GIRLS WITH GET-UP
AND GO
By Gerry Hostetler,
*
Senior Directions
guest columnist
How
many ladies in their
70s and 80s can you
picture sitting on
their hotel-room
bed,
eating pizza and
giggling?
If the answer is
zero,
then you don’t know
these shall we say -
“experienced” -
mermaids?
Five Charlotte
swimmers joined
about 13,000
participants
in the June Senior
Olympics held in
Louisville, Ky.
They had a great
trip and a great
competition, by all
accounts.
Joan Wayne, 82,
brought home six
medals for her
efforts;
three gold and three
silver ones. “I was
so thrilled,” she
said.
“That was pretty
good time for the
80-to-95 group.”
Joan broke her own
record that she set
in the previous
200-yard freestyle
competition.
In her spare
time, Joan
volunteers at
Charlotte’s
Aldersgate senior
home
as a swim buddy. “I
soon found out
they’d rather walk
and talk than swim,”
she said.
Daisy Trivette,
an 81-year-old local
swimmer,
brought home four
ribbons and a
baseball bat.
The bat was a tiny
souvenir from the
Louisville Sluggers
baseball bat
factory.
“Swimming takes
most of your time,
but we also took the
Kentucky Belle
cruise ship for
dinner and dancing,
and some of us went
to Churchill Downs.
I’ve got an
‘80s Card’ and
use it. Being 80 was
great,
but I have no clue
what happens at 81,”
Daisy said.
(Don’t worry, Daisy
- you’ll get an “81
Card” to use then.)
Seventy-one-year-old
Charlottean Mary
Katherine Vass
placed fourth the
50-yard backstroke.
She said she was in
the middle of the
pack because some of
her categories
had so many entrants
this year.
She joined the
group who toured
Louisville Slugger
ball bat factory
and saw them make
bats for specific
players.
“They’re very picky
about how their bats
are made. It was a
fun thing,” she said
of the tour.”
YOU MEET REALLY NICE
FOLKS
Betty Billings,
another Charlotte
swimmer, is 82 and
brought home a
silver medal
for the 50-yard
freestyle. She also
placed fifth in the
50-yard backstroke
and has already
qualified for the
next state
competition in
Raleigh.
Betty, her late
husband and two
grown children were
all swimmers.
Daughter Missy
Hubbard volunteers
for a local youth
swim group
and son Steve
coaches a team in
Huntersville.
“Swimming has always
been part of our
lives,” Betty said.
“You meet really
nice folks
and it’s a real plus
to have good friends
in a good sport.
It keeps us laughing
- we don’t cry very
much at all!”
Penny Banner,
an active Charlotte
Realtor,
and a retired
champion lady
wrestler,
has participated in
the field swim meets
for years.
She qualified for
this competition,
but prior
commitments kept her
out.
She plans to be
right in there with
them
for the 2009 games
in San Francisco,
though.
“It was so nice
to see them all
there again this
year,
still coming and
still swimming,”
Joan said.
After the
competitions were
over, they gathered
in their hotel room
on the 23rd floor.
“It had a wonderful
view, and we ordered
pizzas,
sat on the bed and
giggled like
schoolgirls.”
Betty told on the
girls. “We had a
glass or two of
wine,” she said.
Maybe that accounted for the giggles.
But that’s OK -
because after all,
they are certainly
old enough to buy
alcohol!
And why not, I
say. Whatever gets
the knitters and
sitters
up and active has
got to be a good
thing.
* Gerry
Hostetler writes
the “It’s a Matter
of Life” column for
The Charlotte
Observer.
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