Levy Center’s ‘Talking Benches’ celebrates intergenerational conversations

On Tuesday afternoon, I joined volunteers at the Levy Senior Center’s “Talking Benches” event, where young people engaged in intergenerational conversations with center members and guests. When I arrived, Judy Newton and Jill Korshak — Levy board members and Talking Benches organizers — welcomed me into Bobby’s Room, a brightly-lit space with groups of chairs organized into small circles. Snacks and bottles of water for attendees lined a shelf near the entrance. Nearly 20 older adults attended, along with nine volunteers. “I think it just opens [the volunteers’] vision to what we had to go through, and we now kind of understand what they’re having to go through, things that we never experienced,” Korshak said. “I think it’s nice to have that dialogue.” As volunteers and seniors filtered into the room, they were divided into different groups to chat and were given a sheet of suggested questions as a conversation guide. I joined a group with Tom and Jerie Dahlman — yes, they are aware of the irony — and Wendy Trafny, along with two Evanston Township High School volunteers, Josephine Solar and Klara Nels. We hit the basic topics first before probing deeper. What was/is our favorite high school class? What were our first jobs? Tom told us about his job washing cars at Jennings Chevrolet on Waukegan Road in Glenview. Jerie told us she worked as a clerk at a swimming pool in Arizona. “What was beautiful about that was in Arizona, it gets really hot in summertime, so I was working at a pool. I could just dive in and cool off now and again. That was fun,” she said. Wendy’s first job was at a fast-food restaurant. Josephine, a senior at ETHS who helped organize the event, worked her first job at a local Montessori school. Klara, a freshman, has had a few babysitting gigs. Jerie posed the next question: How can young people be helpful to their elders? Klara told us she shovels snow for her grandfather, who has a bad back. Josephine helps her grandmother with technology. “I just print stuff out for her. So I go to her house a lot, and I send myself stuff from her phone and print it out,” she explained. “I’d like to answer that question,” Jerie said. “I think a way that young people can help elders is to share their lives, their experiences, their interests, what’s going on in their lives.” When we got more comfortable, the mechanical back-and-forth nature of the conversation waned, and we entered a flow of excited chatter. Jerie and Josephine discussed their shared love for the television series Reacher and its spinoff Neagley . Klara told us she loves New York Times games, listing Sudoku and the crossword as two of her favorites. Tom shared his gripes with Connections, another NYT game where players sort words into four groups of four based on shared hidden themes. “Connections is just not fair,” he said, suggesting the relationship between the last set of words is often made up or too obscure. Wendy said she loves to play the online version of Rummikub, a tile-based game. Finally, we discussed what Evanston was like when the seniors were growing up. “It was so different,” Wendy said. “The high-rises weren’t there yet. It was more of a sleeping town than it is now. It’s more bustling and crowded.” Jerie concurred, reminding us of Evanston’s history as a dry town and recalling that Evanston 1st Liquors earned its name because it was the city’s first retail packaged liquor store. As the evening came to a close, I meandered around observing groups and met Northwestern University senior and volunteer Sarah Serota. Sarah runs a weekly Scrabble group at Levy. “We started with crosswords in my sophomore year. I’m a senior now, so I’ve been doing it for like two years. It’s been really fun,” she said. Levy, at 300 Dodge Ave., hosts weekly events and offers memberships to adults 55 and older. You don’t need to live in Evanston to become a member. Related Stories