Worcestershire Journal
by Karl - October 3, 2008 9:24am
I was so much older then…
Several years ago, I worked for a company that had dual headquarters in Lexington MA and Cupertino CA. As a result, I often traveled to Silicon Valley. I tried to be a cheap date and typically had my suppers in one of two places. For less than five bucks, I could have my fill of phở at a Vietnamese restaurant called the Super Bowl in a nearby Asian strip mall. If I wanted to live it up a bit, I went to Fresh Choice, a buffet restaurant that had great salads, soups, and other light entrees.
One evening, I handed my credit card to the the cashier at Fresh Choice. “Let’s see,” he said. “Senior citizen discount is …” and he said the price, which came to about eight or nine dollars, a fair bit lower than the regular price.
I stammered something, but not enough to object to the price break. It happened just the one time at that restaurant, but the gray in my beard, which showed up even before I was eligible for an AARP membership, has bumped me into the senior citizen stratum on more than a few occasions.
This story is really a long wind-up to discuss the Worcester Institute for Senior Education (W.I.S.E.), a continuing education program sponsored by Assumption College. The program offers short courses (typically once a week for five weeks) on topics as wide as poetry, philosophy, music, film, Worcester’s history, and Einstein’s special theory of relativity. The fall catalog is available in PDF format.
This term, I’m taking the Walk Worcester with Mass Audubon course. Here members of Mass Audubon guide us through several parks and conservation areas in the city, providing a running narrative about the flora, fauna, and landscape.
A year’s W.I.S.E. membership is $120, and entitles you to attend pretty much as many courses as you want. There are no tests or papers. Even in the cases where there are texts that the class will discuss, the readings are recommended, but not required. The membership fee also gives you access to the school’s library and a student discount at the fitness center. The term ’senior’ is self-described, meaning that you don’t have to show proof of age to participate; you’re a senior if you say so. By saying so, I get to go back in time a bit, back to being 18 and taking college courses and thinking about what the next stage of my life will look like. To complete the Möbius strip, I can send a text message to my grandson, who is 18, and a freshman at Assumption, to see if he’s free for lunch. W.I.S.E. students can eat at the dining hall, just like any of the other students.
One of the things I always loved about you was how you enjoyed trying new things!! I is super cool you are taking classes…at any age it is great to learn new things!!