses for adults who want to “learn for the sake of learning”

By Mary Beth Roach

Now that Bob Burchhardt is retired, and his wife, Diana, works part time, the Tully couple is focusing on the next phase of their lives and looking at what develops.

So they enrolled in a new photography class, “Seeing the Light,” offered through Syracuse University Lifelong Learning Institute (LLI), a program begun in 2008 by SU ’s Gerontology Center for students at least 50 years old that integrates classroom work with a community service final project.

With the theme of AGE and engAGEment, the institute is all about “learning for learning’s sake,” said Madonna Harrington Meyer, director of the institute.

For years, these students may have been building careers and raising families, so they may not have had the opportunity to pursue some of their interests, Meyer said.

“There’s always a road not taken,” she said. “These classes pick up old passions.” Studies show, Meyer said, that lifelong learning is good for physical health, social health and cognitive health.

“The Lifelong Learning Institute provides a forum for learning about topics of interest in an engaging and supportive way, both on our own and with others,” according to Susie Weiss, of Cazenovia, also enrolled in the photography class.

The classes also extend beyond the boundaries of the classroom, in that the students’ final project involves them in the community.

For example, students in a recent class about elections were involved in registering voters; those in an astronomy class took their new knowledge and their telescopes to The Nottingham, a local retirement community, and shared views of the skies with the residents there; and students currently enrolled in the “Polar Heroes, in Print and on Film” class are scheduled to help with the penguin exhibit at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo.

Faculty from throughout the jniversity are invited to design classes for LLI, and Meyer’s staff evaluates them. Most of the classes are 16 hours, but the Institute is beginning to create some one-day programs.
Bob Gates, an English professor at SU and a professional photographer, has offered workshops with the Syracuse Camera Club. It was a natural progression, he said, to develop a photography class for LLI.
It was through the Camera Club that the Burchhardts met Gates, and when they learned of this new course, they decided to enroll.

Bob and Diana like being in a class with their contemporaries, and they appreciate the different skill levels that their fellow students bring.

“You learn from your peers as well as the instructor,” Diana Burchhardt said. Weiss also learned of this class through the Syracuse Camera Club, and shares Diana’s believe that you learn from not only the professor, but other students as well.

“It’s quite enjoyable to come together with new people who share an interest in a particular topic,” she said. “There is also something nice about taking a class with people who are a bit older, and who share some similar sensibilities and also bring a lifetime of different experiences together.”

Photography has been an interest of Weiss’ since childhood, and now she sees the class as a way to learn more about the field in general, to help her move from film to digital photography, and to do more with her photographs then store them away.

Weiss, who turns 55 in June, received her Master of Social Work from Syracuse University, with a concentration in gerontology, one of the first years that the Gerontology Center was in existence.
“I guess it’s a little full circle to now be taking a class through the Gerontology Center’s Lifelong Learning Center,” she said.

LLI will offer two classes in June. In “Art Now,” Professor Judith Meighan, of SU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, will take students on walking tours of various art spaces in the area and discuss ways to make the programs at these facilities more appealing to mature visitors.

A second class will be “The Universe: From the beginning to the end?” with SU physics professor Carl Rosenzweig. According to a course description, this collaborative effort with downtown Syracuse’s Museum of Science and Technology (The MOST) “will explore with students the structure, origins and fate of the Universe, from the dramatic birth of everything in the Big Bang nearly 14 billion years ago.”
Working with some of the facilities and museums in Syracuse, Meyer said, allows them to focus on some of the wonderful aspects of Central New York.

It’s “a celebration of things we have here in Syracuse,” she said.

For more information on the program, visit www.maxwell.syr.edu
www.maxwell.syr.edu/cpr/gerontology and click on the Lifelong Learning Institute link.

Christine Lightcap embodies spirit, liveliness of Syracuse theater

By Lou Sorendo

She is the diva of Syracuse theater. Christine Lightcap’s illustrious career has included acting, directing and producing. She is widely regarded as one of the top theatrical talents in Syracuse.
Her lovely home in Manlius is filled with colorful publicity posters of shows she’s done in the past, and her trophy case is packed with awards that she has earned over the years.

Most notably, she earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from the SALT Academy—Syracuse Area Live Theater—and as actress-director-producer, she has been honored for “outstanding individual contributions to area theater” by the Syracuse Theater Alliance.

She is the founder and executive director of The Talent Company, a Syracuse-based semi-professional theater company.

Lightcap has presented over 200 productions at numerous venues including The Civic Center, Landmark Theater, Springside Inn, Three Rivers Inn, Turning Stone Casino & Resort, and NewTimes Theater and has toured numerous dinner theater shows to major hotels and restaurants throughout Central and Northern New York.

As an actress she has played leading roles in over 100 productions. She received her theatrical training at Syracuse University, as well as in New York City and Hollywood.

A member of Actors’ Equity and SAG, her work as an actress has taken her on both national and international tours, Off Broadway, and to regional theaters and summer stock. Other credits include dinner theater, film, industrials, and numerous radio and television commercials.

“I want to do what I love as much as I can for as long as I can,” she said during a recent interview at her Manlius home.

The Talent Company recently received 26 nominations at the 2009 SALT Awards Ceremony, including 14 for its production of “The Producers” which, among others, won the People’s Choice SALT Award for Best Production of the Year. Lightcap was also nominated for director of the year for “High School Musical” and for actress of the year.

The SALT Awards are “Syracuse’s answer to the Tony Awards,” Lightcap said. Celebrating its silver anniversary, The Talent Company has presented the CNY premieres of such Broadway hits as “A Chorus Line,” “Grease,” “Nunsense,” “Chicago,” “Footloose,” “The Full Monty,” and “Copacabana.”
The Talent Company had humble beginnings in 1984, starting with dinner theater at the Marriott in Syracuse and the Sheraton in Liverpool.

In 1985, Lightcap got a huge break when she received the rights to “A Chorus Line,” a show she has since produced multiple times.

The Talent Company was the first in the country to obtain the rights to “A Chorus Line” while it was still playing on Broadway. “It was very exciting to see the long line for auditions at the Civic Center,” she said. “The entire hall was filled with people there to audition, as well as news photographers and reporters.”
For the past 15 years, The Talent Company has produced at least three Broadway musicals a season at the NewTimes Theater located in the Art & Home Center at the New York State Fairgrounds.

Her legacy­­­—The NewTimes Theater, originally known as The Empire Theater, was created thanks to Lightcap’s efforts. She proudly heralds the creation of the theater as one of her foremost accomplishments.
The Talent Company formed an agreement with then fair director Wayne Gallagher to renovate the theater in exchange for a contract to produce shows.

“It was my dream theater. It cost Talent Company a fortune, but it was worth it. It was unique and beautiful. The Talent Company renovated the space by enlarging and building a proscenium stage, putting in equipment to accommodate scenery, curtains, and lights, and creating a three-terraced cabaret-style theater where audiences can sit comfortably and enjoy snacks and beverages at their tables.

The design in Lightcap’s head was transferred to blueprints and approved by the state. “It took months, but we made it just in time to open our first show there, ‘Damn Yankees,’ in 1994,” she said.

The theater’s name changed after Art Zimmer, publisher of the Syracuse New Times, became its sponsor.
Zimmer recently shared his thoughts in regards to the impact Lightcap has had on Syracuse community theater.

“In community theater, Chris along with Joe and Pat Lotito, who founded the Salt City Playhouse, have had more impact on community theater than any other people in Central New York,” Zimmer said. “Chris has been at it longer, has done more shows, and has done better shows than just about anyone else in community theater,” he added.

What makes her such a success? “She’s a perfectionist, and it drives the people she works with crazy. The end result is the best that is possible,” he added. “She strives for perfection in all aspects of the production.”

The down economy—The current recession has had a toll on the entertainment business, with live theater being no exception.

“Box office sales are down everywhere, including ours,” Lightcap said. In January and February of 2007, The Talent Company produced “High School Musical,” which proved highly successful.

“It sold out before we opened,” said Lightcap. “We put on 18 performances, added three more, and still had hundreds of people on a waiting list. The following summer when we re-mounted it, the show did not experience the same level of success. I’m sure the economy and gas prices of over $4 a gallon last summer played some part in this.”

Asked about the younger generation, Lightcap said, “They are not as ‘live theater-savvy’ as in the past. They’re more interested in spending $60 or $70 for a concert than $22 or $23 to go to live theater. It just doesn’t seem to interest them, unless maybe it’s ‘Hairspray’ or something like that,” she said.

What does Lightcap feel are the keys to drawing in new theater goers? “I wish I knew,” she said. “I try to bring in shows that I think people will enjoy, that are entertaining,” she said.
She notes that The Talent Company has always received excellent reviews from critics and audiences alike.
Despite efforts to drum up enthusiasm by word of mouth, mailers, and various advertising techniques, it’s difficult to draw new audiences.

“Maybe they just don’t care about seeing a particular show,” she said. “People say, ‘Do something new or different.’ However, there are shows that I can’t get the rights to, like ‘Hairspray’ and ‘Mama Mia,’ and others that are touring or enjoying Broadway revivals. The rights to ‘West Side Story,’ the show we’re doing this summer, were restricted until just recently, due to the Broadway revival.”

Lightcap’s hit list—Of all the Broadway hits that Lightcap has loved, she does have her favorites. “Phantom of the Opera” is certainly one, and her home has many images of the production in full view. “I saw it on Broadway four times, in London, and on tour,” she said.

She said she could never produce it because it would be cost prohibitive to do it right. It cost literally millions to originally produce on Broadway, mainly because of the show’s demand for elaborate pyrotechnics and special effects. The Majestic Theater needed to rebuild its roof to accommodate the pyrotechnics. “But I love the show,” she said.

Lightcap considers another of her personal favorites to be “A Chorus Line,” mainly because it is the quintessential show about the business of show business. “I’ve sat on both sides of the audition table, that is, as an actress, director, or producer. No matter what, during every rehearsal and performance, when Zach (the fictitious director in the show) says ‘We’re eliminating down!’ it just wipes me out.”

Why?—“Because this is a tough business. Everyone thinks that show business is glamorous, and I’m sure it can be. However, for the majority of performers, it’s all about perseverance and endurance in a business that hands out a lot of hard knocks and rejection,” Lightcap said.

“West Side Story” is another favorite, which The Talent Company has produced every five years since 1988, until last year when it was restricted due to the Broadway revival. The restriction was recently lifted, and Talent Company will be presenting its critically acclaimed production in July and August at the NewTimes Theater.

Lightcap recently spoke with Michael Amante, known as “The Fourth Tenor,” who performs in opera houses and concert halls around the world and has sung with Luciano Pavarotti. Michael played Tony for Talent Company’s first two productions of “West Side Story.”

Among the most challenging roles Lightcap has taken on was Mama Rose in “Gypsy,” when she defied a West Coast critic by pulling off a role he said she was too young to play, prior to the show’s opening. Furthermore, she had to absorb the role in only two weeks.

When his review of “Gypsy” came out, he opened it with “How unlike this critic to apologize in public,” and proceeded to give Lightcap a rave review. Another challenge was Dolly Gallagher Levi in Talent Company’s production of “Hello, Dolly!” a couple of years ago. Lightcap said she became terrified after seeing a picture of the many superstars who had played the role, including Carol Channing whom many people equate with Dolly. “They were all superstars and I am not. During a rehearsal, I suddenly realized I was playing Channing playing Dolly. I had to be me playing Dolly in order to be Dolly.” Lightcap won the SALT Award for best actress in a musical that year.

Her other favorite roles have been Agnes Gooch in “Mame,” Miss Hannigan in “Annie,” Mother Superior in “Nunsense, Jeanette in “The Full Monty,” Florence in the female version of “The Odd Couple” and Googie Gomez in “The Ritz.”

“I love comedy. I still remember a wonderful director who said, ‘It takes an onion to make you cry. It takes an actress to make you laugh.’ That has always stuck with me for whatever it’s worth. I want to make them laugh. I love comedy, and I love ‘shtick’. I’ve roller-skated on stage and fallen off so many chairs, beds, sofas and bar stools, it’s a wonder I haven’t broken my bones. But I also dearly love roles that are a blend of drama and comedy like Rose in “Gypsy,” Gittel in “See-Saw” and Ouiser in “Steel Magnolias.”

Defining ‘producer’—Lightcap said what producers do varies. In New York City alone, there are volumes written about what a producer does, but the main job is putting up the money for a show and often finding other investors. Depending on the show, they may contract with the writers, pay the royalties, and often have a say in the staff and the casting.

“Locally, some people who organize and coordinate the show for a theater company are called producers. They don’t put their own money into it. Some of us do both,” she said.

Besides securing the rights and the financial investment, Lightcap assembles a team that includes a director, choreographer, music director, costumer, set designer, set builder, lighting designer, sound designer and stage manager. She schedules auditions and rehearsals, casts for roles, pays the bills, does the publicity and program, and during rehearsals and performances ultimately oversees all aspects of the production.

“I love to see it progress from the ground up to opening night. Except for tech week,” she said.

“Tech week is the period of time approximately a week prior to opening when lighting, sound, costumes, wigs, crew, set moving, orchestra—all aspects of the show—come together and problems surface. It’s the week when if it can go wrong, it does. But we manage to make it through,” she said.

Health concerns—Stress caught up with Lightcap in 1998, when she required an angioplasty following a heart attack.

“The stress was big time,” she said. “I was producing 10-12 shows a year and this was a call to slow down.”
As a result of that setback, Lightcap places a big emphasis on keeping healthy and fit to keep pace with the demands of being executive producer of The Talent Company.

“The angioplasty was a definite wake up call,” she said. “I had to get rid of stress and a lot of weight I had gained. I tried every diet in the world, but they weren’t working,” she said.

She finally found her solution through Weight Watchers, and lost 85 pounds as a result. “Weight Watchers has helped me a great deal. It’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle,” she said. “I learned a lot about eating right. I definitely eat better and enjoy more fruits, vegetables, chicken, and salads, but I still manage to have a steak once a week,” she said.

She stays away from oil and sugar as well as desserts.

“I have just a little pasta, which is not easy, because I’m Italian,” she said. “I love making spaghetti and meatballs and baked lasagna. I love to bake.”

Her husband Richard is an avid hiker; she, however, balks at those opportunities.

A retired Syracuse school administrator, Richard is associated with the Adirondack Mountain Club. He leads hiking expeditions, builds and maintains hiking trails, goes mountain climbing and snowshoeing, and for OASIS leads hikes once a month and teaches some hiking and history classes.

“I think about walking or using the treadmill, but most of my time is spent on the phone and computer,” she said.

In the summer, she takes time to swim in the family pool.

“Doing shows and theater keep me active,” she said.

In the beginning—Lightcap’s maiden name is Ragonese, and she grew up in Eastwood next to the Palace Theater.

It’s no surprise she fell in love with the theater: She would catch a double feature on Saturdays, a new double feature on Sundays, and during the summer, new double features were presented on Wednesdays as well. And since her uncle owned the theater, that was six free movies a week.

Lightcap was a self-starter when it came to theater. She made herself director of the neighborhood back yard plays and wrote a musical to replace the yearly variety show at Blessed Sacrament Church in Syracuse. When she got the lead in her high school show, she was really bitten by the “theater bug.”

“My parents definitely did not encourage me to be an actress,” she said.

She attended Syracuse University, and paid half her tuition by working 30 hours a week in the engineering department. “My parents wanted my two sisters and me to ‘learn the value of a dollar.’ Unfortunately, I’m not sure I retained that lesson,” she said.

She wanted to major in theater, but her parents did not think that was a good idea.

In college, she had a dual major in English and speech education and managed to sneak in a minor in drama. She was a member of the Boar’s Head Drama Honorary, the Syracuse University Symphonic Orchestra, and the Pi Beta Phi sorority.

She began teaching at the tender age of 19 at Grant Junior High School in Syracuse. “I’ll never forget my first day of teaching. I made a dramatic entrance through a group of students, flung open the door, and walked into a broom closet,” she said. “Later, in the cafeteria, I asked for coffee with my lunch, and in front of my homeroom class, I was told, ‘You have to be on the faclty to get coffee.’”

It was there she met her husband Rich. They married the following June and went to California for their honeymoon. Actually, that honeymoon turned out to last six years. While there, she did her first national tour playing Smitty in “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, and she received her Equity and SAG cards, which is membership in an organization of professional actors.

She also had her son, Kerry, and daughter Kelly.

Family life—Kerry attended Fayetteville-Manlius High School and Cornell University and played running back for both schools’ football teams. Now an attorney, he and wife Victoria, also an attorney, reside in Manlius. In his spare time, Kerry coaches football for F-M High School, and his #32 football jersey is now being worn by his son.

Her daughter Kelly, a Rutgers alumna, is a pre-school teacher. She and her husband Kevin Daley, and their four children, reside in Skaneateles. In their “spare time,” they coach or attend their children’s concerts, plays, chess tournaments, wrestling meets, and football, soccer, baseball, hockey, and lacrosse games.
Lightcap has six grandchildren, Kirstyn and Langston Lightcap and Kieran, Jordan, Christian, and Jocelyn Daley.

She is vice president of the Manlius Senior Centre Board of Directors and enjoys traveling, reading, family get-togethers, and of course, theater. “I can’t wait to open the pool, get ready for our big Memorial Day barbecue, and go canoeing and paddle-boating in Snook’s Pond,” she said. “I love having the kids here and the pool and the pond in our back yard. Maybe we’ll put on a play.”

It’s never too late to learn new skills, find new careers

Many are faced with having to change careers. I recently asked three “recareerists” what advice they would have for others.

Steven Kass

Steven’s first career (five years working as a management trainee for a men’s clothing manufacturer) was spent doing nothing that had to do with the rest of his life.

Knowing he always liked technology and realizing he was miscast in the clothing business, he studied on his own by buying books about programming and learning IBM languages. Self-study enabled him to get hired as a programmer for a small consulting firm. The owner, recognizing Kass’ outgoing personality and natural people skills, moved him from programming into sales.

After two years he moved to a large firm, learning about “big iron,” mid-range and mainframe computers. He worked his way up in sales but became more interested in software and services. Another couple of moves, further refined his goal to focusing on consulting services in the software area.
“There’s a fine line between selling and delivering, but I realized I really liked performing the service,” said Kass.

“You become knowledgeable through reading and getting involved in industry training about relevant topics. After doing something once, you become expert in that particular area and a valuable commodity to organizations looking to do the same tasks.”

Kass’ advice: “Figure out what you love and what you want to do, because that will make the learning easier. Take an extensive look at what you’ve done and see how you can recombine it. I looked at the 10-15 years spent in sales and marketing managing large teams and realized I had years of project management, and translated that experience in such a way that I now manage delivery teams. It takes time to analyze your skills and become comfortable thinking this way.”

He continued, “Examine your resume closely and you can change the way it looks. You may have worked at one place for years, but did many different things, so take what you’ve done, slice it differently and it becomes a functional resume.”

“You can do things horizontally and or vertically,” said Kass. “You can know everything about a certain business — vertical — or you can know a particular function in depth — horizontal. When I reinvented myself I became one of each; where the horizontal and vertical intersect is where the sweet spot is and that’s where I am.”

Kass consults with governmental agencies and financial institutions. His expertise is in enterprise contact management working with all types of information within an organization.

James Gray

Through the wonders of Facebook, I reconnected with James Gray, whose fascinating career path went from CEO to chef. Initially a newspaper reporter, then TV anchor, then a jog to advertising and public relations that led to a move into digital video production at the dawn of that era. Next was trade association management: Central New Yorkers may remember Gray from his nearly 10 years in Syracuse as the president and chief operating officer of the Manufacturers Association of Central New York (MACNY) where he met and married his wife, broadcast executive Linda Gray.

After Syracuse, Gray worked in New York City for a public/private economic development association. When his wife moved to Indianapolis to manage a Fox TV station, he went with her, taking a position as the executive director of the local Society of Professional Journalists.

“That was when I first began pursuing my interest in the culinary arts, by taking night courses at a community college,” Gray said.

“Those courses gave me the confidence that I could actually be a chef, so when we moved to Montana, I had a transportable skill. I struck out on my own as a personal chef, then three incarnations working in restaurants. First, as chef and consultant, I developed a menu of sweet and savory crepes for a new beverage place, followed by a position in a small chain of espresso shops as kitchen manager creating a menu of gourmet sandwiches and soups. Then [I became] executive chef at a new golf course restaurant, starting the place from scratch.”

Gray also spent two semesters as adjunct instructor in the University of Montana’s culinary program and in 2005 was selected as Montana Chef of the Year by the American Culinary Federation’s Montana Chefs Association. The Grays formed a production company and now produce weekly segments of “Kitchen Guy—The Tastiest Two Minutes in Television” that can be found on the Web at www.kitchenguy.biz.
Gray’s advice: “I am committed to lifelong learning and found the right program for me; that’s really the secret. It is never too late to learn new skills. At 50 I was the oldest person in my culinary arts class, including the teacher, but they had something to teach me and I wanted to learn it.”

Lida Dawson Price

Lida’s story may sound familiar. After her first job as a quantitative analytical chemist in a brain chemistry research project at a Harvard laboratory, she moved to Syracuse and became a homemaker raising four children. Price volunteered in her children’s school community and was president of the parent’s council; she also served as an elder in her church.

Dawson Price did a lot of writing in her volunteer work and started taking graduate courses at the Newhouse School in newspaper and magazine writing.

“When I needed to go back to work,” she explains, “science had passed me by. With all the writing I was doing, combined with my science background, I felt I should go into technical writing. It was difficult to get a job as employers were either looking for beginners or people with experience. My age seemed to disqualify me as a beginner even though I lacked experience.”

“I was becoming discouraged when a good friend told me ‘though it may seem all the doors are closed, a job will appear that seems to come out of the blue but that will not happen unless you keep looking.’”

That proved to be true. Though Dawson Price was looking for technical writing, she ended up in human services. The superintendent of schools where she had volunteered called, said they missed her writing, and offered a part-time position as editor of the district newspaper. Then a friend at church asked her to apply for another part-time job at the denomination’s regional synod. She wrote long feature articles and did some secretarial work but as the synod restructured, was given more responsibility and ended up on the executive staff in a full-time position. “I became staff to a working relationship between the synod and the Protestant church in Madagascar, an island nation off the east coast of Africa. Going there also gave me the chance to speak French that I hadn’t used for years.”

Dawson Prices advice: “Develop other skills that you enjoy employing, such as I did with writing, and keep yourself open to new directions that may suddenly present themselves. Women with families who want to go back to work, should look carefully at their volunteer experiences to see what opportunities are there.”

We’re doing away with the old “retire and die” program

“Either you eat life or life eats you.”
An old Chinese proverb.

We see many of our friends and contemporaries not aging well. They have bought into the stereotypical pattern of growing up, working, retiring and preparing to die. They think that as they approach their senior years life naturally narrows down. They sit in their easy chairs watching the stifling television set all day and seldom, if ever, venture out of the house. They commiserate with their friends who have also bought into the “retire and die” program and they share aches and pains as well as sharing the obituary column. They live in the past and dread the future.

Well, we’re here to tell you that life not only goes on after 55, but it can be a hell of a lot of fun and the most rewarding time ever.

Since ‘stimulus programs’ are so popular these days, we’ve come up with one to address the enrichment of senior life. This two-part program borrows from “Keeping the Golden Years Untarnished,” the first column we did for this great magazine.

The Mental Part—The mind acts much like a muscle — if you do not exercise it regularly it will atrophy (reading or watching Jeopardy is not enough). There is ample medical evidence that playing bridge, working crossword puzzles or playing word games (our favorite is Scrabble) can offset dementia. The greatest tool to sharpen your wits, however, is the computer, which pretty much emerged as our generation was headed for retirement.

We find that about half of our contemporaries have not entered this wonderful world of communication (e-mail) and information (Internet). We spend a part of each day keeping in touch with our children and grandchildren. This brightens the time we spend in Florida and greatly reduces telephone calls and letters and you can receive countless digital pictures of the family to ooh and ahh over. Additionally, you can find the answer to any question your mind can conjure up by ‘Googleing’ it. Ask your grandchildren to teach you — they know more than your kids or anyone else.

We have spoken many times in this column of the importance of developing a retirement career. Mine happens to be journalism, book writing, traveling and racing cars. PMA (positive mental attitude) is an integral part of our stimulus program.

Forget about life narrowing down — think in terms of expanding it.

Our generation is breaking the mold. My parents were old at 50 — I am young at 75. It’s all in your mind and whether you think you can or you think you can’t — you’re right.

The Physical Part

With normal health, there is nothing you cannot do. Without health there is nothing you can do.

Protecting your health and exercising to offset the ravages of age is the most vital part of our program.
Unfortunately, as we age tissue breaks down, cartilage that cushions and lubricates our joints deteriorates and often arthritis sets in, tendons become weak and often rupture, bones lose density and become brittle.
Body-building can offset all of this by strengthening the muscles that activate the joints and by taking pressure off the cartilage, tendons and bones. Body-building also helps the flab that builds around the middle (which acts like a lever to put pressure on the spine, which in turn gives you that nagging back ache).
The current generation does body-building to stay fit and attract the opposite sex — we do it to be comfortable and stay active.

Is it difficult to pry yourself out of that easy chair and take a walk, ride a bike or drag yourself over to the gym on a cold morning? You bet it is but you have invested a lot of money to sustain retirement — how about investing some time to insure that you will be able to enjoy it.

Exercising also has a profound effect on your immune system, which protects you against disease, including cancer and a raft of maladies to which you are more susceptible in later years.

You meet some of the nicest people at the gym, surprisingly most of them are 55 Plus-ers. We enjoy a klatch of neighbors, friends and new acquaintances every day and it brightens every day.

So there you have it: All you have to do to enjoy this great life is push yourself out of that easy chair (and for god’s sake throw away that cigarette if you are still stupid enough to be smoking) and start expanding your life. Many doctors say that every day of exercise adds a day to your life, a notion we believe is right on target. Do the math and see where you can go with this program.

No TV in the room, no school bus, a shared phone line…

“When you were growing up, Grandpop, what was your favorite fast-food place?” my granddaughter asked me the other day.

“We didn’t have fast-food restaurants,” I told her matter-of-factly.

She raised her eyebrows and thought for a while. “Well, then, where did you eat?”

“At home,” I told her.

You mean you never ate out?” she asked, not quite believing me.

“Oh, sure,” I replied. “About once a month, when we went to visit our relatives, we would eat at their place.”

“No, I mean, eat out — in a restaurant,” she persisted.

I thought for a long minute. “No,” I told her, “I can’t ever remembering eating at a restaurant, unless we were on vacation. But, then, why should we? My immigrant Italian parents owned a grocery store. We had all the food we wanted.”

I explained to her that my mother spent a good part of the day cooking. My father insisted on two cooked meals a day — at lunchtime and dinner. We ate together at one time as a family at the kitchen table.

“If I didn’t like what my mom put on my plate, I would sit there until I got to like it,” I told my granddaughter, who was horrified. One time I recall becoming petulant because I didn’t want to eat risotto for lunch. I threw in the towel after two hours and heartily ate the risotto because I was famished.

She laughed out loud. I didn’t want her to go into hysterics, so I left out the part about requiring permission before leaving the table.

I never went to school on a bus; my parents never drove me to football practice; I had a one-speed bicycle, which I bought with money I saved by delivering special-delivery letters for the U.S. Post Office.

We didn’t have a television in our home until I was 12 years old, and we had a choice of three channels — I confess to an obsession for watching test patterns for 10 or 15 minutes at a clip several times a day.
I also remember that my parents spent about $5 to buy a tri-colored piece of plastic to cover the 12-inch RCA Victor screen. I guess you could call it “color TV.” The top third was a sky blue; the middle third was red, and the bottom third was grass green. Who cared if fire engines were green and lawns were red!

I never had a telephone in my room. In fact, the only phone in the house was in the kitchen and was on a party line. You had to listen first to make sure one of the other three parties who had the same line wasn’t using the phone. As kids, we would sometimes listen in on our neighbors’ conversations. If we got caught, however, we knew it would mean a paddling from mom. We requested the number we were dialing from an operator. Our number was 743-J; our grocery store’s phone number was 42-R.

Seven days a week, I got up at dawn or before to deliver the morning newspaper. Saturday was collection day, so I got to keep the difference between what I paid the newspaper company and what I charged my customers. I did well on tips, however, because I would always put the paper where the customer specified.
I must have had an entrepreneurial spirit, because I was always looking for a way to make money. I made a proposal to my father to work in the family grocery store for about 30 hours a week at 17 cents an hour. Each Friday, he would pay me about $5.10, which I religiously took that same day to the Summit Hill (Pa.) Trust Co. and put into my savings account.

During the summer, when school was through for the year, my father allowed me to sell candy and gum outside of our grocery store. I would buy the items from him at wholesale, and I would keep the profits.
For example, there were 120 Mary Janes in a box that cost 90 cents. I would resell them for a penny apiece, so I would keep the 30 cents profit on each box.

Every Saturday, I would deliver orders of groceries to customers who had called in their requests. I would always get a tip — sometimes as much as a dollar. One woman, in particular — Mrs. Tarleton, who was 84 — was so kind, and although I was only 13, she treated me as an adult, not just a kid.

She would invite me to sit for a while, offer me milk and home-baked chocolate chip cookies, and she always tipped me a dime. But while I was sitting having my treat, she and I would discuss news events going on in the country and the world. I remember the impact that this had on me and how much I enjoyed going there.

What I didn’t realize is how much it meant to her, too. About seven years later, she died. My parents and I went to her viewing to pay our condolences to her daughter, her sole survivor whom I had never met. “So you’re Bruce,” she said to me. “My mother would tell me how much she enjoyed her few minutes with you every Saturday morning when you brought the groceries to her home,” she said.

“Gee, Grandpop,” my granddaughter said. “You had some interesting experiences growing up.” “Yes,” I replied, “and you are having interesting experiences, too. You won’t realize how interesting until a few years from now; each generation has its own stories to tell, and each is special in its own way,” I told her.

Oral health problems include dental caries, periodontal disease, dry mouth, yeast infections and oral cancers

Thanks to improvements in oral health care, such as water fluoridation, advanced dental techniques and improved oral hygiene, fewer older people are toothless or denture-wearing. However changes occur in the teeth and mouth over time.

Let’s begin with a review of tooth structure. The pulp, or central part of the tooth, contains blood vessels and nerves that enter via a small opening in the tooth’s root. Dentin, a porous yellow substance surrounds the pulp. It is susceptible to decay, but is protected by an outer layer of enamel. Enamel is extremely hard and varies in color from light yellow to light gray, rather than “pearly white.” Cementum, the fourth main tooth tissue, is a specialized bony substance softer than either enamel or dentin. It covers the tooth root and acts as an attachment site for the periodontal ligaments that stabilize the tooth.

Normal age-related tooth changes include yellowing and darkening, as the composition of the enamel and dentin changes. The number of blood vessels entering the pulp declines, rendering the tooth less sensitive, which can delay recognition of decay or injury. The cementum becomes thicker but is less resistant to environmental injury from sugar, acids in soft drinks and tobacco.

The tissue lining the mouth, called the oral mucosa, becomes thinner and dryer. The periodontal ligaments lose fiber, becoming thinner and weaker. In many older people the gingiva — tissues around the teeth — recede exposing the cementum. But gingival recession is probably more related to poor hygiene than to age itself.

Oral health problems common in older adults include dental caries, periodontal disease, dry mouth, yeast infections and oral cancers. Decay, or caries, is more common in the tooth roots in older people than in younger ones. This appears as a black discoloration at the root of the tooth. Prevention with good oral hygiene and routine dental care is best, but once decay appears, you’ll need a dentist for treatment.
The first stage of periodontal disease, gingivitis, appears as redness, swelling and bleeding of the gum tissue adjacent to the teeth. It forms as a response to plaque. Plaque is a biofilm, a layer of bacteria and their toxic products bonded together to form a tough polymer. While regular tooth brushing reduces the formation of plaque, it’s not enough to remove it once it’s formed. But gingivitis is reversible with good dental care.
Left untreated, the inflammation of gingivitis can spread to the periodontal ligament to cause periodontitis. The ligament may detach from the tooth, loosening it, and ultimately causing tooth loss. The gingival shrinks away from the tooth, exposing the roots, and increasing the risk of decay.

With age, saliva production often decreases. This leads to xerostomia, or dry mouth, which characterized by a burning sensation and altered taste. It may affect swallowing and speech. Certain medications can cause or worsen this problem.

Treatment starts with adequate fluid intake and the use of sugar-free gum or candy to stimulate saliva flow. Over-the-counter saliva substitutes can alleviate symptoms. There are medicines to stimulate saliva in the most severe cases.

Candidiasis, infection by the yeast “Candida,” occurs when the yeast normally found in the mouth overgrows. This may look like thrush, thick white plaques inside the cheeks, similar to the thrush that occurs in infants. Another pattern is denture stomatitis, red, swollen, painful tissue on the roof of the mouth, beneath the denture. Candida also causes angular cheilitis, cracks and fissures at the corners of the mouth.

Cancer in the mouth is often subtle and without symptoms initially. The most common locations are the sides of the tongue, the lips, and the floor of the mouth. A medical professional should check any white or red lesion in the mouth that doesn’t go away within two weeks. Up to 75 percent of mouth cancers are due to tobacco and alcohol use.

Prevention is still the best strategy, so even mature adults should schedule routine dental appointments to maximize the chance of keeping a healthy smile.

Mountain climbing — doing it and telling the story

By Patricia J. Malin

In just the last 20 years, Carol Stone White has experienced more peaks and valleys in her personal life than a majority of New Yorkers combined.

It just so happens that this 68-year-old resident of Clinton in Oneida County, has climbed several hundred mountain peaks in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire — most of them with Dave, her husband of more than 40 years.

“I first became interested in hiking in the Adirondacks when I quit smoking in 1988 at age 47,” she said. “In 1989, a friend asked if we would like to climb 5,344-foot Mt. Marcy, the highest mountain in New York state. We said, ‘Why not?’”

At the time, White was naive enough not to realize that she needed a sturdy pair of hiking boots for the momentous occasion. “I didn’t buy boots, though, for only one big-mountain climb,” she laughingly recalled.

“That experience was so splendid that we climbed all 46 Adirondack High peaks [with boots] by 1990. On Mt. Marcy’s summit, I had experienced an overwhelming desire to know this vast wilderness up close. I never started smoking again, as I had several times before. Little did I realize that, five years later, we’d be climbing Marcy on Christmas Day and all 46 High Peaks in winter in the next two years!”

Over the course of thousands of miles, White became so transformed by her hiking experience that she has parlayed it into a successful career—no, not as an ordinary senior mountain climber, but as an author of many books about the Adirondacks and the Catskills.

Her fifth book is being published in April. It is titled “Adirondack Peak Experiences: Mountaineering Adventures, Misadventures, and the Pursuit of the ‘46,’” an anthology of other hikers’ amazing hikes. Excerpts will appear in Adirondack Life magazine in May.

Although she was a late bloomer when it came to tackling mountains, it didn’t take White long to get hooked. “I was not a natural athlete and my focus was on politics and public policy, family and other interests,” she pointed out. “I was fascinated by this new hiking lifestyle.”

White was born in Cortland, but moved to Florida at age 10 because her father had asthma. She attended college in Virginia. She met her husband while both were working in New York City, and they both ended up taking a sociology course at the New School for Social Research in New York City.

Dave was working for IBM and was transferred to Syracuse. At that time, while raising their two children (Julie, now 42, and Jeff, 38), they became fond of hiking in the gorges in Ithaca. The Whites later moved to the Mohawk Valley when Dave got a job with the now-defunct Cogar Corporation.

It’s hard to get an exact figure on the number of peaks she and Dave have conquered. The Adirondacks have 46 “high peaks,” referring only to those over 4,000 feet in elevation. There are 35 superior peaks in the Catskills and 48 in New Hampshire. Even with some 113 high peaks throughout the Northeast, the Whites are as familiar with them as with the plot of grass in their backyard.

“We have climbed all 46 once in summer, once in winter, and most of the peaks many times,” she related. “I climbed all 48 peaks [White Mountains] in New Hampshire in winter—including Mt. Washington—between ages 60 and 65. We have climbed 113 peaks in winter and non-winter. That includes the ‘Killer Mountain,’ Mt. Washington, in winter.”

White laughs now when she recalls her early struggles while hiking the High Peaks, such as carrying heavy packs, improper dress, dehydration, nausea and exhaustion, but every trip was literally a learning experience.
“People don’t have a real sense of what they are getting into, which is one reason I like to compile anthologies with dozens of people sharing their stories,” she explained. “You learn at least as much from peoples’ first-hand experiences as you do from guidebooks.”

n her new book, Adirondack Peak Experience, White gave a first-hand account of one scary incident. “We backpacked to a range of trailless high peaks called the Santanoni Range, east of Long Lake. Climbing up a frozen brook, Dave broke through the ice and got frostbite.”

But she also remembers some “awesome” climbs. “If you pick a day without tremendous winds to ascend above treeline, you can spend considerable time on the summits, even in winter,” she pointed out.

“One time we ascended Wright Peak on a cloudy New Year’s Day and suddenly we hiked above the clouds! A rippled ocean of clouds spread out below us to the horizon, the white dome of Whiteface Mt. thrusting above it. Warmed in sunlight in utterly still air, we stood on top of the world on New Year’s Day, as if in a bright realm of magical potential.”

She published her first book, “Catskill Day Hikes for All Seasons” in 2002 at age 62 for the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK). It features 60-day hikes in the Catskill Forest, an area with a vast trail network, but also what she calls large regions of untracked wilderness.

ADK had asked Carol and Dave to write “Catskill Day Hikes for All Seasons as a companion to “Day Hikes for All Seasons: An Adirondack” Sampler,” by Bruce Wadsworth, the current president of the ADK Club.

The Whites tended to be more familiar with the Adirondacks. Between 1994 and 1997, the couple climbed the 46 High Peaks in winter after having previously earned their “46er” badge the conventional way. ADK compiles an official record on the dates and names of people who have scaled the High Peaks, and then bestows membership in its exclusive “Forty-Sixer” club. There are now more than 6,000 people in the club.
White then went on to publish “Women with Altitude: Challenging the Adirondack High Peaks in Winter. “I wrote about our winter mountain climbing adventures and misadventures, and the thought occurred to me that others have fascinating stories to tell,” she said.

White found such stories in the New York State Archives in Albany. She began by reviewing hiking files that had been maintained for more than 50 years by the 46er Club historian, Grace Hudowalski (1906-2004).
In 1937, Hudowalski was the first woman, and ninth person overall, to complete the ascent of the High Peaks. She was a founder of the Adirondack Forty-Sixers Club Inc., and served as its first president from 1948 to 1951. She then became the club’s secretary and historian, a position she held until her death. She was also an ardent conservationist who fought diligently to preserve the Adirondacks from the destructive practices of timber companies.

At Hudowalski’s urging, the 46ers began to send her stories about their adventures and “precious experiences” in the High Peaks. After reading all the letters that the pioneering women had written to Hudowalski, White began her own quest for the rest of the story. She started to correspond with the hikers, thus capturing the life stories, thrills and dangerous treks of 33 of the women 46ers in her book on the Adirondacks. In addition, she included some of her most memorable hikes in Women with Altitude.

The Catskill Forest Preserve has 35 mountains over 3,500 feet in elevation (up to 4,100). Members who climb all those peaks get a certificate and patch, as do the 46ers. So as the Whites hiked all the trails and while compiling this book, they became members of the “3500 Club.”

In turn, it led to another request from ADK to edit their comprehensive “Guide to Catskill Trails.” “We measured 345 miles of trails in the Catskill Forest Preserve with a surveying wheel, rewrote the guidebook, and continue to be the editors,” said White.

White delved even further into the Catskill archives and put together another book titled, “Catskill Peak Experiences: Mountaineering Tales of Endurance, Survival, Exploration and Adventure From the Catskill 3500 Club.”

Carol has served on the 46ers’ executive committee and she is currently conservation chairwoman of the Catskill 3500 Club. David is a director of the Utica chapter of ADK and membership chairman of the Catskill 3500 Club.

Carol’s days as an author are as unlimited as her desire to continue tackling high peaks. Her next book, “New England Peak Experiences,” will cover 52 mountains “with a view” (under 4,000 feet) in New Hampshire. She completed the New Hampshire high peaks in winter at age 65.

She also intends to complete work on a book about the Oneida Community and its founder, her great-grandfather, John Humphrey Noyes.