Keeping the 'Grow' in Growing Old

At Chautauqua, Seniors Gather to Exercise Their Minds, Stay Sharp and Keep Themselves Moving Forward

By Abigail Trafford
Washington Post, October 15, 2002

CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. -- A question from the audience: Why would a 16-year-old from Lancaster, Pa., lie about his age and join the Union army in 1864?

Several thousand people are gathered in the main amphitheater -- the nerve center of Chautauqua's annual cultural festival -- where Princeton historian James McPherson is discussing the Civil War.

Constance Messerly Kehoe clutches her history of the 51st Pennsylvania Volunteers as the moderator poses her question to the speaker. Kehoe is on the trail of her great-grandfather who fought in the Battle of Wilderness and at the Siege of Petersburg.

She's also on to one of the secrets of a long, healthy life: mental exercise. This is a learning vacation for Kehoe, a week away from the daily treadmill of running an educational sales and consulting business in Irvington, N.Y. Instead of hanging out on a beach or taking a hike up the Grand Canyon, she is giving her brain cells a good workout.

"I don't find it relaxing to just do nothing," says Kehoe, who was a history major in college. "If I'm focused and really engaged, I can release myself from all the stuff that I worry about day in and day out."

There's also a long-term health benefit. Engaging her mind this way is likely to lead to better brain function in old age and fewer memory problems.

The "use it or lose it" dictum applies to neurons as much as it does to biceps. At the Chautauqua Institution, stimulation of mind and spirit is the guiding principle. For more than a century, this isolated, gated Victorian village by a lake in southwestern New York has hosted a summer season of music, arts, religion and the humanities. There are no slot machines or jet skis. Public consumption of alcohol is forbidden. But public debate is encouraged.

This is the last week of the summer season and the focus is on the Civil War. It is also the meeting of a special session for 230 men and women aged 55 and over who mingle with the regular guests for a mental fitness week.

Kehoe, at 55, is one of the youngest. The oldest is 89. Most are in their sixties and seventies. Some are single, some are married, some come as couples, others leave their mates behind. The ratio of men to women is about 40 to 60.

Everyone in the program lives in dormitories and eats breakfast and dinner together in the cafeteria. The fee of $500 per person covers lodging, meals and all the main events.

For many, the 55-plus program is an annual retreat. Rita Lutsky, 78, from New York, has come here for the last 10 years. "The Civil War is a whole new subject for me," says Lutsky, a widow who used to own an antique shop. She had a heart attack four years ago, but "it's okay," she says. She always comes back. She likes seeing the same people year after year. And besides, she says, the 55-plus program is "the best deal in the world" -- far less expensive than the other guests are paying.

"People couldn't come here without" the discount, agrees Lolisa Franklin, 67, who is here with her husband from Murphy, Tex. "I tell myself I'm exercising my brain."

"I learned a lot," says Janice M. Johnson, 77, of Washington, a specialist in international education. This is her fifth season.

Where else can you ask experts about your great-grandfather?

Kehoe, who has been to Chautauqua five times in the last 15 years, finds out more about her ancestor David C. Ursley, who survived a string of battles before he was 18. Then he came home to Pennsylvania and prospered in the lumber business.

McPherson explains to his audience that it's not clear why someone would enlist in 1864. The period of romantic flag-waving patriotism was gone. The horror of war had settled on the North and South. But there was a bounty system in some areas that paid recruits to join up, he says.

Kehoe gets excited. She has Ursley's discharge papers and sees the record of a $300 bounty. "I have more of an idea of why he enlisted," says Kehoe, who has left her husband at home and is here with her sister. Perhaps her research will lead to a children's book. "I'm trying to weave a story," she says.

Keeping the Brain Young

A growing mass of research points to the importance of mental recreation. Scientists no longer view the brain as a static organ that inevitably declines with age. Quite the opposite. The brain possesses amazing plasticity and can rebuild damaged connections -- all the while expanding its powers.

Education and intellectual activity are correlated with longer life spans and a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease. People who aggressively use their minds from early childhood through their forties and fifties maintain their memories better as they age.

The famous Nun Study, which analyzed the lives and brains of 678 Catholic nuns, showed that fostering linguistic ability in childhood and stimulating the expression of complex ideas may protect against Alzheimer's disease.

PET scanning studies found that college graduates have higher activity in the posterior cingulate, a key part of the brain involved in memory performance. Gary Small, director of the UCLA Center on Aging, sums it up in his book, "The Memory Bible":

"Mental stimulation, or exerting our brains in various ways intellectually, may tone up our memory performance, protect us from future decline in brain function, and may even lead to new brain cell growth in the future!"

Even rats do better in stimulating environments. In experiments, the ones with toys and treadmills grew new brain cells, had more synapses, ran faster through mazes and generally appeared more intelligent than rats in ordinary laboratory cages.

"Continual, lifelong mental stimulation is healthy for human brains as well," continues Small. "Mentally and physically active people over age 65 have been found to have higher IQ test scores and higher blood flow into the brain compared with those who remain inactive over a four-year period."

A Little Night Music

Mental sloth is not allowed at Chautauqua. With a daily schedule that begins with a religious service at 7:45 a.m. and ends late at night with an encore of violin wunderkind Augustin Hadelich -- or with a final gyration of Jethro Tull -- a lot of blood gets pumped to the brain. In between there are lectures, tours of the grounds, music recitals, book signings, news updates with forums on Islam and the Middle East.

The 55-plusers get to hear McPherson and Jan Winik, author of "April 1865: The Month that Saved America." They learn about the origins of civil rights from Eric Foner of Columbia University. They listen to Roger Wilkins talk about black patriotism. They discover the songs of slavery and freedom from Horace Clarence Boyer, an expert on African American music, and contralto Juanita Jackson of Washington.

Or they can take courses to upgrade their computer skills or practice a foreign language.

The legs get a workout, too, because cars are banned from the village center. So there's lots of walking down the red brick path from the dormitories to the outdoor Hall of Philosophy. Walking past the practice studios and the opera house. Walking along the lake with rows of private docks and sailboats. Not to mention formal exercises in the gym and line dancing after breakfast. But the overwhelming experience is a kind of mental kickboxing. The key is variety, an intellectual workout that mixes knowledge with music and philosophy. Educational lectures alternate with music performances, a one-two punch that enlightens the rational side of the brain with information while stimulating the passionate side with sound and poetry.

The black experience of the war, for example, is presented in a series of musical performances, as Boyer and Jackson interpret the Negro spiritual as historical script.

"Follow the drinking gourd -- follow the Big Dipper," exclaims Morris Grotheer of Urbandale, Iowa, after hearing how the song chronicles the flight of slaves to freedom, going north at night, using the ancient guidance and navigation system of the Big Dipper. "It expands your knowledge of history -- it expands your spirituality," continues Grotheer, 73. "It gives you a different perspective," agrees his wife, Louise Grotheer, 71.

The discussion of the Civil War also sparks memory. Morris Grotheer remembers growing up in Kansas right where the Union troops went through the prairie. One day when he forded a creek, he found a cannonball. "We suspect it rolled off a wagon," he says.

Linking new knowledge to old experiences creates connections in the mind that add to a person's base of memory. The activity not only stimulates greater intellectual agility, it can also enhance emotional muscle and sense of well-being as the mind leaps from present to past.

Jean Bartoo, 78, is here for the fifth time with a group of friends from Cleveland -- all of them retired teachers. Bartoo raves about the music programs, especially the bang-up band performance of Civil War marching tunes. The music reminds her of the time she met her husband. They were at a party and she got up on the table and sang "When It's Apple Blossom Time." Her husband-to-be, she explains, turned to a buddy and said: "See that little redhead over there with the nice legs?" She laughs. It's a warm memory. They've been married 54 years. Her husband, 89, is home, she says, growing raspberries and making jelly.

The Power of Connectedness

The combination of education, music and memory is the lightning rod for people in search of revitalization. Each one takes away something personal from the session.

Don and Carolyn Christianson and David and Marsha Graham are a foursome from Columbus, Ohio. The men are retired. The women are teachers.

For Don Christianson, the week is a moment of nostalgia. He used to sing at Chautauqua as a member of the boys choir. Last year, a worsening sleep apnea problem had him falling asleep in the middle of a Mahler symphony. Two weeks before the session, he underwent a procedure to block the apnea. "It took 20 years off my life," says Christianson, 68.

For his wife, the 55-plus program is a time of regeneration. "It creates this kind of energy," says Carolyn Christianson, 58. "This helps me to be better in the classroom."

For Marsha Graham, 55, who teaches piano and plays for all the Sunday services at the United Methodist church back in Columbus, the bonanza is music. She is transfixed by the way the organist blows out the organ in the amphitheater. "I look at his feet with awe," she says.

For David Graham, 60, the draw is military history. His great-grandfather was a Union soldier who was killed in a minor battle at Lynchburg, Va. His current focus is World War II and he's taped hundreds of interviews with veterans. The lectures reinforce his passion to understand events through the experience of soldiers and grasp the enormity of historical changes.

"It always surprises me that after a terrible war of conflict and hatred, then you go fight together in the next war," he says. "Kids from New York and Alabama are foxhole buddies," says Graham, who majored in history at Ohio State University.

Out of all this intellectual churning comes another important ingredient for a long, healthy life: human connectedness. Slowly the group jells. Standing in line for meals becomes a social mixer. Finding a place to sit among the long rows of tables is like a party game. New friends are made, old ones are nurtured.

Researchers call this "social engagement" and having access to "social capital." More simply, having a best friend and building a network of intimate relationships are key factors in longevity. It may help explain why women outlive men, since women tend to have more close relationships than men, especially as they age.

For many, the 55-plus program is not only an exercise in mental aerobics but an investment in social capital with reunion of oldest, closest friends.

The five women who grew up together in a small town a few miles from the Chautauqua gates call themselves the "Homies." Every year, they take a large room with five beds and have a pajama party. "We always knew about Chautauqua. We walked here in the snow," says Verna Torres, 65, a widow who now lives in San Jose, Calif.

They bring out old photographs -- when they were Girl Scouts, when they became cheerleaders. They all had summer jobs at Chautauqua, working in the ice cream stand and waitressing at St. Elmo's. "It's like coming home," says Nancy Reitcop, 65, who lives with her husband in Rochester, N.Y.

Of course, they all enjoy the head-stretching lectures. "We talk about what we heard," says Anne Smith, 64, president of the historical society in Lafayette, N.Y., where her husband is a school guidance counselor. They also laugh a lot. "There is nothing to distract you," says Smith. "You don't worry about doing dishes."

They also count on each other in sorrow. Nancy Goodrich 65, of Amherst, N.Y., remembers coming here after her husband died six years ago. "I was still in a state of shock trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life," she says."This was a good place to figure it out and recuperate."

Sandry Fry, 65, who taught music for 16 years, talks about the brain tumor that left her with no hearing in one ear and a badly damaged eye. When she woke up from surgery, she was able to vocalize sounds and realized: "I can sing. I can still sing. I'm still here."

For her, the 55-plus program is a triathlon of music, memories and the Homies. "There is a kinship," says Fry, who married her grade-school sweetheart and lives in Erie, Pa. "It's a wonderful thing to have. We are all so kind to each other."

Says Smith of their reunion: "It sustains you for the year."

The Eternal Subject

After a few days, the noise level in the cafeteria rises. Two men start joking in front of the salad bar. "You know what's really going on here?" says one.

"Forget all this mental stimulation. What's happening is sex. Everywhere! Look around you: nothing but sex," he says.

Everyone laughs. His wife stands nearby and rolls her eyes.

But sex is not a joke at Chautauqua. It's a serious subject. As serious as the Civil War. Next year the 55-plus program is going to study human sexuality. "

An essential part of the human condition is our sexuality," note the planners of the program. "This theme is intended to bring clarity to the history, identity and status of our sexual selves."