All Seasons Preschool & Inver Glen Senior Care

All Seasons Preschool and Inver Glen Senior Living are in the same building, and as one senior told me, "The children come to visit us every day." Other seniors around her nodded and smiled.

Many seniors arrived early at the large community room and visited with Nancy and me as we set up. Senior comments about the "children coming" were always accompanied with a smile of anticipation.

Teacher Amy Lemieux said that the key to daily visits is to have he Preschool and seniors in the same building. Otherwise, winter offers a special challenge of dressing up with coats and boots and headgear. Since the kids are in the same building, they just walk over to visit the seniors. "It's like a field trip for them," Amy said.

The seniors were all seated when the children, who are 3-5 years old, arrived and I could hear some greetings being exchanged. One child made the rounds of shaking hands with a number of his senior friends.

Performing for this mixed group was a joy for me. The children and the seniors were very responsive to everything in my show. Maybe visiting the seniors every day makes the kids more eager to hear stories. In any case, children came up with some of the best questions ever, and not just for their age-group but for almost any-age group.

Of course, I showed them how to teach a newborn calf how to drink out of a pail.

About ten minutes later, after the show, one child remembered that I had said we had to take the cow and calf back to the barn. She asked, "Why do you need to take the calf to the barn." Other questions included, "Why do people live on farms." These questions may sound basic, but understanding the answers are crucial to understanding anything about the food we eat. The audience listened intently to my answers.

Nancy and I had the distinct privilege to meet and chat with Kenneth Fritz, who has written three books and will soon see his fourth book published with Outskirts Press, Inc., Denver, Colorado. After the show Ken, his wife, and his friend stayed to chat with us for several minutes. Ken was a farmer, a soldier, an electrician, and a writer.

Ken holds a couple of my books and I hold three of his.

Nancy and I really enjoyed our visit to All Seasons Preschool and Inver Glen Senior Living, and we wish to thank Amy Lemieux of All Seasons and Sue Hastings, activities director at Inver Glen, for arranging our visit.

Photographs by Nancy A. Fredrickson