ON SENIORS
Songs of yesteryear
MUSICAL MEMORIES In pre-television days, families would gather around the radio to hear the latest songs.
Music lovers grace Live Oak By CHERYL HUGUENOR
some who play the piano or guitar, and others who perform in a band. They tend to perform the music of yesteryear, songs they know our seniors will remember and love. It is such a privilege seeing the joyful face of a memory-challenged senior as he or she sings all the lyrics to a song they loved decades ago. It recently dawned on me that these songs have changed as the years have gone by. When our center opened back in 1993, some participants here had
Cheryl Huguenor is the program director at Live Oak Adult Day Services in Gilroy. For more information visit liveoakadultdaycare.org.
AUGUST 10, 2018
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once heard a comedian commenting that today’s youngsters will someday be older people hanging around the senior center, dancing to hip hop and gangster rap. It is a funny image. Although he was joking, it is true that the music of our teenage and high school years tends to be what we are most familiar with, and nostalgic for, as we age. Here at Live Oak Adult Day Services, we have enjoyed 25 years of musical guests, some who sing,
actually been born in the late 1890s. Their high school days took place during World War I. They loved the music of that era, songs like “Over There” and “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.” Performers like Al Jolson were popular and in those pre-television days, families would gather around the radio to hear the latest songs. Music stores were full of sheet music that one could buy and play on the home piano. The young people of that era who attended Live Oak as seniors were so nostalgic about the music. One woman loved to teach us how to do the Charleston, a popular dance of the time. Now, 25 years and a few generations of seniors have gone by. We cared for many who were young during the Depression, when songs like “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” were so evocative of hard times. Then we met those who came of age during World War II. They were invariably big band fans, fondly recalling songs like “In the Mood,” and others by Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey. They attended parties and dances populated by scores of men in uniform. More than a few women told us about their marriages to servicemen they had only met a few weeks earlier. Now we are serving later generations, those who grew up loving Elvis, the Beatles and the Temptations. They recall the Civil Rights era, anti-war marches, the Summer of Love and the disco era. Even those raised in other countries intimately know our rock and roll classics. I overheard two of the men here were recently bonding over their shared love of Bob Dylan songs, and I was acutely aware of the passing of the years, all celebrated in song. As Sonny and Cher used to sing, “…and the beat goes on.”
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