Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 20, 1991 TAG: 9103200045
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: JOE TENNIS SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
The 69-year-old retired university administrator figures he and his wife will have only 50 more years to get to as many Elderhostels as they can.
The Buffalo, N.Y., couple stopped at Radford University's March Elderhostel, held at the Best Western Radford Inn, as part of a whirlwind cross-country trip. This Elderhostel was No. 54 for the Spencers.
Bob Spencer said his appetite for Elderhostels - weeklong course sessions designed exclusively for seniors - stems from needing stimulation from an intellectual atmosphere after he retired.
That's why the Spencers sprinkle their travels with an Elderhostel session every few weeks. They like to participate in class discussions, and they like to meet people.
"We're all alive and alert," Bob Spencer said. "There's not a vegetable among us. . . . Everybody brings something different. And these are people who are fun to be with."
Forty-four people attended Radford's Elderhostel last week. The session featured discussions of famous court trials, biological and environmental issues and life in the 1960s.
Radford, like many colleges and universities around the world, holds weeklong Elderhostels every few months. Radford charges $295 per person, which includes room and board.
Albert Charney and his wife, Shirley, traveled along the East Coast recently, hitting an Elderhostel every few states.
After dipping south to Macon, Ga., to attend an Elderhostel at Mercer University, the couple headed home to Worcester, Mass. Along the way they stopped in Radford.
Radford's Elderhostel was the eighth they have attended. But Albert Charney, 70, a former dentist with a never-ending smile, swears it won't be their last.
"There's nothing in this program that could be improved," he said. "I'm absolutely enthralled with the instructors' knowledge of their subjects."
Charney named Radford history professor Ed Jervey's course on famous court trials as his favorite.
So did lawyers David Brawn and William Smith.
Smith, 68, who is retired, came to Radford with his wife, Catherine, 67. The couple said the schedule for Radford's Elderhostel - their second - needed some breaks between activities.
Jeanne Brawn, David's wife, agreed. "We need a little more free time in the evening."
The Smiths, from Basking Ridge, N.J., and the Brawns, of Hempstead, N.Y., relaxed on a pair of couches in the hotel's lobby at 7 p.m. one evening, preferring conversation to attending a scheduled class on making Appalachian crafts.
Jeanne Brawn, a 71-year-old retired secretary, said she and her husband try to attend Elderhostels near Alexandria so they can visit their children before or after a session.
Lew Hunsickle, 68, came to the Elderhostel from East Stroudsburg, Pa. He and his wife, Patricia, have attended 29 other Elderhostels in the past 10 years.
Though this was their first stop in Radford, it wasn't their first in Virginia. They attended an Elderhostel at Longwood College in Farmville five years ago.
Because the university's regular classes were in session, the Elderhostel was held at the hotel. The participants seemed split on whether they would prefer having the Elderhostel on campus or at the hotel.
Some were glad they didn't have to stay in dormitories and, among other things, have to share a bathroom with another couple. But others, like Lew Hunsickle, missed the dorms.
"Ordinarily, an Elderhostel is on campus," he said. "You talk to the kids and feel like you're back 40 years ago."
Charney offered a compromise: stay at the hotel, but hold the classes on campus. "That way you can have interplay with the student population."
The Radford University Office of Continuing Education will be coordinating more Elderhostels this summer. For more information, call 831-5483.
by CNB