“It’s almost an out-of-body experience. We’re still floating.” This is what Helen Pfeltz of Bloomington, Indiana says of the feelings she and her husband Cliff still have about a Elderhostel program earlier this month.
She is talking about the six days they spent at Simpson College, in Indianola, Iowa, some 20 miles from Des Moines. Not only did they take two courses, one focusing on opera, the other on Islam and the Middle East, but they also attended “Candide” and “Turandot,” and heard other music as well.
Helen generalizes about the experience with enthusiasm: “There couldn’t be a better time to grow older and to go to Elderhostel, wherever it may be.” And she quotes her son approvingly: “That’s the way aging ought to be.”
Though I did not take part in this Elderhostel experience myself, I did travel independently to Indianola on the previous weekend and saw all three of the operas staged by the Des Moines Metro Opera Company this summer. “Candide,” “Turandot,” and “Salome” pleased me immensely and made me glad for having accepted an invitation to visit a longtime Des Moines friend, Nick Tormey.
If anything, Nick is even more enthusiastic than I about his local opera company. He often sees the same production several times, sometimes preparing for the formal performance by watching the dress rehearsal. If it is good to have a passion for something in later life, as wise elders often suggest, then opera, full of passion itself, is a fine candidate.
This year marks the thirtieth since the Des Moines Metro Opera Company’s founding. The founder, Dr. Robert Larson, a music professor at Simpson College, continues to be the driving force behind the success of organization. His skill at bringing together dozens of singers and coordinating complicated stage business in extravaganzas like “Turandot,” all the while conducting the orchestra, excites admiration from just about everyone who sees the performances.
This is Elderhostel’s fourteenth year at Simpson College; that means older learners have been part of the opera scene there for almost one-half the company’s life. Michael Patterson, another member of the music faculty at Simpson, has taught participants for all of this time, much to his satisfaction.
Of the Elderhostelers he says enthusiastically: “They infiltrate this place; they talk to everyone; people like them here.” Professor Patterson admires these elders for their spirit, citing the determination of a woman in a motorized wheelchair who keeps coming back despite less than adequate facilities for her. “They shove their physical difficulties aside,” he says.
Michael Patterson also loves teaching these older learners. Because he starts class at eight o’clock in the morning, he wears bright shirts to help wake people up. “I enjoyed your classes, but hated your bright shirts,” wrote one woman in an evaluation. Undeterred, he says: “I get a kick out of the group dynamics, which change from year to year.”
The educational experience for this professor – – a relative youngster at age 49 – – has offered him much stimulation. Of his adult students, he says: “They may have an observation that I may not have noticed.” They also keep him honest: “I can tell when I become too pedantic in class,” he confesses.
Opera was not the only reason the Elderhostelers I interviewed felt enthusiastic. They also benefited from the second course called “Muslim Middle East Background of Conflict.” A feature of this experience for Mimi Nord, a 75-year-old resident of Park Forest, Illinois was the visit to the Islamic center in Des Moines and the opportunity to learn more about the worship and teachings of the Muslim tradition.
But music remained the chief focus of the week, with extras thrown in such as performances from young apprentice singers who put on scenes from various operas. A Des Moines Metro Opera trademark is the way singers make themselves available in the lobby at the end of each performance. There you can talk with them and snap pictures, posing with them, as I did.
Clearly the participants in Elderhostel had fun. The people I talked to also liked the food, with one mentioning meals featuring prunes and oatmeal. “They waited on us hand and foot,” reports Helen Pfeltz’s husband Cliff.
But they also took the learning experience seriously. The beauty of it all can be found in older people discovering the rewards that always come with taking in new knowledge for its own sake. And the social dimension of learning remains vital. As Mimi Nord told me: “You’re missing something (if you don’t have this experience), especially if you like people.”
Further information about the program at Simpson College is available online at www.elderhostel.org. or at 877 426-8056. The cost this year was $534 for a shared room, $584 for a single; these prices include everything but transportation. Elderhostel does give scholarships based on need, judged on a case-by-case basis for expenses other than transportation to the site of the program.
Richard Griffin