IN CHARGE OF YOUR DESTINY: 19 SELF-EMPLOYMENT IDEAS
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Santa is Coming What it takes to play the Jolly Old Elf P.46
PLUS
Issue 72 – November / December 2021
For Active Adults in the Rochester Area
roc55.com
STRESS RELIEF on a leash
RocDog is a new organization in Rochester started by Susan and her husband Paul Anthony. It trains canines to work as therapy dogs. With the couple is their dog, Joshua.
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n DREAM COME TRUE
n TATTOOS
n LATE-NIGHT DEEJAY
Tim Schramm lives (and plays) in a renovated church in Palmyra
More boomers are going for their first tattoo
Making it through the night with Chuck McCoy on Legends Radio
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home is where the help is. Living Well Companion Care provides nonmedical services to make living in your own home feel manageable again. We can support you with daily routines, transportation, housekeeping and more. Companions undergo comprehensive background screenings and we only hire those we would trust to care for our own loved ones. Now hiring in and serving eastern Monroe and Ontario counties. Call us at (585) 248-5021 or visit livingwellcompanioncare.org to learn more or to apply to be a Companion.
COMPANION CARE • HOUSEKEEPING RESPITE & 24 HOUR CARE A service of Jewish Senior Life
I look forward to the time with my Companion. She keeps me on track and motivated to stay independent. Peter, client
From your friends at 55 Plus Magazine!
Find us online at www.roc55.com
55 PLUS | contents
IN CHARGE OF YOUR DESTINY: 19 SELF-EMPLOYMENT IDEAS
55
Santa is Coming What it takes to play the Jolly Old Elf P.46
PLUS
Issue 72 – November / December 2021
For Active Adults in the Rochester Area
roc55.com
STRESS RELIEF on a leash
November / December 2021 Story ideas? Information about advertising? Email editor@roc55.com or call 585-421-8109. To subscribe to the magazine, look for the coupon on page 49.
RocDog is a new organization in Rochester started by Susan and her husband Paul Anthony. It trains canines to work as therapy dogs. With the couple is their dog, Joshua. P.30
n DREAM COME TRUE
n TATTOOS
n LATE-NIGHT DEEJAY
Tim Schramm lives (and plays) in a renovated church in Palmyra
More boomers are going for their first tattoo
Making it through the night with Chuck McCoy on Legends Radio
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P.52
P.24
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www.roc55.com
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38 ARTS Savvy Senior 6 14 RETIREMENT • On average, Americans live 18.2 years • Brockport Artists Guild turns others' Financial Health 8 in retirement junk into their treasure 41 FITNESS Dining Out 10 15 EMPLOYMENT • Nineteen self-employment ideas • The Women’s Fitness Connection My Turn 28 offers fitness for all ages 18 PASSION Addyman’s Corner 56 • The dreams just keep coming for Tim 44 SECOND ACT Schramm of Palmyra
22 HOBBIES
Q&A Margaret Quackenbush, 69, is retiring after 42 years with The Hochstein School. She discusses her tenure, accomplishments and more. 4
55 PLUS - November / December 2021
• Charlie Foster runs the eclectic Carriage Factory Antiques in Stanley
• Tom Frey of FTTC HiRailers proves model railroading is a fun pastime
46 SEASONAL
24 RADIO
48 GRANDKIDS
• Making it through the night with Chuck McCoy on Legends Radio
• Personalized gifts grandkids can make
30 COVER
• How to stay engaged
• RocDog of Rochester trains canines to provide therapeutic comfort in some traumatic situations
36 PETS • Choosing the right pet
• What it takes to portray Santa Claus
50 COMMUNITY 52 TATTOOS • More boomers are going for their first tattoo
54 FINANCE • How to manage an inherited IRA
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savvy senior By Jim Miller
How Does Social Security Work When a Spouse or Ex-Spouse Dies?
I
f your deceased spouse or ex-spouse worked and paid Social Security taxes and you or your kids meet the eligibility requirements, you may be eligible for survivor benefits, but you should act quickly because benefits are generally retroactive only up to six months. Here’s what you need to know. Under Social Security law, when a person who has worked and paid Social Security taxes dies, certain members of that person’s family may be eligible for survivor benefits, including spouses, former spouses and dependents. Here’s a breakdown of who qualifies. • Widow(er)’s and divorced widow(er)’s: Surviving spouses that were married at least nine months are eligible to collect a monthly survivor benefit as early as age 60 (50 if disabled). Divorced surviving spouses are also eligible at this same age, if you were married at least 10 years and did not remarry before age 60 (50 if disabled), unless the marriage ends. How much you’ll receive will depend on your spouse’s earnings that were subject to Social Security taxes made over their lifetime, and the age in which you apply for survivor benefits. If you wait until your full retirement age you’ll receive 100% of your deceased spouses or exspouses benefit amount. But if you apply between age 60 and your full retirement age, your benefit will be somewhere between 71.5% – 99% of their benefit. There is, however, one exception. Surviving spouses and ex-spouses that are caring for a child (or children) of the deceased worker, and they are under age 16 or disabled, are eligible to receive 75% of the worker’s benefit amount at any age. • Unmarried children: Surviving unmarried children under age 18, or up to age 19 if they’re still attending 6
55 PLUS - November / December 2021
high school, are eligible for survivor benefits too. Benefits can also be paid to children at any age if they were disabled before age 22 and remain disabled. Both biological and adoptive children are eligible, as well as kids born out of wedlock. Dependent stepchildren and grandchildren may also qualify. Children’s benefits are 75% of the worker’s benefit. You should also know that in addition to survivor benefits, a surviving spouse or child may also be eligible to receive a special lump-sum death payment of $255. • Dependent parents: Benefits can also be paid to dependent parents who are age 62 and older. For parents to qualify as dependents, the deceased worker would have had to provide at least one-half of the parent’s financial support. But be aware that Social Security has limits on how much a family can receive in monthly survivors’ benefits — usually 150% to 180% of the worker’s benefit. Switching Strategies Social Security also provides surviving spouses and ex-spouses some nice strategies that can help boost your benefits. For example, if you’ve worked you could take a reduced survivor benefit at age 60 and switch to your own retirement benefit based on your earnings history — between 62 and 70 — if it offers a higher payment. Or, if you’re already receiving retirement benefits on your work record, you could switch to survivors benefits if it offers a higher payment. You cannot, however, receive both benefits. You also need to know that if you collect a survivor benefit while working, and are under full retirement age, your benefits may be reduced depending on your earnings – see SSA. gov/pubs/EN-05-10069.pdf.
55PLUS roc55.com Editor and Publisher Wagner Dotto
Writers & Contributors Deborah J. Sergeant Todd Etshman, Lynette M. Loomis Mike Costanza, Kimberly Blaker Christine Green, Aaron Gifford Columnists Jim Terwilliger, Jim Miller John Addyman, Bruce Frassinelli Advertising Anne Westcott Linda Covington Office Manager Nancy Nitz Layout & Design Joey Sweener Cover Photo Chuck Wainwright
55 PLUS – A Magazine for Active Adults in Rochester is published six times a year by Local News, Inc. at PO Box 525, Victor, NY 14564, which also publishes In Good Health — Rochester's Healthcare Newspaper. Subscription: $21 a year; $35 for two years © 2021 by 55 PLUS – A Magazine for Active Adults in Rochester.
No material may be reproduced in whole or in part from this publication without the express written permission of the publisher.
How to Reach Us P.O. Box 525 Victor, NY 14564 Phone: 585-421-8109 Fax: 585-421-8129 Email: editor@roc55.com Editor@cnyhealth.com
Had a Stroke. Back on Stage.
Musician Todd Hobin KNOW THE SIGNS • CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY
Central New York music legend Todd Hobin knew nothing about stroke — but he does now. That’s why he’s raising awareness about stroke risk factors and its signs and symptoms.
F.
FACE DROOPING
A. S.
ARM WEAKNESS
SPEECH DIFFICULTY
Fact: Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death and a leading cause of disability in the U.S. Important to know: Stroke can happen to both men and women — at any age. Good news: Stroke is preventable by managing medical risk factors and healthy lifestyle choices. What to do: Time lost is brain lost. So it’s vital to know the signs of a stroke — F.A.S.T. Four words to live by: Call 911 and say, “Take me to Crouse.“ When it comes to stroke, every moment matters. As one of just 10 hospitals in New York State tohave earned Comprehensive Stroke Center status, and with the region’s newest ER and hybrid ORs, Crouse offers the most advanced technology for rapid stroke diagnosis and treatment
Read Todd’s story and learn more: crouse.org/toddhobin.
T.
TIME TO CALL 911
financial health By Jim Terwilliger
Updating your Beneficiary Designations
W
e constantly remind clients to review their estate plans, making sure that wills and other estate planning documents (powers of attorney, living wills and health care proxies) are up to date. Doing so is necessary but not nearly sufficient. What is equally important is to review and update your beneficiary designations. First, beneficiary designations override the will and avoid the probate process. That is, assets such as IRAs, Roth IRAs, qualified employer retirement plans, life insurance death benefits and deferred annuities all pass to heirs via beneficiary designations provided to plan administrators by the owner. Generally, the will only becomes involved when no beneficiaries are named. In this case, the estate is the default beneficiary and the will then dictates the ultimate disposition of the funds. Second, it is far better to name individuals, trusts and charities as beneficiaries of IRAs and qualified employer retirement plans rather than the estate. If the estate is named as beneficiary or becomes the default beneficiary, the estate is generally required to liquidate the entire account and pay the resulting income tax at highly aggressive ordinary income tax rates. Spouses can do rollovers to their own IRA, enabling them to stretch the IRA over their lifetimes. So-called eligible designated beneficiaries can stretch inherited IRAs over their life expectancies. Other non-spouse beneficiaries can maintain an inherited IRA no longer than 10 years following the death of the original IRA owner, reflecting a change in distribution rules by the 2019 SECURE Act. Naming a charity as full or partial beneficiary of IRA, qualified employer plan or deferred annuity containing
8
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pre-tax dollars is a very smart option to consider. By doing so, not a penny of income tax will ever be paid on these assets. Rather than leave after-tax dollars to the charity and pre-tax dollars to family members who will then have to pay income tax when distributions are ultimately taken, consider doing just the opposite. Fund charitable bequests from pre-tax accounts via beneficiary designation and fund bequests to family members from aftertax accounts via the will. The beauty of the latter is that after-tax assets currently get a step up in tax cost basis on death, resulting in no initial income tax consequence to the heirs (at least at the time of this writing). The above guidance does not hold for Roth IRAs. They are better left to individuals in an estate plan, either directly or through a trust, and not left to charities. As noted earlier, life insurance proceeds are directed by beneficiary designation. Generally, it is best to direct such proceeds to individuals or trusts. This ensures that the money flows immediately and is not delayed awaiting probate. In some instances, directing all or a portion of these proceeds to the estate is advised to ensure adequate estate liquidity. Some additional planning issues follow below. • Name contingent beneficiaries. In most cases, contingent (and sometimes third-level beneficiaries) should be named. This takes care of situations in which the primary and/or contingent beneficiaries pass first. It also allows for a hierarchy of pathways in case the primary or contingent beneficiaries wish to disclaim a portion or all of the bequest. This is a flexible and smart estate planning tactic. • Keep designations up to date. Typically, beneficiary designations are enacted over a period of years,
oftentimes over decades. Over such a span of time, family members die and/ or are born, marriages dissolve, and other circumstances change. It is no wonder that designations can end up being highly inconsistent across one’s IRAs, employer retirement plans, and life insurance policies. Don’t guess on this one. Make a list of all accounts and policies that have beneficiary designations, contact the associated administrators, and confirm. Correct any inconsistencies by filing new forms. Be sure to keep updated copies of all beneficiary designation forms in your personal files. • Consider the financial and emotional readiness of your beneficiaries. Pretax accounts and life insurance proceeds left directly to beneficiaries generally can be fully accessed by such beneficiaries. In other words, they can be emptied and spent. If your heirs are not prepared to handle such an inheritance, consider trusts as beneficiaries. With trusts created during your lifetime or at death through your will, you can specify the ground rules and timeframe for your beneficiaries’ access to the funds. • Seek professional guidance. As with other important financial matters, be sure to partner with a trusted financial planner and an attorney to ensure that the design of your beneficiary designation array represents your interests and is consistent with your overall estate plan design. This exercise is much too important to leave to chance.
James Terwilliger, CFP®, is senior vice president, senior planning adviser with CNB Wealth Management, Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Company. He can be reached at 585-419-0670 ext. 50630 or by email at jterwilliger@cnbank.com.
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A company philosophy that speaks to a continual process of individual and collective development to improve our well-being, quality of life Our Vision. and personal relationships. To redefine skilled nursing care through successful team development, use of technology, progressive service and being a strong community partner.
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The osso bucco ($24) at Label 7 in Pittsford is a piece of culinary art.
Dining Out RESTAURANT GUIDE
10
By Christopher Malone
Mushroom stroganoff ($16) with grilled chicken (additional $6).
Judge a Label by its Restaurant Pittsford eatery has something for everyone hen I first saw Label 7 in Northfield Common, I immediately wanted to try it. This was three years ago, when my now-wife and I enjoyed a dinner at Olive’s Greek Taverna across the street — my third review for this magazine. Being not from the area, it was easy to really enjoy this little localfocused shopping center located next to another historic Erie Canal towpath. At that point, Label 7, located at 50 State St. in Pittsford, was celebrating its 10-year anniversary of being in business. Aside from writing and the surrounding little shops, it’s great to have more reasons to return to this neck of the Rochester area. L i k e m a n y o f t h e re g i o n ’ s restaurants, Label 7 falls in line with an ongoing and sure-fire theme — casual upscale dining. It’s not a bad thing. This isn’t my calling Rochester restaurants redundant or unoriginal. These niche restauranteurs seem
to know what they’re doing when it comes to offering a comfortable atmosphere and a delectable menu. West Coast meets East Coast with a pinch of country chic in this Napa-style restaurant. The open-layout eatery boasts wicker furniture, wine bottle chandeliers and minimal rustic décor. It’s not aesthetically overwhelming, so it’s easy to focus on conversation and comestibles. Plus, the restaurant (bathrooms and utensils included) is very clean and organized. While eating at the bar, I enjoyed Rohrbach Brewing Company’s malty with a caramel punch Scotch ale — a never-fail and personal favorite of mine. At this point and for a dozen minutes, I fooled my bartender Dylan into thinking I was there for a beer and to read the book in front of me. But he checked in with me, took my order for apps, and our one night of friendship went on from there. This evening, Label 7 kicked off its seasonal menu with staples and
new options. Not knowing what the changes were, my unbiased decisions led me to order the duck poutine ($14) and Brussels sprouts gratin ($12) to begin this personal feast. Both small plates had a lot to boast about. The shoestring fries were covered in fennel, herb and apple duck gravy. With each bite came with cheese curds and chunks of duck confit. The sprouts plate was my favorite of the two starters. Green and crisp Brussels sprouts were joined by melted cheddar and gruyere cheeses; dusted parmesan coated the top. It’s one of those small plates where sharing is difficult for personal and selfish reasons opposed to food quantity. Although I passed on the L.A. Chicken, a Label 7 staple, I was able to try new additions. First came the mushroom stroganoff ($16) with grilled chicken (additional $6). For the amount of chicken added and the overall size of the “large” plate, the added cost was November / December 2021 - 55 PLUS
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Label 7 50 State St., Pittsford N.Y. 14534 585-267-7500 | labelseven.com facebook.com/label7pittsford instagram.com/label7pittsford/ Sun. – Mon.: Closed Tues. – Sat.: Noon – 9 p.m.
Duck poutine ($14): each bite came with cheese curds and chunks of duck confit.
Brussel sprout gratin ($12) with melted cheddar and gruyere cheeses and a dust of parmesan coat on top.
Bread pudding ($8): an apple fritter-style bread pudding with a scoop of Pittsford Dairy Farms vanilla ice cream. 12
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steep. Still, the smoky flavor from the singe marks on the protein added more welcomed flavor to the already complex pasta dish. The homemade (it had to be) herbed tagliatelle pasta was joined by crimini and shiitake mushrooms as well as carrots, fennel, and celery onion in a tomato and red wine sauce. Oh, and there was tofu sour cream as well. Cue the osso bucco ($24), one of my favorite pork dishes. As soon as the plate hit the counter, pork fell off the bone of one of the smaller pieces. I celebrated in my head. The pork was braised with Madeira wine, a fortified Portuguese wine usually distilled with a spirit (typically brandy). The pork was sat on a bed of soft mushroom risotto and was topped an arugula and fennel salad with cranberries. The piece of culinary art was as aesthetically pleasing as it was to eat. For dessert, the only thing not saved for leftovers, was the bread pudding ($8). Apologies for potentially not describing this properly: It’s an apple fritter-style bread pudding with a scoop of Pittsford Dairy Farms vanilla ice cream. A sliced strawberry sticks out of the top and a berry coulis is drizzled on the plate. The bread pudding had a crispy exterior similar to an apple fritter. The inside was warm and soft, packed with pieces of apple and cinnamon. As a person who loves apples, cinnamon, bread pudding, and especially apple fritters, this is a wonderful dessert. Before tip, the meal came to a reasonable $101 and change. Label 7 has something for everyone and provides tasty, quality food for every dietary need. Kudos to the teamwork of the friendly staff. There’s much anticipating of trying something new the next time I’m in the area.
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55 PLUS - November / December 2021
Americans On Average Live 18.2 Years Past Retirement Age
Country is ranked 27th out of 34 in the world. French workers live 24.8 years past retirement age By Aaron Gifford
E
uropeans might hail the United States as a nice place to visit, but not the best place to retire. In fact, the United States is ranked 27 out of 34 countries with the longest average retirements. The list, compiled by Comparethemarket.com, a British online insurance intermediary, indicates that the average worker in the U.S. lives 18.2 years past the average American retirement age of 67. By contrast, France was No. 1 on the list, with the average worker there retiring at 60.8 years old and living 24.8 years after they stop working. Spain was second, at 24.15 (years past retirement age), followed by Greece (24.1), Luxembourg (23.6), Belgium (23.3), Italy (23.2), Slovenia (22.3) and Austria (22.15). The highest non-European nation on the list was Australia, at No. 9. The average retirement age there is 64.8, with 21.5 years as the expected period of life afterward. Canada was No. 13 in the list, with the average retirement age at 64.7 for 20.95 years of work-free life. The neighboring nation ranked the
highest in the western hemisphere and finished ahead of Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia and the United Kingdom. All but seven countries on this list of 34 were in Europe. South Korea claimed the bottom spot, with the average retirement age at 72.3, with 14.6 years as the expected duration for post-retirement. Japan, at No. 26, was the only other Asian nation on this list. Chile, at 31 (68.3 years retirement age and 17.2 years expected afterward), was the only South American nation on the list. New Zealand also made the list, but there were no African countries. Russia, China, India, Brazil and Indonesia also were not listed. The study’s methodology is largely based on pension statistics; Pension systems in European countries are much different than federal, state and private sector pension plans in the United States. The study also does not take into consideration the different standards of living for retirees in different countries.
55+ employment 19 Self-Employment Ideas for You to Take Charge of Your Destiny By Kimberly Blaker
F
or a variety of reasons, many older Americans won’t retire. According to a May 29, 2019 report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 30.2% of Americans aged 65 to 74 are projected to be in the workforce in 2026. While financial necessity is one big reason many people won’t retire, others are choosing to stay employed for as long as they can. According to Maurie Backman in “3 Reasons to Work During Retirement,” generating extra income, saving on leisure costs, and warding off depression top the reasons many seniors choose to remain in the workforce. Still, working after retirement age doesn’t necessarily mean seniors are punching time clocks. According to data from the Kauffman 2017 National Report on Early-Stage Entrepreneurship, 26% of new entrepreneurs aged 55 to 64 years old. So if you plan to remain in the workforce, but would like to work for yourself, there are plenty of business opportunities that don’t cost a bundle to get started. Here are 19 companies you can start from home, most of which require minimal to no investment. • Wedding Planner. Does the idea of helping couples with one of the most important and romantic days of their lives make your heart skip a beat? Wedding planners help couples with every aspect of their wedding and reception, from invitations and the wedding party’s attire to the cake, reception hall, and entertainment. • Event Planner. If you have excellent organizational and time management skills as well as business acumen, this might be the perfect fit. Event planners coordinate every aspect of a meeting or convention, and sometimes social events as well. Planners arrange the location, catering, speakers, and printed materials for events, and more.
• Home Staging Consultant. According to the real estate industry, well-staged homes sell faster and for more money. Yet, when it comes down to it, most people’s homes are anything but show-ready. If you like home decorating and rearranging furniture, this might be up your alley. You can either offer consulting services or do the staging yourself. • Professional Organizer. Are you obsessed with keeping your cupboards, drawers, closets, and garage organized? If so, you might be surprised to learn that most people are not. Here’s where your organizational skills can earn you a living. Between those who lack organizational skills and others who don’t have the time, there’s a massive market for such services. • Pet Sitting. For animal lovers, this has become a particularly popular form of self-employment. With the rising cost of pet boarding and pet
owners’ desire to reduce the stress their pets experience during owners’ absences, many hire sitters and are willing to pay good money for the service. • Tour Company. Do you live in a big city, historical town, or scenic area with state parks and national monuments? If so, there’s likely a need or demand for tour guides, which can be a lucrative business. You can provide either walking or driving tours to visitors and residents while sharing your knowledge of the area and sights with them. Just be sure set up good safety measures before you meet alone with strangers. • Social Media Management. If you’re savvy with social media, companies large and small require your service. Social media management includes setting up social media accounts and writing ongoing engaging and shareable posts. You’ll also respond to social media messages November / December 2021 - 55 PLUS
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Homeowners and homebuyers 62+: A reverse mortgage loan can help you live the retirement you deserve. Reverse Mortgage
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Access a portion of the equity in your home as cash—use to fund in-home care, increased cash flow, home renovations and more.
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Contact me to get your free guide to reverse mortgages. Sharlene Nally Senior Mortgage Advisor | NMLS #65302
Office: 585-512-1093 sharlene.nally@fairwaymc.com 3246 Monroe Avenue, Suite 250 Pittsford, NY 14618 Copyright©2021 Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation (“Fairway”) NMLS#2289. 4750 S. Biltmore Lane, Madison, WI 53718, 1-866-912-4800. All rights reserved. Fairway is not affiliated with any government agencies. These materials are not from HUD or FHA and were not approved by HUD or a government agency. Reverse mortgage borrowers are required to obtain an eligibility certificate by receiving counseling sessions with a HUD-approved agency. The youngest borrower must be at least 62 years old. Monthly reverse mortgage advances may affect eligibility for some other programs. This is not an offer to enter into an agreement. Not all customers will qualify. Information, rates and programs are subject to change without notice. All products are subject to credit and property approval. Other restrictions and limitations may apply. NY- Licensed Mortgage Banker- N.Y.S. Department of Financial Services. 16
55 PLUS - November / December 2021
and comments to build and maintain the company’s relationship with its followers. • Blogging. If you love writing and have the skill to write ongoing, engaging posts, you’ll discover every type of business imaginable either has or needs a blog. Just look for companies related to your area of expertise. If you’re an expert researcher, that’s all the better, and the sky’s the limit. • Content Writing. This is another high-demand writing job. Businesses of all kinds need well-written website content that describes their products and services as well as related content to increase targeted traffic. For most companies, search engine optimized (SEO) content is a must. So, if you have this skill, you already have the edge over many writers. • Consulting. What’s your area of expertise? Whatever it is, there are likely plenty of people or businesses that could use your advice. To get your brain churning, here are a few examples of consultant services to consider: financial, business, social media, legal, career, technology, public relations, human resources, strategy, marketing, information technology, management, childbirth, interior decorating, and the list goes on. • Travel Agency. Despite the ease and cost-effectiveness of buying and scheduling travel online, there’s still a good demand for travel agents. Many people prefer using an agent because of the travel advice agents offer as well as for arranging complicated travel plans. So if you love travel and helping people, this might be just the right business for you. • Website Design. Have you built a website for yourself or someone in the past? If so and you have a knack for design along with excellent computer skills, this might be just the homebased career you’ve been waiting for. With Wordpress, in particular, website design is relatively simple yet offers designers unlimited options. • P r o j e c t M a n a g e m e n t . I f you’re an idea person with excellent management skills, this career is worth considering. Can you take a project and run with it and see it through to completion? As a project manager, your role is to put together and lead teams through projects. You’ll also be in charge of creating project budgets and managing their costs, and ultimately, making most of the
projects’ decisions. • Bookkeeping. Small businesses often have only a few hours’ of accounting per week or month. So it isn’t feasible or necessary for them to hire an employee for the task. This is where you can step in and offer your services. Landing just a few business accounts could quickly provide you a full-time income working from home. • Personal Trainer. If you’re a fitness buff and enjoy motivating others, this might be just the career for you. Personal trainer certification programs run between $400 to $1,000. Upon completion, you can either work as a personal trainer for a fitness corporation or independently. • Teach Online Courses. Here’s a wide-open opportunity because courses can be taught on just about anything. Do you have a passion for something? What are your areas of expertise, educational background, or special skills or talents? Chances are there’s something you’re great at and qualified to teach. Here are some ideas to consider: a hobby or craft, computer skills, photography, web design, writing, professional development, how to play an instrument, dog training, the list is endless. • Recruiting Agency. Because of the challenges and time involved in finding qualified applicants to fill highlevel positions, many companies now use recruiters to help fill the roles. With the current low unemployment rate, businesses are finding it increasingly difficult to find qualified candidates on their own. So why not step in and help them? • Catering. Do you live for making delicious and eye-appealing food? If you’ve got excellent culinary skills, then offer your catering services. Think wedding receptions, corporate events, graduation parties, bar mitzvahs, luncheons, anniversary parties, and a host of other occasions. • Life Coach. If you enjoy helping people better themselves, here’s the perfect opportunity to make the most of your skill. Depending on where you live, there may be educational requirements for this career. So do your research. But if you’re good at setting goals and developing personal plans, solving problems, understanding people and what motivates them, and offering sound advice, this career is worth considering.
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55+ passion
Tim Schramm, the Music Man The dreams just keep on coming for this East Palmyra man who started pounding out tunes on a piano when he was 5 By John Addyman
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or Tim Schramm, the dreams just keep on coming. He’s living in a converted church, for instance. “It was always my dream to live in a converted church,” he admitted. Half of his very expansive living room is dominated by three more dreams. “All three of them are dream instruments,” he said. On the left is a 9-foot Baldwin grand piano that once graced the concert stage at Fredonia State University. In the center is a Rodgers 360 18
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theatre organ, a digital replica of a Wurlitzer, common to large movie theaters. Schramm acquired it after teaching organ to the friend’s 90-yearold father. After enjoying lessons for a year, the father begged off when he had a mini-stroke but told Schramm, “I want you to have the organ.” When Schramm, 63, was just out of high school in the 1970s, he got a chance to play a Rodgers 205 church organ. “It’s a very rare organ,” he said. “The guys who have them don’t want to get rid of them.” The 205 is part electric and part
pipe organ, with a unique churchfilling capacity. As a member of several internet organ groups, Schramm wondered one day if someone might have a 205 they’re be winning to part with. Someone did. “I’d told myself I’d never be able to afford one…but we agreed on a really good price. I got a friend of mine and a truck and we drove to Washington, DC, to pick up the organ,” he said. The organs and piano are waiting for more air to become available in the house. Originally a Dutch Reformed church built on a country intersection
in East Palmyra (Wayne County), the building was sold to a Baptist church, and finally to Bill and Mary Kay McGrath, who did the heavy lifting of converting the house of worship into a home. Schramm has updated what the McGraths did and now plans to take out the ceiling to open up the rafters to the building’s peaked roof. “There’s another 9 or 10 feet of space up there,” he said. Part of that will be used for his new bedroom; part of it will be a sound chamber for those lovely dream instruments.
And he doesn’t plan to be alone while enjoying all this. “One of the things I want to do is give back to the community with this space,” Schramm said. “I toyed with the idea of this being a wedding chapel, which still may happen. What we have been doing is holding hymn sings every six weeks. Good crowds come in. Someone just donated 58 hymnals. People find out by word of mouth. A lot of the people who attended the Dutch Reformed church have been coming to the hymn sings because this is their old building. About 30 people; we have a good
Above The living room in Tim Schramm’s house features a grand piano, left, a theater organ, center, and a church organ. He has hosted hymn-sings there, and wants to make it a venue for local musical talent. Opposite page Tim Schramm’s home in East Palmyra. The building is a former Dutch Reformed church and later Baptist church. “It was always my dream to live in a converted church,” he says.
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time. I have a buddy from Buffalo I’ve known all my life, Dennis Overholt, he comes in and plays the organ and I play the piano. “I want to hold concerts featuring local artists where we could have 2030 people in on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and let’s showcase these people. It doesn’t have to be organ or piano. We could have a clarinet player or saxophone player, vocalists, all sorts of stuff.” Schramm was all of 5 when he started pounding out tunes on a piano. He got good quickly. “I was in junior high when my parents bought me my first organ, a Baldwin,” he said. At age 11, he was making his debut as an organist at the Webster Assembly of God. At Webster Schroeder high school, he was accompanist for the choir. After graduation, he got involved selling organs and pianos and picked up church organist assignments. He graduated from the Simmons Mortuary School in Syracuse, worked at the Watson Funeral Home in Center Square, Oswego County, and still has his license. In 1980 he got married. His daughter, Victoria, suffered from ataxia telangiectasia, a disease that normally begins in childhood and slowly deteriorates the cerebellum in the brain. Tori died three years ago at 31. It’s a loss that is very much with her dad. “Since Tori has gone, I’ve struggled to find happiness,” he said. “I’m still working on it.” Music has sustained him — he made his living as a full-time musician. He was an accompanist for the Rochester City School District for almost 20 years. He had played at the George Eastman Museum. He was organist for the Walnut Hill Carriage Driving Competition in Pittsford. He was music director at the Utica Assembly of God Church. He has played concerts in England and Canada and throughout New York. “For a long time I was the program chair for the Rochester Theatre Organ Society,” he said. “I booked the artists and when they would come into town, I generally housed them and babysat them and fed them and all that good stuff. I did that for 10 years, 10 concerts a year. I produced a Christmas concert every year. Last year when we couldn’t get into the Auditorium Theatre, we filmed it here.” 20
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Tim Schramm has been a music maker and performer all his life, specializing in church and theater organ music. He wants to turn his home into a music venue showcasing local talent.
You can find Schramm in concert on YouTube. And if you attended the gala announcing the Rochester Broadway Theatre League’s next year ’s shows, he was the organist playing the theme songs from each show. These days, he is a part-time salesman at the Denton, Cottier & Daniels piano and organ store in East Rochester and plays the organ for services at Catholic churches in Newark, Lyons, Clyde, Savannah and Macedon where he brought a new perspective. “I was with a Methodist church for
12 years,” he said. “They loved to sing but the congregation was dwindling. They had quite a repertoire of hymns they liked to sing. When I got to St. Michael’s in Newark, there were just eight or 10 hymns. I said to myself, ‘This is not going to work.’ “There’s so much rich theology in the hymns, let’s learn some stuff. The choir hadn’t heard some of the real good classic standards and didn’t know them. I take a very protestant approach to hymn-singing and apply it. Protestant hymns are very structured and easy to sing. A lot of Catholic hymns have odd rhythmic
Above Schramm’s home when it was still a church Right Tim Schramm plays the Rodgers 360 theater organ in his living room.
values and are difficult to sing. I’m very careful when I pick the hymns that they’re rhythmically correct and easy to sing and follow along in the hymn. That really encourages singing. If people feel they know the music, they can sing it. The only reaction I’ve heard is people singing. That’s what I set out to do, is have people singing.” And just recently, another couple of dreams have come true. “A friend called me. He said, ‘I need a car. Will you go car-shopping with me?’ They had a 2006 BMW Z4 in the showroom. I thought, I can afford this — it’s pure vanity, but I can afford
it. I love this thing. I got online and joined a national BMW Z-car owners’ club. All of a sudden, I get this text message from a guy down in Florida. He’s a music producer. One thing led to another and he asked me, ‘Have you ever written any music?’ “Yes, I’ve written one song. Well, he took me through the whole process of getting the song copyrighted. It’s a Christmas tune, which I’m going down to record. He claims he can get it published. This is a real turning point in my career if this thing takes off. I’ve written another song, a gospel tune, I want to get that copyrighted and
recorded. He has listened to some of my work on YouTube and he wants me to play piano on some of his recordings, be one of his studio musicians. But I don’t see moving to Florida — I don’t want to leave this house.” A converted church…a Baldwin grand piano…two Rodgers organs…a BMW convertible…a song getting recorded…a studio musician gig — the dreams just keep coming for Tim Schramm.
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55+ hobbies
Tom Frey of Penfield works in product development for Xerox. He is also the show coordinator for FCTT HiRailers.
Model Railroading Offers Fun Pastime Tom Frey serves as show coordinator for the FTTC HiRailers, a group that sets up model railroad displays for fairs, festivals and their own model railroading events By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
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or Tom Frey, a 68-year-old P e n f i e l d re s i d e n t , m o d e l railroading is all about the details — getting the perfect set up just right for each exhibit. He heads show coordination for FCTT HiRailers, a Rochester-area nonprofit group of about 40 members mostly hailing from the Rochester area. Together, the members use their train sets to cover a space of up to 40 by 150 feet with model railroads and all their accoutrements, such as buildings, trees, pedestrians — entire town and 22
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country scenes. They have 1,800 feet of mainline track and at least three main lines with railyards. Only for a national model railroading event have they put all of their sets together. They can also set up a smaller display for a smaller space for local events or venues. Their displays are comprised mostly of sets owned by members, but also a few the club owns. What goes into a display “depends on the audience and the number of people available to work the show,”
Frey said. For a children’s hospital, the group sets up the display lower, so that children can see it, and includes trains such as Thomas the Tank Engine (the PBS program character) or the Hogwarts Express of Harry Potter fame because children relate to these trains. They have displayed at the Hemlock “Little World’s” Fair, among other events. He likes that displays helps allow more than a handful of people to enjoy the HiRailers’ trains.
Above Model railroad displays presented by Rochester-based FCTT HiRailers. The nonprofit has exhibited its models in hospitals, fairs, and senior living facilities.
The group has also exhibited senior living centers, as residents enjoy reminiscing over their own family’s train sets and it offers an event to bring in the grandchildren. Frey grew up in the 1950s when toy trains were a top toy. Model railroading lets train enthusiasts continue their pastime through adulthood. The club uses a mix of pre-World War II, post-World War II and modern sets. The older sets made before mass production in the 1980s are the most valuable.
“You have to have something to do outside of work and family,” Frey said. “We did it with our kids growing up. It’s now something to do with my grandkids. Trains you can relate to with other people, like kids and grandkids. You can meet people with similar interests. It’s amazing the different people in the group.” Frey works in product development for Xerox. He said he will continue to work because he still finds it challenging. His wife, Betty Ann, supports his
interest in railroading. The couple enjoys hosting their grandchildren to see their home’s train layout. “They love to see the trains go around,” Frey said. He thinks that railroading has picked up since the pandemic started, since more people have turned homeward for hobbies. “With model trains, there are tons of skills,” he said. “I learned soldering and carpentry and track planning and history of trains.” November / December 2021 - 55 PLUS
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55+ radio
Chuck McCoy, 68, commands the evening air chair at Legends Radio 102.7 FM in Rochester, where he presents a special show with a varied cast of characters. He is also the board chairman of Rochester Free Radio, a low-power FM station that presents new, talk and special shows with a local basis.
A Deejay Who Helps You Make it Through the Night He’s living out his childhood dream on Legends Radio in Rochester By John Addyman
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hink about how our lives were different when we went to high school. It was important that we had a radio in the bedroom. Between talking on the phone and doing homework, that radio was so important. It was on all the time. When a great song came up, we’d share it with whomever we were talking to on the phone. We’d talk about the music. We’d talk about the artists and we’d trust the deejay to bring us more of what we loved every night — the sounds, the jokes, the news and the culture. A really good deejay held sway over a huge chunk of teenage geography. 24
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Music jocks in Boston, New York and Philadelphia had millions of listeners, and what you talked about today in school is what you heard last night on the radio. But those days are gone. Then again, maybe not. For the last 11 years, deejay Chuck McCoy, 68, has lived out his childhood dream on Legends Radio (WLGZ 102.7 FM) in Rochester, giving his audience the feel of what radio was when we were all a lot younger — comedy, music, local goings-on and perspectives you can only hear from a human. Every weekday from 7 to midnight (and Saturday from 4-7 p.m.), he
packs listeners aboard the bus that’s loaded with the station’s oldies playlist with sounds familiar to everyone. Throughout the ride, he’ll introduce you to a cast of dodgy characters who will remind you of people you know and invite callers to join the crew to add their special spin of Rochesteriana. McCoy’s knowledge of pop music is encyclopedic, as is his experience in the radio industry from the 1960s to today. He’s been there. He even describes his comedy routines — written each day before broadcast but sometimes exploding on the spot — to use John Lennon’s word: “sardonic.” There’s a scripted structure underlying his shows. Expect a “10
o’clock block” of music with a theme (like Bruce Springsteen’s birthday or Cindy Lauper’s hair) and a “lost 45” feature at 11 p.m. that allows him to expand on his knowledge of rock ‘n roll ephemera. For folks in this age group, his show and attitude are a perfect accompaniment to working on the car in the garage, folding clothes and doing the laundry, sitting on the porch with a lovely amber beverage or holding hands with your honey. You remember the tunes and the times that went with them. You laugh at the zany characters that flow out of his head (more about them in a moment). And you listen to the callers and the people who request music and wonder, “Would he play ‘Look for a Star’ for me? Should I call?” Sure. Do it. But the structure is just enough to give the show a foundation. Chuck takes off from there. A restless, gifted guy who has conversations with himself all day, his comedy spots — most a minute or two long — are all conversations with characters he’s created using his impersonations of famous people: • Clint the Security Guard (patterned after a rough and raspy Clint Eastwood); • Al the Building Maintenance Guy (after Al Pacino); • Chief Wiggins (a la Edward G. Robinson); • Chris the Barber (after Christopher Walken — “Walk-Ins are always welcome”); • Senor Casanova (a B-film actor from years ago); • The Roswell, New Mexico, conspiracy guy; • Lord Rottenbury, the consummate British snob; • Don Calzone, the local mob boss; • Dr. Phil’s Evil Twin (who always gives bad advice); • The Ghost of Elvis (who lives in the air-conditioning system); • Ye Olde Historian (the local revisionist historian); • Jack the Bookie (based on Jack Nicholson); • Ersatz Wordsworthy III (the poet laureate of Rochester). McCoy conjures his characters in situations silly enough that you have to stop and listen to what’s happening. During the day he scripts and records a character’s dialogue, then replays it on his show so he can converse with that character, as if that person were in
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the studio or on the phone with him. “I like the digital age we have now because it’s a lot easier — I don’t have to pull out records for my show,” he said. “On the other hand, digital has made it easier to automate and eliminate jobs. Fortunately I’m working at a station that doesn’t do that. But more and more stations have fewer and fewer air shifts. For every guy like a Brother Wease or someone who’s big, there are a lot of others that can’t make it. When deregulation of radio came in 1996, 10,000 people across the country lost their jobs and many of them were talented people.” He said computer-driven digital formats “are cheaper, but not interesting. It seems to me that going live and local would be radio’s saving grace in the long run. Maybe personality radio would come back. It’s not dead yet. Hearing the same music over and over again with a guy saying, ‘The best music in Rochester’ with some jingles, I don’t know…I think our listeners at Legends like us because we’re down home.” Born and raised in Buffalo, McCoy grew up listening to the great deejays
of the time — Joey Reynolds (whose theme song was sung by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons), Tommy Shannon, Sandy Beach and Jackson Armstrong. They commanded the airwaves away from big metro areas and had a huge following. He got into radio in college (Brockport and Empire State), where the carrier current took the station’s signal as far as the dorms on campus. “It was good experience, but you only get going when you get into a professional environment, in a commercial operation,” he said. McCoy’s first gig was at WACK AM radio in Newark, after a few weeks, he was doing all-night jobs at WTKO in Ithaca. “Then I got a weekend job at WKBW in Buffalo. That was the radio station I grew up with. Just about everybody in Buffalo and beyond listened to that station because it had 50,000 watts,” he said. “That gave me a lot of exposure and I got a lot of calls from up and down the Atlantic seaboard.” But the environment was a turnover factory for young talent with
a big difference between haves and have-nots. He left. The mouse traps on the control board were a final sign that working conditions were not good. McCoy’s journey began. WJJL in Niagara Falls. WLVL in Lockport. WECK and WGR in Buffalo. WJBX in Bridgeport, Stamford, Brockport. WBEN in Buffalo. WKLX. WBEE. WRFZ. WISL in Avon and others. Twenty peripatetic years went by. And, he finally walked away from radio. “I swore I would never work in it again,” he said. He spent the next seven years working for Rochester schools as a driver-education instructor. He met and married his wife, Cheryl. They started a lawn and garden business in 2005. “And if I had known there was that much money in it, I would have started a lot sooner. I like cutting lawns. She’s the gardener. I would have done that in my 20s if I had known about it. There was always work,” he said. Then things started to turn around. McCoy founded Rochester Free Radio, a low-power FM station (30- 50 watts)
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that fits in between the full-power stations. All of a sudden, he had his own radio station. “I appointed some board members and we kept seeing that it was going to happen. President Obama voted the new regulations in, but there was still a waiting period. We were working really hard to get set up,” he said. “With nothing to do in radio, I called Mark Shuttleworth, the program director at Legends in 2009. He said he could use somebody to fill in.” Just when McCoy was getting tired of driver education — “It was kind of like doing a nervous breakdown on an installment plan” — the night position opened when that deejay had a heart attack and McCoy took over the evening air chair in 2011. “I’m a late bloomer,” he said. “Things didn’t solidify until I got older, over 55.” Rochester Free Radio debuted in 2016 with programming from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. with news and talk and after that, a lot of variety. “If someone wants to come in and do a polka program, we’ll let them,”
McCoy said. He does a show himself, interviewing local personalities. Even so, Legends 102.7 has his full attention and a growing fan base. Besides the personalities he creates, McCoy welcomes regular callers who chime in to make requests and parley with the deejay. “Bob from Bob’s garage is always talking about his Trans Am,” McCoy said. “Bobcat Billy is very up-tempo who is really into music. Rachel from Fairport talks about her family and kids. I have a comedian friend, Bob, who calls to tell me jokes that are a bit off the deep end. He’s a national treasure on some other planet. Lou calls with sports and scores and updates and Tracy, Christine and Clayton all have a strong knowledge of older songs.” McCoy has also branched out. He did pre-COVID stand-up comedy and hopes to see more gigs. He’s learned some lessons along the way. “Basically, you’re going to bomb the first time you do it and for some time after that. You have to learn to get the hang of it,” he explained. “Eventually I got the hang of it. Crowds
were great. Open-mic comedy is kind of weird because most of the audience is comedians and their friends – they want to get laughs but don’t want to be supportive of anyone else. I was surprised what a good reaction I got.” Now he’s taking electric guitar lessons. “Some people are not meant to be careerists,” he said. “If I could meet the old me, I would advise, ‘Do what you gotta do — drive a school bus, make money — make your avocation your great thing.’ I’m just not good at regular jobs. My mind is elsewhere. My mind tends to go in a lot of directions. “I have a lot of interests. I try to narrow them down to just the stuff I’m good at. Maybe I should have gone to New York and spent time in the coffee houses doing comedy; maybe I could have been a writer on Saturday Night Live.” And maybe that lawncare business should have started earlier, too. The beauty of a Chuck McCoy is that at his age, he’s not done doing new stuff, reaching new people and challenging himself. And it doesn’t cost a dime to check on him on 102.7.
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my turn By Bruce Frassinelli Email: bfrassinelli@ptd.net
Expressions My Parents Used All of us have gone through our time at home growing up surrounded by strange and interesting phrases
I
f you are approximately my age (82), you probably have heard the expression, maybe even used it, “from here to Timbuktu.” It generally is a reference to a remote, faraway place. Timbuktu conjures up fabled images of long camel caravans, a place so remote it seems it might be at the end of the earth. Growing up, I always thought that “Timbuktu” was mythical, a fantasy, not real. Imagine my surprise when I found out that Timbuktu is a real city of about 32,000 in the West African nation of Mali. The fascination with this term largely came from my father ’s occasional admonit ion when I misbehaved. “If you don’t wise up,” he would say, “I’ll kick your ass from here to Timbuktu.” When I found out that Timbuktu was 4,578 miles from my hometown in Eastern Pennsylvania, I thought to myself that this would have been some experience for my posterior. All of us have gone through our time at home growing up surrounded by strange and interesting phrases such as this, so I am hoping that this column will help jog your memory in reflection of some on your youthful homefront expressions that your parents or relatives used. A d m i t t e d l y, s o m e o f t h e s e memories might not be all that pleasant. On those few occasions when my dad did try to “kick” my butt from “here to Timbuktu,” it didn’t go quite that far, but the pain felt as if it did. My father, an immigrant who spoke broken English all of my life, would generally make his discontent known in Italian. When angered, my father would let out a string of unmentionable words in Italian, which when translated into English would 28
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either lose their punch or didn’t make much sense. But it was the way in which he would say them. His eyes became intent on the “victim” — usually me; he would grit his teeth, and his lips would curl up in a snarl. Then he would let go with these epithets, such as “cane d’Ostia; brute bestia; Dio maledetto figlio de diavolo.” (Dog of Ostia, ugly beast, God damn evil son of the devil.) When my mom refused to let me go somewhere or to some event, I would plead my case by pointing out that “all of my friends will be there.” Her reply was: “If someone asked you to jump off a cliff, would you?” I would regularly beg and nag my mother to reverse her original decision, not once but multiple times. I always got the same answer: “If I told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times: The answer is still ‘no.’” I had a bad habit of not closing the door when I would come into the house. My mother’s admonition was typically, “Close the door; you weren’t born in a barn, you know.” When we got our first television set in 1950 — a 12-inch RCA — I was fascinated with this new-fangled gadget and would sit on the floor about a foot from the set for hours, mesmerized by watching even test patterns. My mother warned that if I did this too long I could go blind. Growing up, I hated carrots, but my mother insisted that I had to eat them. Sometimes she and I had a tug of wills to see who could outlast the other. She generally won, because she was convinced that carrots would improve my eyesight. All I saw was red through the glasses I have been wearing most of my adult life. The rule in our house is that I stayed at the table until I finished all
of my meal, even if I didn’t like what my mother had made. She tried to cajole me in different ways. One of her favorites was this: “You know, there are people in China who are starving and would love to eat this.” I made the mistake once of telling her to pack it up and send it there because I hated it. When my parents wanted to point out some of the hardships they went through when they were growing up compared to how easy I had it, it was prefaced by “Back in my day…” Oh, my God, now I am using a similar phrase with my children and grandchildren. As a toddler, I would sometimes try the “crying jag” routine to get my way. My mother abruptly ended this tactic by telling me: “Stop crying or I’ll really give you something to cry about.” I did chores and worked in my parents’ corner grocery store, and for this I would get a small allowance. If on occasion I asked for more to buy something special, I would sometimes get a mini-lecture: “Money doesn’t grow on trees, you know.” When I was a junior in high school in 1956, I would annoy my mother no end when a contemporary recording featuring Patience and Prudence came out. It was called “The Money Tree.” “See,
mom,” I joked as the song played on the radio, “money does grow on trees after all.” She was not amused. After I turned 18 but was still living with my parents, I came home after 2 a.m. one night — two hours past my “curfew” — and got an earful from my mother. “But, Mom,” I pleaded, “I’m considered an adult now.” She laid down the law: “As long as you’re living under our roof, you live by our rules.” After picking up a few “dirty” words at school one day when I was about 8 years old, I came home and used the word “shit” in front of my mother. She grabbed me by the hand, marched me to the kitchen sink where she administered a purifying “antidote” with a bar of soap for my indiscretion. “Anytime you use language like
that,” she bellowed to make her point clear, “you’re going to get your mouth washed out with soap, or maybe even worse.” That was the last time I ever used any out-of-the-way words in front of my parents. On the occasions when I felt that the “sentence” didn’t fit the “crime,” and I protested, my mother ’s rejoinder was always the same: “You brought this on yourself” or “life sometimes isn’t fair.” If my mother felt that her admonitions about the same topic went unheeded, she would in exasperation say, “Talking to you is like talking to a brick wall.” Under most circumstances, my mother was perfectly capable of handling the disciplinary duties in our home, but there were a few times — I can count them on one hand — where she would call for reinforcements: my father. My father had enormous hands. I
swear that one swat could rewire my brain. I had to use extreme caution that I never pushed my mother to the point where I heard the dreaded words: “Wait till I tell your father what you did.” I am a believer in the famous Alexander Pope couplet: “We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow; our wiser sons no doubt will think us so.” When I failed to pull something over on my mother, she said with a sly smile, “I wasn’t born yesterday, you know.” On occasion while my mother was trying to lecture me, I couldn’t help but smirk. This would enrage her to say: “Wipe that smirk off your face before I do it for you.” Finally, during our Sunday afternoon drives in our 1949 Buick Roadmaster to visit relatives, if I behaved badly in the back seat and would not respond to warnings and threats, my father would end my rebellion by saying, “Don’t make me pull this car over.”
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November / December 2021 - 55 PLUS
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55+ cover
These happy canines brought their owners to Rochester’s Cobbs Hill Park last August for one of RocDog’s regular gatherings. 30
Photo by Mike Costanza
Stress Relief
on a Leash
RocDog’s canines provide comfort in some traumatic situations By Mike Costanza
visit from Joshua can be the perfect stress reliever. “He’s so huggable, you just want to touch him,” said James VanBrederode, chief of the Gates Police Department. “It just tempers the whole atmosphere for the day.” Joshua, a good-natured, 20-month-old goldendoodle, is a
therapy dog. “A therapy dog is a dog that has been trained to visit with people, just to give them comfort,” said Paul Anthony, Joshua’s owner. Paul, who turned 69 on Oct. 21, and his wife, Susan, are the co-founders of RocDog, an organization which brings dogs, like Joshua, and their owners together with those who need their spirits lifted, their tension eased or just a chance to smile.
Since RocDog was created in February, dogs and their owners have visited the Gates Town Hall, local nursing homes, hospital inpatient wards, police stations and other sites. Joshua, the first pooch on the organization’s roster, has even comforted those at the scenes of two suicides. RocDog has applied for nonprofit status under federal law, but has not received it yet. Paul, RocDog’s president, Susan, its vice president, and all of the organization’s members volunteer their time to help others. “I really feel like this is what God has called us to do, and I’m really excited about it,” 68-year-old Susan said. The Anthonys, who are originally from Bakersfield, California, have led colorful lives. Paul has a bachelor’s degree in social welfare, but worked in oilfields as a mechanical designer before co-founding a firm that did industrial machining. Susan worked as a teacher for 38 years before retiring. After the machining business failed, the Anthonys, who are lifelong Baptists, worked for the local chapter of the faith-based nonprofit Youth for Christ. “We worked with kids that were on probation,” Susan said. Paul headed the chapter ’s juvenile justice ministries while Susan organized its events and coordinated the activities of its volunteers. About four years ago, they moved to Greece, in part to be close to one of their two grown daughters, who lives in town with her husband. Susan now spends her days as a receptionist for Strong Memorial Hospital. Paul is a mechanical designer for a local firm. In addition to working fulltime, the Anthonys also volunteer as chaplains for the Gates Police Department and spend 30 to 40 hours a week running RocDog. Paul administers the organization. Susan does its books and performs other tasks. Both spend time with Joshua at various sites around Monroe County. Paul first encountered therapy dogs about two years ago when he attended the viewing of a local firefighter who had died. “Going to the viewing for any first responder is something I try to do,” Paul said. A number of people brought their therapy dogs to the funeral home that 32
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day. “I saw firsthand the peace and comfort the dogs were able to give by just allowing people to come up to them and interact for a few minutes,” he said. The couple already had two pooches, but Paul began to think about taking in another to train as a therapy dog. “God and I were talking. God was telling me I needed to do something,” he said. The Anthonys acquired Joshua from a breeder in Hilton last December. Unfortunately, none of the therapy dog nonprofits that serve this area were willing to train him or put him to work. “The national groups were all completely shut down because of COVID, and said they weren’t going to do anything until everything was back to normal,” Paul said. The Anthonys decided to take action on their own.
“It was ‘OK, do we step out of the box and start our own?’ and that’s what we did,” Susan said. The couple spent $3,000 of their own money to incorporate under New York state law and apply to the federal government for nonprofit status. Then, they turned to certified canine trainer Rebecca Rene, the president and founder of Woof2Hoof Canine Training, to prepare Joshua for his new role. Dogs and their owners must demonstrate certain qualities to qualify for RocDog’s therapy dog training program. “Does your dog want to engage with others?” Rene said. “If your dog is not interested in meeting people and engaging with others, the therapy piece is probably not a piece that your dog would enjoy.” The dog also needs to be able to control itself under normal circumstances. The pooch and its
Left Susan and her husband Paul Anthony are the founders of RocDog, an organization that trains dogs to be therapy dogs. Next to them is their dog, Joshua, a 20-month-old goldendoodle. Above Certified Canine Trainer Rebecca Rene helped write the test that pooches need to pass to become RocDog therapy dogs, and has trained a number of the organization’s four-legged members.
owner have to have the right kind of relationship. “The handler and dog need to have a good bond,” Rene said. “They also need to have a bond of respect as well as security, so that the dog feels comfortable going into a new situation and meeting new people.” Rene’s training program consists of eight one-hour weekly classes that are designed to expose dogs and their owners to new situations, and help them learn how to respond appropriately to them. “We expose the dog, in class, to a lot of chaotic situations, so that the dog can learn to handle itself and not be fearful, not be overly excited,” Rene said. In one training situation, a child bounces a ball in front of the dog. “The dog has to keep in control as it circles the child bounding the ball,” Rene said. “Then, the dog has to (lie) down for 10 seconds and be in control
while the child continues to bounce the ball.” Dogs in training are also exposed to different kinds of people and to walkers and other medical equipment. Rita Metras and her dog, Darla, a 9-year-old German shorthaired pointer mix, learned how to approach someone in a wheelchair. “You approach them from the side,” the 73-year-old Webster resident pointed out. “You want to get the dog in a position so the person is comfortable petting the dog and doesn’t fall out of the wheelchair.” Dog owners are encouraged to practice such skills with their fourlegged friends between classes. “You need to go home and replicate that scenario many times for your dog,” Rene said. Dogs that complete the training course then have to pass a test to become certified therapy dogs. Graduates are awarded a RocDog
bandana and dog tag. Their owners are given ID cards stating that they are members of the organization. Paul then helps the dogs’ owners select places in which to do their new jobs. “My volunteers, as they get certified, I basically ask them where do they want to go,” he said. Darla graduated from therapy dog training in May and became one of RocDog’s first five canine members. Since then, she and her owner have paid a number of visits to a local nursing home. “It’s so cool to see people’s faces light up when they pet the dog or see the dog, particularly those who are in a health care facility,” Metras said. “It reminds them, sometimes, of their own dog and they start talking about their life.” Metras and her four-legged friend have also helped the dispatchers at Monroe County’s 911 Center reduce their stress. Just petting the pooch can November / December 2021 - 55 PLUS
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Below Rita Metras and her dog, Darla, a 9-year-old German shorthaired pointer mix, learned how to approach someone in a wheelchair. Right James VanBrederode, chief of the Gates Police Department, appreciates the help his department gets from therapy dogs. “It just tempers the whole atmosphere for the day,” he says.
do it. “If the dog is soft, and Darla is very soft, it just releases stress,” Metras said. “It makes their day a little lighter.” Joshua has helped people deal with a great deal of stress. Last February, he and Paul responded to a Gates home in which a suicide had taken place. “It was a young man, probably around late 20s, suffering from depression and substance abuse, and hung himself,” said VanBrederode, the Gates Police Department chief. When the RocDog team arrived, they found the man’s brother, who was of high school age, in the front yard. “Joshua and I sat in the front yard for an hour with him,” Paul recalled. “He just sat in the yard, just petting Joshua, kind of crying.” The therapy dog’s presence even helped the police officers on the scene get through the difficult situation. 34
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“Six different police officers came up to me and thanked me,” Paul said. “They were very happy I was there.” Volunteering for RocDog comes with costs that go beyond the time it requires. Each dog owner has to pay for his or her dog’s training and pass a background check. Owners must also pay $85 in dues to the organization for the first year, which covers the background check, the fee for the dog’s certification, insurance for the dog and handler and other costs. Subsequent dues come to $50 a year. Despite these costs, 30 dog owners have signed up with RocDog since it was started, adding 24 dogs to its canine roster. As of mid August, they were visiting 19 different locations around Monroe County, including Unity Hospital, the Greece Police Department’s headquarters, the Monroe County Sheriff ’s Office’s
downtown facility and local nursing homes. The Anthonys are trying to sign up new sites to which RocDog’s fourlegged members could go to work their magic. They recently started Paws for Hearts, a program that could help those with special needs avail themselves of the nonprofit’s services. When not working or running RocDog, the Anthonys enjoy driving around the area to see the sights and taking long walks on Greece’s section of the Erie Canal. On Aug. 2, they celebrated their 46th wedding anniversary. “It’s good to marry your best friend,” Susan said.
For more information on RocDog, visit: https://rocdog.org.
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55+ pets
Bringing Home Bowser Choosing the right animal companion can improve your quality of life—and the pet’s By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
P
erhaps your furry pal passed away years ago and you long for another pet. Perhaps you haven’t had a pet since the children moved out several years ago. Bringing home a dog or cat can add warmth to your home and enjoyment to every day. Plus, you can feel good knowing that one less pet is languishing in a shelter. But getting a pet at 55-plus is a little different than when you were younger. Take time to consider the kind of pet that would work well with your lifestyle now. For example, if you plan to travel in retirement, do you really want a pet that must stay at a boarding kennel for weeks on end? Or can you find a breed that travels well? Most dogs like traveling by car, but if you fly, your buddy will have to go in the cargo hold if he’s too large. Some cats
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enjoy traveling; many would rather stay at home and have a house sitter drop in to care for them. If you have not owned a pet in a while, evaluate your ability to care for a pet, both now and for the next 15 years. The large dog breed you owned while the children were young may not be advisable if you struggle with balance, for example. A smaller breed or one that is naturally more biddable could be better options. Working with a dog trainer can also help you live more peaceably with a dog. If you are unstable on your feet at times, a very small dog or an active cat may cause you to trip. While cat care is a little easier, you should be able to stoop to clean the litter and be capable of carrying containers of litter (although the newer lightweight litter can help solve this issue). Dark-colored pets are harder to see in dim lighting and could present a
tripping hazard. However, a reflective collar can reduce this potential hazard. Think about the costs associated with pet ownership: vet bills, food, toys, leash, pick-up bags or litter and possibly grooming or kennel costs. These expenses should easily fit into your budget or you shouldn’t get a pet. “Sickness or injury can happen at any time for a pet,” said Kate Sullivan, president of Pet Adoption Network in Rochester. “Those adopting pets should have money to fall back on, especially for older pets.” The age of your pet also makes a difference. Cute little kittens and puppies can take a toll on your furnishings. Good training can help, along with equipment like a scratching post for cats and training crate for puppies. You could also consider an older cat or dog. Many of these are surrendered for reasons that are not the pet’s fault, such as the family moving to an apartment that does not accept
pets or the owner passing away. These pets are past the chewing and climbing stage and usually have some training. (Cats should always have a scratching post, as that is how they trim their claws). Their quieter demeanor may fit your life better at this point. “Kittens are wild and crazy,” Sullivan said. “They’re wonderful, but can be literally climbing the walls, scream if they’re shut in a room and can run across the dining room table. They take a lot of patience. They climb your legs, scratch your hands. It’s like having a 2-year-old in the house.” She suggests mature pets for older adults. You should also make plans for if you should become unable to care for your pet because of illness or surgery. Who could help when your friend needs care you cannot provide? Sullivan recalls checking on a friend who was ill and discovering she had passed away at home. In all the hubbub of the authorities in the home, the deceased woman’s cat had been forgotten until a police officer spotted it and was going to call animal control. Sullivan had placed the cat with the woman and intervened, sparing the animal from going to the pound. “Have information posted on your refrigerator about who to call,” Sullivan said. She did that very thing upon arriving home with the woman’s cat that day. “I’d roll over in my grave if someone sent my animals to the pound,” Sullivan said. She is willing to take back pets in case the owner passes away, as does Kari LaBounty, shelter operations manager at Pet Pride of New York Inc. in Victor. LaBounty encourages adopters to consider a second cat so each has a kitty friend. While some people feel concern about their furnishings, buying a scratching post, trimming the cat’s nails and placing clear, double-sided tape on corners can discourage scratching. LaBounty said that older adults may be ideal new pet owners. “Older adults tend to be home more, which is great. But, it’s also about the time and energy,” she said. “You need to clean the littler, walk a dog, keep their nails trimmed. Keeping pets mentally stimulated is key.”
From Top Kate Sullivan is president of Pet Adoption Network in Rochester; Kari LaBounty, shelter operations manager of Pet Pride of New York Inc. in Victor, poses with a cat from their shelter. November / December 2021 - 55 PLUS
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55+ arts
Artists Nancy Radzik and Kim Martillotta-Muscarella with some treasures.
For Richard Della Costa, vacation is another opportunity to find treasures for later art projects.
Turning Salvage into Art Junk piles can be inspirational, these artists say By Lynette M. Loomis
I
f you see three people going through the ends of yard sales into the discard pile, you might be seeing artists Nancy Radzik, Richard Della Costa and Kim Martillotta-Muscarella. They’re members of the Brockport Artists Guild. They transform cast-offs into things of beauty and whimsy. R a d z i k , 7 1 , i s i n s p i re d b y transforming salvaged or scavenged materials. “I guess I have always been a scavenger of sorts, never wanting to throw something out, thinking that I might use it for something someday,” she said. “I like to peruse antique 38
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stores for interesting and/or useless items and curbside discards. I also use the many items I have collected from nature.” She began her art exploration as an oil painter and quickly gravitated toward assemblage art, finding that medium better suited to her art’s purpose which is to draw attention to something she feels is relevant and hopes will be relevant to the viewer. “Junk piles can be inspirational!” she said. Not surprisingly, her desire not to throw out things has led to a collection of driftwood, twisted branches, tree bark, stones, as well as old chairs,
pieces of discarded furniture and many other treasures, big and small. This stockpile is a constant catalyst in the creation of her art pieces that point out something worth remembering. Radzik has more than 15 years of art teaching experience at college, elementary and high school levels, along with various park district art programs. She also was, at one time, the owner/curator of her own art gallery, Aardvark Gallery, LaGrange, Illinois, and co-founder of an art cooperative gallery, Outside the Box Art Gallery, Fairport. In her “spare time” she is grandma to four rambunctious grandsons and shares her husband’s
love of gardening, camping, hiking, kayaking, and adventure road trips. Website: scavengedthoughts.com Rich Della Costa, 72, started doing shadow boxes while living in Washington, DC, and seeing some of Joseph Cornell’s work at the Smithsonian. “I got serious (so to speak) when I moved up to the Rochester area, back at the family farm where I had some land,” he said. “There is an old landfill nearby, pre-1950s vintage, where objects have been percolating to the surface for years. Exploring that area, now pretty much wooded, revealed a lot of interesting glass and metal and little plastic things from that period and an occasional car bumper sticking out of the ground. Since my early shadow boxes, I have moved into 3D work and sculpture and while I miss the compositions that a shadow box enable, I still have fun with junk in a freer mode of working.” Della Costa worked for many years as a video and film producer and instructor, artist and musician. Working for the Peace Corps for 12 years, he had the opportunity to make films and videos for that organization. Returning to the Rochester area in 1990, he worked as a media coordinator at the Visual Studies Workshop, taught film studies for SUNY Brockport and then retired as a media studies teacher for the Rochester City School district. He has strong feeling about art and the need for creativity. “What I have seen in my students, of all ages, is the need to be free in their thinking about expression, using the work of other artists as a starting point and developing the skills needed to progress as far as possible,” he said. All artists have challenges, but assemblage has its own set of difficulties from trying to assemble materials that wouldn’t normally be attached to thinking about what a shape or texture or object can be when melded with other shapes and textures and objects. Marcel Duchamp’s readymades are a great place to start if one is interested in assemblage work. Kim Martillotta-Muscarella, 64, began her artistic career as a sculptor but found that supporting three children as a single mom and attending their events, didn’t lend itself to a sufficient income as an artist. Through a series of jobs, she kept her
“Crestline” presented a challenge for Della Costa. But maintaining a ‘50s art deco modernist look throughout, he says, was part of the challenge (and the fun).
SEE THEIR WORKS ON DISPLAY Hart Gallery 27, 27 Market St., Brockport, NY December 2021 Exhibit: “The Art of the Found Object: Three Artists Assemble.” opens Friday, Dec. 3 with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. (open to the public). Artisans Annex, Rochester, NY Marti’s on Main, Albion, NY
family afloat but never lost her love of creating. She has a gallery in Albion showcasing her work. She has worked in many mediums — paint, sculpture and mosaic. “I try different things all the time. I have no control over it, “she said with a laugh. “People know I create assemblage art and are always leaving things on my porch. It is wonderful to see the array of materials I can work with. It is particularly fun to make pieces that people can see the humor in. If people say ‘Wow, that’s weird’ with a smile on their face I know I have succeeded.” Learning along the way, she also sees the humor in her learning curve. “My early sculptures were too Top “Assemblage” fragile. So my present husband has sculpture series, by been wonderful in teaching me how to Nancy Radzik. make my art sturdier,” she said. One of her favorite pieces is Left Martillotta“Griffin” in which each side of the Muscarella's driftwood has a different face on it. “Monocule Man” was She used a roof bracket, hand saws created by blowing for wings and the metal forms used up a balloon and covering it with plaster by shoemakers. “ Yo u h a v e t o h a v e a v i v i d tape. The artist imagination and let your heart and twisted the tape while hands take over the creative process. wet to form the beard, You don’t want the finished piece to then attached him to look like junk, even though the raw a basket. She used a materials were once seen as junk,” bean from a catalpa tree for his monocle. she said. 40
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55+ fitness years after graduating from Olympia High School she returned as their cheerleading coach and stayed for 30 years. W h i l e c o a c h i n g , S n e l g ro v e returned to college for her teaching degree from SUNY Brockport. She taught at various area schools and spent her last seven years at Arcadia Middle School as a science teacher before retiring in 2010. During her years as a teacher and coach, Snelgrove was also keeping up with her personal fitness. She became a member of the Rochester Athletic Club for Women in Greece in 2000. Not long after that she got her Zumba (a dance workout) teaching certification at age 56. Three weeks later she started teaching at the RAC. One by one she began getting other fitness teaching certifications such as barre, Pilates and yoga. A new beginning
Val Snelgrove, the owner of The Women’s Fitness Connection in Spencerport. She has a magical touch that transforms students into friends and friends into students.
It’s Like a Big Happy Family Here The Women’s Fitness Connection offers more than fitness classes By Christine Green
W
herever she goes I will follow her,” said fitness enthusiast Flo Guy when asked about Val Snelgrove, the owner of The Women’s Fitness Connection in Spencerport. And Guy isn’t the only one. Countless other women are loyal to Snelgrove’s fitness classes. Like the
Pied Piper of fitness, Snelgrove has a magical touch that transforms students into friends and friends into students. Three cheers for fitness Snelgrove, 66, was a cheerleader ever since she was a girl growing up in North Greece. Just two and a half
Snelgrove had built up a following of students while teaching fitness at the RAC, but COVID-19 put a stop to classes at the RAC when they had to close temporarily in March. Snelgrove was in Florida but agreed to teach online classes. She then started her own Facebook group where she taught other virtual workshops. In August 2020 Snelgrove, her students and her fellow teachers received the sad news that the RAC in Greece was permanently closing. Time moved on, it soon seemed like the ability to teach in person was at hand. But without the RAC what could she do? Snelgrove’s friend suggested that she teach classes at a local dance studio. She reached out to David Interlicchia who let her teach at his studio in Greece, Dance Biz. But after a second COVID-19 shutdown, she realized that she needed her own space. That’s when she found 5017 W. Ridge Road in Spencerport. On June 1, she celebrated the grand opening of The Women’s Fitness Connection, LLC, a woman only fitness studio offering classes in Zumba, yoga, barre, step aerobics and much more including a Dance Abilities class for November / December 2021 - 55 PLUS
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Karen Alfieri, Flo Guy, Kathy Phillips are some of the women who have followed trainer Val Snelgrove. “Most of the ladies are 50 plus or whatever. It’s great to have a group that you can relate to,” said Alfieri.
students with different abilities. The class is designed to “improve motor skills and socialization skills” and is open for students ages 10 to adult. “They come in with their caregivers and they spend 45 minutes just having a blast.” said Snelgrove. Snelgrove has put both sweat equity and her savings into the development of The Women’s Fitness Connection. “I have invested my own money into buying all the equipment, getting started and, hopefully, we’ll dig ourselves out over the next year,” she said with a chuckle. She has several teachers on staff like Rachel Heberle of North Greece. “She is an amazing person, inside and out,” Heberle said of Snelgrove. “She’s fantastic, so kind, so encouraging. She’s become one of my very good friends. So it was just a no-brainer when she said she was opening this place. I said, ‘I’m here.’” 42
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A true sisterhood Once the building was spruced up, the equipment in place and the staff ready to teach, the students came in droves. Like Guy, Kathy Phillips of Spencerport, followed Snelgrove from the RAC. She also knew her because they were both cheerleading coaches. Now she takes several different classes at the new studio. “I call it a silver lining to the pandemic, because this woman is so amazing and she opened up her own business in the midst of a pandemic and she’s just awesome,” Phillips said. Joanne Bourne, of Spencerport, came to classes with Phillips. She likes Zumba the best but also enjoys the strength classes they offer. “I have exercised all my adult life and kind of stopped during the pandemic and couldn’t really find a
place to go,” said Bourne. “I’ve only been here this month, but I love it. I mean the women are wonderful. The instructors are wonderful; lots of variety of classes.” It’s clear that Snelgrove’s students are happy in her presence and peals of laughter rang out when Snelgrove loudly declared “I love you!” to a packed class of more than 20 smiling, sweating women during a Thursday morning Zumba class last July. “We’re trying to make this a community centered organization where it’s not just about your physical health; it’s about your mental health,” Snelgrove said. Karen Alfieri of Greece feels this community support every time she comes to class. “I feel like she really cares about us, and she’s very open to all of us,” she said. “It’s like we’re her buddies or friends and it’s nice to feel like you belong to a group that’s like you. We’re
Bergen Meadows Apts. 6619 N. Lake Road • Bergen, NY 14416 585-494-2168
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Joanne Bourne: “I have exercised all my adult life and kind of stopped during the pandemic and couldn’t really find a place to go.”
like a big happy family here.” “That is exactly the point of it all,” said Snelgrove. “It’s like a sisterhood. I think we’re real niche, because we’re just women.” ‘A group that you can relate to’ The studio has approximately 100 different people coming to various classes despite only being open since June. Most members range in age between 45 and 85. “We are able to modify for all different levels,” Snelgrove said. When discussing a recent class, she noted that some students are extremely exuberant and move with ease and “some of them were dancing, and had a great time, but aren’t able to either remember [or do] the steps. I don’t care—you’re moving for 45 minutes or 60 minutes.” Alfieri really loves that she can walk into a space where the majority of the women there are, including the instructor, in her age group. And seeing Snelgrove in front of the class inspires her to work harder to be fit. “She’s inspirational, she’s energetic, and I said, ‘She’s like a year older than me. Well, I want to have that much energy, too.’ I mean, she does workouts that I can do,” Alfieri said. “Some of the younger ones, I just can’t keep up with. Most of the ladies are 50 plus or whatever. It’s great to have a
group that you can relate to.” Snelgrove considers her age an asset to her life and her job. “It’s really a gift to be 66 and be able to do this,” she said. Because of certain physical limitations and health concerns her parents were unable to be as physically active when they were the age she is now. “It really makes you stop and think, ‘Wow, I am so lucky,’” she added. And that feeling of luck extends beyond her physical capabilities. She feels tremendous gratitude for the women who attend her classes and surround her daily. Snelgrove didn’t have children of her own, so becoming a coach, teacher and a fitness instructor gave her an important role in life. “You know I didn’t have that experience, so I needed something that would kind of fill that gap. For me, that was a hole in my heart and this does it, it really does,” she said. “When I see what I’m putting out into the community, it’s like this is just feeding me, it’s just awesome. Yeah, I love it.” Snelgrove lives in North Greece with her husband of more than 44 years, Warren. Learn more about Snelgrove and her studio at thewomensfitnessconnectionllc.com or call 585-752-6067.
TDDY 711 This institution is an equal opportunity provider and employer. If you wish to file a Civil Rights program complaint of discrimination, complete the USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form, found online at http://www.ascr. usda.gov/complaint_filing_cust.html or at any USDA office, or call (866) 632-9992 to request the form. You may also write a letter containing all of the information requested in the form. Send your completed complaint form or the letter to us by mail at: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Director, Office of Adjudication, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 202509410, by fax (202) 690-7442 or email at program.intake@usda.gov.
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55+ second act Former Mechanic Now Operates Antique Shop Charlie Foster runs an eclectic antique shop in Stanley By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
C
harlie Foster, 67, has lived around antiques all his life; his grandparents passed down things to his parents. That early exposure sparked his interest in antiques and led to his ownership of Carriage Factory Antiques in 2001, an Ontario County business housed in a former carriage factory in Stanley. Some of the shop’s items are from the 1800s. Some are from the early 1900s. “Antiques have a bad name for being overpriced and not as good,” he said. He comparison shops to ensure that he prices items fairly. Wood furniture is a big part of his shop. He likes to provide shoppers with well-made antiques that stand up to wear and tear because they are made of wood and dovetailed and mortised. Chipboard and screwed furniture will not stand up as well. Foster’s shop also sells decorative and functional household goods, including a blown glass vase thought to be made by an artisan at Corning Glass. The large vase is priced at $895 and came from an estate sale in Rochester. He also sells small knickknacks, coins, stamps and other collectibles. Purchasing estates is how Foster acquires many of his items. He reads industry periodicals Antique Weekly and The Trader to see how others price their antiques and to learn more about them. He also uses eBay for research and occasionally selling. He offers a few smaller items in cases in stores in Geneva, Seneca Falls and Bloomfield. He likes to stock unusual items. More utilitarian items sell well, such as dressers and vintage farm and home 44
55 PLUS - November / December 2021
Charlie Foster, 67, retired three years ago after working at Canandaigua Wine Company for 47 years. He works at his Carriage Factory Antique in Ontario County.
implements, he said. Foster grew up on a farm, so he is familiar with many implements. However, at times he has searched with Google Photos. But he thinks it is more fun to put up a sign, “What is this?” to let customers guess. That kind of customer engagement, along with his business’s bright red barn and large deer statue outside, helps shoppers remember his store.
“I try to put into people’s heads some kind of a memory,” Foster said. He kept the name of the shop the same as when he bought it. The structure used to house a carriage factory. A customer from Seattle once stopped in to share with Foster that her great-great-grandfather had owned the carriage factory. She also shared circa 1850s photos and historical information with Foster.
The unassuming red facade of Carriage Factory Antiques (inset, right) is home to some 10,000 item for sale (right).
“The great-great-grandfather was making parts for carriages and barrels,” Foster said. “His brother had a blacksmith shop where the driveway was. In the pictures she sent, you could see a muddy road. Routes 5 and 20 were a stagecoach line from Albany to Buffalo.” More than just a postretirement business, Foster views his shop as a productive way to keep busy. “I do it for the people,” Foster explained. “Every day I learn something new, whether from someone coming in or at the estates. I love talking with oldtimers. They’re the ones who know. Old veterans are full of knowledge.” While he has had the occasional disgruntled customer, he believes that the good outweigh the bad. Foster, who lives in Hopewell with his wife, Kathy, retired from working as a mechanic at Canandaigua Wine Company three years ago. He had worked there 47 years and transitioned to full-time at the antique shop upon retirement. “Kathy tries to stay away as she knows I’ll put her to work,” Foster said with a laugh. He estimates his shop holds about 10,000 items, as he has been buying for the past 20 years.
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Town Hall (585.229.4523) DMV Office (585.396.4210) FLCC, near gym (585.785.1000) Police Department (585.394.3311) The Medicine Shoppe (585.337-4300) Thompson Hospital, lobby (585.396.6000)
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Town Hall (585.229.5757) CVS Pharmacy (585.229.2285)
Police Department (315.828.6771) North Street Pharmacy (315.787.5388)
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Village Centre Apts. 222 Main Street • Brockport, NY 14420 585-637-6310
55+ seasonal Ho, Ho, Ho! Portraying the Jolly Old Elf requires people skills, an engaging personality and a boatload of patience By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
Let us help you find an apartment that’s right for you! www.belmontmgmt.com TDDY 711 This institution is an equal opportunity provider and employer. If you wish to file a Civil Rights program complaint of discrimination, complete the USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form, found online at http://www.ascr. usda.gov/complaint_filing_cust.html or at any USDA office, or call (866) 632-9992 to request the form. You may also write a letter containing all of the information requested in the form. Send your completed complaint form or the letter to us by mail at: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Director, Office of Adjudication, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 202509410, by fax (202) 690-7442 or email at program.intake@usda.gov.
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55 PLUS - November / December 2021
I
t takes more than a red suit and white beard to play Santa for children, or, at times, grownups. As these professional Santas attest, portraying the Jolly Old Elf requires a few people skills, an engaging personality and a boatload of patience. “Some do it for the money, others for the love of Christmas,” said Cindy Sinopoli, general manager of Arlene’s Costumes in Rochester. “Some do it because they love kids. I’ve met all kinds.” Her husband, Vic Sinopoli,
now 67 and a retiree from working maintenance at Rochester City School District, portrayed Santa for two decades with his brother. At first, he dressed up only for his and Cindy’s children, until they realized “Santa’s” real identity. Eventually, he donned the Jolly Old Elf’s suit, wig and beard to raise extra money to fund his own children’s Christmas gifts. Sinopoli has ho-ho-hoed at daycares, corporate Christmas parties, private homes and other events. “I liked watching the excitement in the children’s faces and the
anticipation,” he said. “At daycares, the kids would always get so excited. They’d want to give Santa a hug.” At a Xerox Christmas party, he had a family approach them with a newly adopted child who spoke only Italian. “Being of Italian descent, I knew a little bit and could converse with the kid,” Sinopoli said. “I asked his name and what he liked. He lit right up and the mother started to cry. After the child left, she gave me a hug. I said she was lucky if she had said Haitian or Spanish, we’d have a problem. It sealed the deal that Santa could talk with him.” He would also appear as Santa for a Christmas in July event at Wildwood Lake, a campground in Medina that is now a KOA camp. “We’d set up games and give out trinket presents and do games, snow cones and ice cream and things like that,” Sinopoli said. In his Santa experiences, sometimes children would cry or appear mesmerized by Santa. But most of all, it was excitement to share their wish list as they sit in Santa’s lap. While Sinopoli enjoyed his years in the red suit, arthritic knees and open-heart surgery 10 years ago have forced him to set aside public Santa appearances. “Having kids sit on my lap, my knees weren’t taking it anymore,” he said. “I handed it down to my one son who did it a few years. Now we do it for my great nieces and nephews.” During the pandemic, it has been more of a drive by and delivery visit. However, Sinopoli said picking up the children’s gifts from relatives and his son delivering them as Santa made the little ones’ Christmas more special. “It’s about the look on their faces, the excitement and they ask you all kinds of questions like how the reindeer are doing,” Sinopoli said. “I used to carry a set of jingle bells my father had on a leather strap on the front door. I’d carry them over my belt. Whenever I got a kid who was standoffish, I’d say they were magic bells and I’d use them when I needed the reindeer to come pick me up. They were Rudolph’s bells. I’d put them on his harness on Christmas Eve. “When you see the kids’ faces and their eyes get big, when they want to hug you, it’s unconditional love. They don’t know you but they love you.”
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Let your holiday spirit soar even further this year. With Share the Joy you can brighten the holidays for vulnerable families in our community, and with Gifts for Francis Friends you can let guests in our shelters know you care. Donate cash or gifts today at CFCRochester.org.
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55+ grandkids
Personalized Gifts Grandkids Can Make and Give… …That won’t break their piggy banks By Kimberly Blaker
A
s the holidays approach, are your grandkids scrounging to buy gifts they can’t afford? If so, here are some fun craft ideas you can work on together next time they visit that make great gifts your grandkids can make and give. • Tell a story with photos. Create a memory page to add to a friend or relative’s scrapbook. Buy a package of blank scrapbook pages. Then choose a theme such as ‘my best friend,’ ‘sports car shows,’ or ‘when I was little.’ Design each page using stickers, markers, colored pencils, construction paper, photos, magazine pictures, and fun sayings or descriptions that fit your theme. • Service coupons. Offer a free evening of babysitting, a week of taking out the trash, making your sister’s bed, pet sitting, lawn mowing, ironing, or another task you can do. • Shape decorative soaps. Grate bars of inexpensive white soap. Then
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mix approximately ½ cup of warm water with a cup of shredded soap. Add food coloring to the water to create colored soap. Knead the mixture. Add additional warm water as necessary until it forms like dough. Next, fill cookie cutters with the mixture. Or flatten it on a sheet of waxed paper, and trim into shapes. Let the soap dry slightly. Then press with small leaves or other designs. Allow the decorative soaps to dry for 24 hours, flipping them occasionally. • Design your own pens and pencils. Purchase sheets of large white labels and cut them into 1-½ inch strips. Design the pieces with colored markers. Then wrap the design around the length of the pens or pencils. Personalize them by adding a smaller label to the center of the pencil with “World’s Greatest Grandma” or another catchy phrase. To protect your pencil design, wrap it with transparent scotch tape.
• Make a placemat. Choose a subject of interest to your gift recipient, such as model cars or Barbie dolls. Clip pictures from magazines and catalogs. Then glue them to an 11” x 17” sheet of paper. Overlap the images to create a collage, or spread them apart and share details about each. When you’re done, laminate the design with self-adhesive laminating sheets, or have it laminated at an office supply. • Create bookmarks. Cut colored paper into 2” x 7” strips then design the pieces with colored pencils and markers. Or clip a fancy border from magazines. Find out your gift recipient’s favorite author, artist, or historical figure. Then look the person up on Google. Select a quote from that person, type or write it out, and add it to the bookmark. Then laminate it for protection. • Give magnetic photos. Cut a piece of cardboard from a cereal box to match the size of your photo. Then
glue it to the back of your photo for support. Last, glue a small magnet to the cardboard. Now you have a photo magnet. • Fashion a holiday pin. Buy a package of large safety pins and a small bag of multi-colored beads. Open one safety pin. Then dangle several safety pins onto it through the eye at the bottom of those pins. Close the open pin. Then thread colored beads onto the dangling safety pins. You can design a Christmas tree, heart, flag, or whatever your imagination desires. • Construct a puzzle photo frame. Cut a piece of firm cardboard to your desired size of the frame. Then ask an adult to trim out the center with a razor knife, leaving a 1” to 2” thick frame. Next, trace the outside edge of your frame onto another piece of thin cardboard, and cut it out. Place a sheet of colored paper between the two pieces of cardboard. Next, glue the paper and two pieces of cardboard together. Glue jigsaw puzzle pieces around the frame, overlapping each other to cover the entire thickness of the frame. Let the frame dry. Then brush a layer of glue over the puzzle pieces to prevent them from falling off. Stick your photo in the opening of the frame with double-sided tape. • Give a poster. Find out your friend's favorite rock star, actress, or sport. Then tear three or four fullpage photographs or pictures from magazines. Trim the tattered edge. Then laminate for a durable glossy poster. • Compose a memory book. Buy a composition book from the office supply. Cover it with construction paper, then design and decorate the cover. Inside, write your memories of special times you’ve had with the person to whom you’ll present it. Memories might include a trip to the zoo, a favorite holiday celebration, a special gift, something funny, and lots of other experiences you’ve had together. • Produce glittery pens. Buy a package of pens and different colors of glitter. To get started, pour glue onto a sheet of waxed paper. Then roll one side of the pen lightly in the glue, leaving one inch from the tip without glue. Coat the pen with glitter, and then let it dry. When the glue dries, repeat these steps on the other side of the pen.
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55+ community
Staying Engaged During Retirement Staying connected with others means a more vibrant retirement for you By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
Y
ou have probably made plenty of financial plans on how you will retire. However, have you planned how you will stay engaged in the community once you are no longer going to work? While working, your work friends provided an easy way to stay connected to others. When those relationships have been broken — or at least feel strained — do you know how you will remain involved? Staying engaged during retirement 50
55 PLUS - November / December 2021
is important for physical and mental health. “It’s been proven that remaining engaged adds to the quality of your life and longevity,” said Ann Cunningham, executive director at Oasis Rochester. “During the shutdown, we switched to Zoom so people could see faces virtually, but now what we’ve opened back up to in-person learning, I see those face-to-face connections happening again. That’s been really key. People have really been missing
seeing others. “Just because someone retires doesn’t means it’s the time to sit on the couch and watch TV. We’ve spent a lifetime working and taking care of our children. That’s a great time to start thinking about yourself and continue caring for yourself. All those opportunities to continue learning and doing what you want to do are vitally important.” Keep learning Many schools offer free class audits. Oasis offers many classes in a wide variety of interests. At RIT, Osher provides many opportunities for learning, too. John Bacon, 79, has taken classes at Osher since he retired from sales and marketing management for Cy Plastics in Honeoye in 2008. Not one to sit around and watch television, except public broadcasting occasionally, he likes to learn more
about history and science at Osher and read. “Lately I’ve been reading a lot of books on present politics and political personalities,” Bacon said. Join up Joining an organization that holds regular meetings can help you get out and mingle whether it’s a civic group, spiritual body or hobby club. That has proven helpful for Bacon, who is a member at Penfield Presbyterian Church, which he has attended since moving to Penfield with his wife, Judy, in 1978. Volunteer You can enjoy the rewards of giving back to your community while becoming someone upon whom others depend. You can participate at a level that keeps you engaged without burning out. Cunningham said that finding activities and volunteer opportunities can help retirees stay engaged on many levels. Oasis offers many ways to volunteer and build lasting relationships. “Rochester’s rich in volunteerism,” Cunningham said. “It’s one of our strengths as a community. There are lots of volunteer opportunities at Oasis. At least half of our classes are led by volunteer instructors who are retirees.” Some volunteer instructors have previously worked in the fields in which they now lead Oasis classes.
For others, they instruct on their well-versed hobbies. For example, one English instructor who loves music enjoys leading a class on Frank Sinatra’s music. “Giving back at a time when we all need so much is a great way to feel a sense of fulfillment and completion,” Cunningham said. Bacon oversees property maintenance at Penfield Presbyterian and volunteers his construction skills for Habitat for Humanity. “It’s a philosophy of giving back,” Bacon said. “Life has been good so this is my opportunity to give back. That has been my theme to live by since retiring. I love to work with my hands and build and that’s why I got into Habitat. I found that was an opportunity to do something I like to do. It’s a great program because it’s a hand up, not a handout. I’m not a big believer in throwing money at people. If they sit back, they expect more.” Bacon also maintains his home and plows driveways in the winter. It used to be five driveways, but he has cut down to plowing only his own and that of an elderly neighbor. “It keeps me active mentally and physically. It’s a good feeling to do things for others,” Bacon said. Reconnect with family Retirement allows you the time to bond more closely with your family. Plan outings, vacations and special events. Ask if you could help with a home renovation project, cook the holiday meal or regularly watch your
John Bacon, 79, has taken classes at Osher since he retired in 2008 from sales and marketing management for Cy Plastics in Honeoye.
grandchildren. Teach the youngsters your skills and share your stories. These are times your family will remember for life. Whatever you do during retirement can make a big difference between aging well and simply aging. Plan to stay connected for a more vibrant retirement.
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55+ tattoos Tattoos Later in Life
and location you will not regret. While tattoo removal is possible through lasers or, for smaller ones, surgery, it usually leaves a scar. Some people with regrettable tats, such as an ex’s name or a trend that fades, choose a “cover up” piece of artwork. You also have the funds to choose a quality shop. Look for one with both a professional, hygienic atmosphere but By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant also experienced artists who listen to their clients. Check their social media aybe you didn’t get a tattoo in professional environments such as pages and sites such as Yelp to see earlier in life because of medical, financial and legal can get how other patrons feel about their professional reasons. Now, tattooed without endangering their experiences. about 30% of Americans careers. “The only difference is it seems to have at least one tattoo, up from 21% Since the social stigma surrounding bother us more,” said T.J. Dill, 53, a in 2012, according to a 2019 Ipsos poll. tattooing has dissipated, you may feel tattoo artist at White Tiger Tattoo in Currently, 16% of those 55 years old freer to get inked to commemorate, Rochester. celebrate or just enjoy art to wear. And and older have been tattooed. Dill has received tattoos in her Generations ago, tattoos were for even though you’re an older adult, 20s and in her 50s. She said that it did military men, inmates and biker guys. there’s really no reason you can’t have not bother her as much when she was For the past 20 years, tattooing a tattoo at any age. In some ways, it can younger as it has with more recent has made inroads into most other be an ideal time. art. But she said that in general, it is Without the impetuosity of youth, not inordinately more painful to get walks of life and people of many occupations. Even people working you are more likely to select a design tattooed in her 50s.
More boomers going for their first tattoo. 16% of those 55 years old and older have been tattooed
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“A lot of my clients in their 50s handle tattoos remarkably,” Dill said. “People don’t have problems with skin integrity until they're 80 or unless they’ve been avidly tanning or abusing their skin. Some people in their early 20s [have] unhealthy skin and ones in their 60s have terrible skin.” If you have been a sun worshipper for years or have skin conditions that make your skin more fragile, that may make the process a little more painful and, for the tattoo artist, more challenging. Skin with less elasticity causes the tattooing ink to smudge, especially if the artist has less experience. Medical conditions may also make a difference. Since tattooing is basically causing a wound by injecting ink under the first layer of skin, people who do not heal well will take longer to recover, such as insulin-dependent diabetics. The older people are, the longer it tends to take to heal, too. Less elasticity can make it a little tougher to perform detailed work. If you are considering a tattoo, seek a skilled and experienced artist to T.J. Dill, 53, a tattoo artist at White Tiger Tattoo in Rochester (left): “A lot of my clients perform the work. in their 50s handle tattoos remarkably,” Dill says. On the right is Gretchen DeBerry, a friend.
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grastabeautyandwigstudio.com November / December 2021 - 55 PLUS
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55+ finance
How to Manage an Inherited IRA from a Parent By Jim Miller
I
nheriting an IRA from a parent has a unique set of rules you need to know, which will help you make the most of the money you inherit and avoid a tax-time surprise. Here are some basics you should know.
Set-Up Inherited Account
Many people think they can roll an inherited IRA into their own IRA. But if you inherit an IRA from a parent, aunt,
uncle, sibling or friend you cannot roll the account into your own IRA or treat the IRA as your own. Instead, you’ll have to transfer your portion of the assets into a new IRA set up and formally named as an inherited IRA —
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55 PLUS - November / December 2021
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CLAUDIA BLY R.D.H. 15 years together
for example, (name of deceased owner) for the benefit of (your name). If your mom’s or dad’s IRA account has multiple beneficiaries, it can be split into separate accounts for each beneficiary. Splitting an account allows each beneficiary to treat their own inherited portion as if they were the sole beneficiary. You can set up an inherited IRA with most any bank or brokerage firm. However, the easiest option may be to open your inherited IRA with the firm that held your mom’s account. 10-Year Withdrawal Rule Due to the Secure Act, which was signed into law in December 2019, most (but not all) IRA beneficiaries must deplete an inherited IRA within 10 years of the account owner’s death. This applies to inherited IRAs if the owner died after Dec. 31, 2019. There’s no limit on when or how often you withdraw money from the account, as long as the account is empty by the end of the 10 years. That is, you can choose to withdraw all of the money at once, you can leave it sitting there for a decade and then
take it all out, or you can withdraw distributions over time. But be aware that with a traditional IRA, each withdrawal will be counted as income and subject to taxes in the year you make the withdrawal. Exceptions to the Rule There are several exceptions to the IRA 10-year rule, including for a surviving spouse, minor child, disabled or chronically ill beneficiary, or a beneficiary who is within 10 years of age of the original IRA owner. These beneficiaries may be able to receive more time to draw down the account and pay the resulting tax bill. For example, when you inherit an IRA from a spouse, you can transfer the IRA balance into your own account and delay distributions until after you turn age 72. Minor children must start required minimum distributions from an inherited IRA but don’t become subject to the 10-year rule until they reach the “age of majority,” which is 18 in most states. Disabled and chronically ill beneficiaries, and those within 10 years of age of the original account owner
have the option to stretch required withdrawals over their lifetime. Minimize Your Taxes As tempting as it might be to cash out an inherited IRA in a lumpsum withdrawal, tread carefully. This option could leave you owing a hefty sum when it’s time to file your taxes. Withdrawals from a traditional IRA generally are taxable as income, at your income tax rate. For some people, it can be a smart tax move to gradually draw down the account over the 10-year period to avoid a large tax bill in a single year and potentially being bumped into a high tax bracket. Or, if you’re approaching retirement, say in five years, you may want to wait to start withdrawing from the account until you are retired and your income drops, potentially putting you into a lower tax bracket.
Jim Miller is the author of Savvy Senior, a column that’s published every issue in 55 PLUS.
Carolyn Stiffler
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50 N. Plymouth Ave. • 585.454.4596 • hochstein.org November / December 2021 - 55 PLUS
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addyman's corner By John Addyman Email: john.addyman@yahoo.com
The Secret is in Her Kiss
I
was talking to someone I’d just met at an outdoor function. He was curious. “How long have you been married?” he asked. “52 years,” I told him. “Same woman?” “Same one.” “52 years…that’s a long time,” he said. “Damn straight,” I told him. When you confess to people how long you’ve been hitched, you can almost always guess the next question that pops up. “So, what’s your secret?” I get asked. “What secret?” “To being married for so long…” I pause for a moment, because I get asked this question pretty frequently and I need to have an answer prepared. “Her kiss,” I respond. It’s at that point I generally get a look and another question. “What?” Yes, my wife is a great kisser. I found that out when we started dating — when she was a junior in high school and I was in college. Even then, she was a graduate-school-level kisser. The first time we locked lips, it was like falling into a warm pillow. Like a spring night, she was sweet and soft and airy. Over the years, she has changed; her kissing prowess has improved with the times. We’ve had some very good years. And my wife has gotten more diverse in her lip-locking. For example, the other day I was standing in an upstairs hallway. I’m at the age where I’ve gone way beyond just occasionally walking into a room and stopping to remember why I went in there in the first place — now I stand in the hallway and wonder which room I was headed into so I can struggle to remember why I was going there, when I get there.
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55 PLUS - November / December 2021
And while I stood there for a second, my wife came up and gave me a kiss on the cheek and patted my shoulder. “What was that for?” I asked. “It was a ‘just because’ kiss,” she explained, and off she strode — she knew where she was going and why. For the next couple of hours, I thought about that kiss…and about a lot of other kisses. My wife has learned over the years that I can’t fix anything and I should never have a power tool in my hands. That doesn’t stop me from trying to fix things and using power tools. When we were in the first years of marriage, I tried to fix a hair dryer and managed to break a plastic piece that held the whole thing together. There was no way I could go into a hardware store and get a replacement piece: the dryer was trash now. In a fit of pique, I then smashed the thing to pieces. Moments later, when I had reduced the dryer to dust particles, my wife came into the garage, where I had been working. She gave me a kiss on top of the head. That was her “I understand you’re a complete failure as a handyman but I love you anyway” kiss. Not too long after that, my wife’s sister, Lynne, was helping me put away her snow tires in that same garage. She was supposed to be holding the ladder while I swung the tires up onto a platform. Lynne did a lousy job. Just when I needed it most, she bent over to pick up something on the floor. The ladder slipped out from under me, and I did a trip around a beam and ended up flying onto the concrete floor — lucky for me, the aluminum ladder, which was on its side by now, broke my fall — and my arm. At the hospital, my wife came in after my arm had been wrapped in a cast and gave me a kiss on my
forehead. It was her “I’m sorry my sister is a ninny” kiss. When I got stuck on the roof in our first house and she talked me down the ladder by threatening to call a lot of guys I knew in the fire department to come get me, she gave me a “You really do the stupidest things” kiss, followed by a hug and a “I’m glad you did something like this and not me” kiss. The first morning my wife and I were together with our new baby, I gave her a thankful kiss for producing such a blessedly beautiful child. She gave me an “I’m thrilled you know how to change her diaper” kiss and pointed me toward the kid, who was wailing in the infant carrier the nurse rolled into the room. Over the years we’ve shared great kisses…when our daughters were married—when we met our grandkids—when we sent kids off to college—when I got fired from a job and almost immediately got hired for another—when we had deaths in the family—when I got home after a long, tough day. The best kisses are the ones I knew were coming, when she’d get that look in her eye — a look of understanding or affection or an expression of patience like her “Yes, I know you bought a lot of new records at the garage sale but wait until you see the dishes I just bought” kiss. Her all-time best came on our 50th anniversary when she planted a passionate kiss reminiscent of those first days we knew each other, followed by a much more temperate, “Have we really been married this long?” kiss. What’s the secret of a long marriage? It’s in her kiss.
55+ Q&A
By Todd Etshman Smaller ensembles in which you’re not following the lead of a conductor are the most intimate way of making music. Our orchestra program really flourished; also chamber music, choral groups, rock bands, guitar and jazz ensemble. Q: Tell us about the quintet you play clarinet in. A: Antara Winds is a woodwind quintet I was lucky enough to be a part of when it was founded in 1982 among faculty members. We’ve been going continuously since then. We had a blip due to COVID, but expect to resume performances this year. There seems to be a natural interest in the clarinet. There’s always a need for them in a band. I play a little piano, too, but that’s not for public consumption.
Peggy Quackenbush, 69 She is retiring after a career of 42 years with The Hochstein School Q: What are some of the highlights you’ve experienced at Hochstein? A: If I’m looking over the entire span, it’s the success we’ve had in adapting our building; an old 19th century church, a beautiful facility. We had to work to adapt it to our purposes through various phases of renovation. A major highlight was creation of the performance hall more than 20 years ago. It showcases what we do in the education program; which is to present our students and faculty and share it with other organizations as a performance venue. The most satisfying thing has been working with the faculty to grow our programs to meet the needs of the community. Q: Who gets a Hochstein education or takes its courses? A: We’re a community school. Our philosophy is everyone who wants to learn should have the opportunity.
We’re very welcoming of beginners and all levels of ability and of every age. We’ve got a lot of adults coming back for lessons later in life or starting something for the first time. You’re never too old. Bagpipe is one of our most popular classes for adults, also ukulele and harmonica. The typical participation level in a year is about 3,500. We also work with people with disabilities. Q: What changes have you seen in student musicians in your tenure? A: Interest has grown quite a lot in the time that I’ve been here. The interest in music making with new people has grown. It’s exciting to learn a new instrument individually but there is further joy to be making music in community. The same goes for dance. Working with other people to create something is one of the most satisfying things humans can do.
Q: What would you like to accomplish before you leave? A: I’d like to see us return to our full complement of courses and programs, to grow beyond where we were before the pandemic. That would be the most wonderful thing, but part of that is depending on what happens with COVID-19. Q: Did you grow up here? Will you stay here? A: I grew up on a farm in Minnesota. I moved to Rochester to do the doctorate of musical arts program at the Eastman School of Music in 1979 when I was 27. I was fortunate to get a part-time teaching position at Hochstein as soon as I moved here. I’ll stay in the area. Q: Anything else you would like readers to know? A: I’d like the community to know what a great organization of dedicated people I think the Hochstein is. There’re opportunities here for everybody. I feel fortunate that we’re in such a rich cultural environment in the Greater Rochester Area. I can’t imagine a better place to live. Margaret (Peggy) Quackenbush is retiring after 42 years with The Hochstein School. She joined the school in 1979 and became director in 1992. November / December 2021 - 55 PLUS
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