The other day, after shopping at my neighborhood Food Lion on Beatties Ford Road, I ended up checking out in a line where an elderly woman was having a bit of trouble.
The senior patron was emptying her basket and arranging things onto the conveyer belt in some ritual that made sense to her. When the cashier finally had everything bagged up, our senior diva produced a fist full of coupons. She was most likely on a fixed income — and we can all stand to save wherever possible — but she had coupons that were expired or for things she had not purchased. Every time the cashier made her aware of this, the woman had to inspect her bag to make sure the item truly did not exist.
As she checked out, it seemed the world around her was moving at a rapid pace, yet she remained still, like that scene in a television show where everything speeds up around one element in stasis. But this seasoned diva was not concerned with the hectic world around her — she just wanted to make sure she got credit for her coupon on peach preserves.
As the staff and other folks in line remained patient and helpful, I couldn’t help but wonder how long this woman, who was about my grandmother’s age, had been a Charlotte resident and how much things have changed around her.
Like most cities, Charlotte participates in various revitalization projects — a commitment to reinvest in historically neglected areas. While it seems very admirable on paper, sometimes revitalization means “out with the old and in with the new.” I saw this as a resident of Atlanta, where low-income folks were displaced to make room for urban renewal during preparation for the 1996 Olympic Games.
I recently relocated to west Charlotte, near the Brightwalk neighborhood, a revitalization project on Statesville Avenue. Brightwalk sits on the historic site of the former Double Oaks community, a once 576-home neighborhood, built in 1950.
Brightwalk boasts many exciting developments, but what stands out are special communities like The Gables, an apartment complex and community that houses 133 low-income senior citizens.
Sandra Tate Simpson has lived in west Charlotte for 63 years and recently moved into the Gables.
“I remember when they leveled … Double Oaks,” Simpson said. “It was kind of sad, but I like what they are doing. Things are changing so quickly around here that sometimes I don’t recognize the city. But I am glad that there are places like this, where folks like me can come back to the neighborhood.”
The driving force behind the Gables is the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership, a private, nonprofit housing development. President Julie Porter said projects like The Gables are important to include in revitalization projects like Brightwalk so that low- and middle-income residents remain in the neighborhood.
“It is often difficult for seniors to remain in houses that have access barriers, and there is risk, because of lack of transportation, they will become cut off from needed services as well as family and friends,” Porter told me. “For low-income seniors, the upkeep of houses and utility costs can be tremendous burdens. It is therefore important, in neighborhoods with high percentage of aging population, to have high-quality affordable housing and access to needed services. It helps stabilize neighborhoods and allows seniors to stay in their community of choice as they grow older. “
The women in the checkout line reminded me of the importance of inclusion — and kindness.
After clearing up the coupon issue, the seasoned diva realized she did not have enough money to pay her tab and that she would have to go to her car and get some more cash from her husband.
After I scanned a few gossip rags in line, our seasoned diva finally returned, extra cash in hand. She paid her bill and began to leave, but not before the cashier realized she had left a bag behind. Another patron promptly scrambled out the door to deliver it to her.
The elderly couple was just finishing putting the groceries away in the car when I was leaving. Her husband, an obvious gentleman, helped her get into the car, and I offered to take the basket from him and return it to the bin. It was nice to see these two senior residents being independent, but my hope is that more housing options, like The Gables, pop up around revitalized areas in Charlotte.
This article appears in Nov 13-19, 2013.
You summed it well.
As the times become more fretful, we are finding that more and more the senior issues you raised, ie, senior food shopping, fixed incomes, familiar affordable housing and the likes will need greater attention from us. Our seniors are living longer and that should not be seen as a curse on society or its progress. The elderly will need more care and assisted living arrangements as they move along LONGER in years. But too some of the lesser or “softer” necessities confronting our elderly will also requite our notice: kind and patient consideration, gentle and unwearied engagement and perhaps most important, social independence– just being allowed to do for themselves as they can and in safe and non-threatening atmospheres. To not be pastured.
I have spent all my life around seniors in one form or another. I was a favorite of my late grandmother Anna and her late sister—and my mother’s favorite aunt, Lucille. I was a well regarded by my grandfather Emory and his oldest brother, my Uncle King. I gathered and tucked away many great pearls during long lazy hot summer seasons when I would visit them for long stretches and eat with them each day from their garden raised vegetables and fruits.
The closely knit historically significant in-town communities in which I was reared were teeming with bright and energetic hoary heads that supervised election registrations, managed neighborhood planning units, maintained food and clothing pantries, volunteered hours at local schools where they sustained a consistent monitoring of all scholastic activities. Young people were treated like enduring treasures for which those seniors gave the last measure to ensure better lives for us.
When we left to go away to college, they would give us small “tokens to know how much we love you.” It should be no wonder that the first social sciences courses I took as an undergrad was one in gerontology, the study of these very special elderly citizens.
I still visit many seniors who busy themselves with everything from church work to Greek Letter activities. I could not imagine life without them.
Now my mother is a late octogenarian. And though hardly the feisty soul she was in raising siblings, her own five, her grandchildren, community children, she still commands a great presence as she is very much a lady and is discreet in the most mannerly of ways.
Mom has adult children and we are able to take absolute care of everything she needs. I do know it is not the same for so many others.
Professor you have broached a very meaningful and weighty topic that is quite close to me. It does not receive half the airing in social and media forums it deserves.
For all the great progress and ingenuity to which our country can lay claim, it has yet to approximate the so-called underdeveloped worlds in taking care of the elderly.
Little wonder why in the most basic areas of gerontological humanity and civility we ourselves could learn a thing or two – from those emergent.
Just in time for our own transitions, if the world will have us.
@Tony-Tony Stark You and I both are very endeared to the elders in our lives. My grandparents were like second parents to me as I spent almost every summer with them and became an old soul because of that exposure…smile.
You are right that many seniors still maintain an active life of giving back to the community in some sort of fashion but I do not not see the same energy being returned as it relates to honoring the elders in our community.
You are so blessed to still have your Mom with you and I know you guys honor and love her greatly. My hope is that as we move forward sometimes at break neck speeds that we do not forget those that have paved the way for all of this progressive change.
Thank you as always for reading and sharing such insightful commentary.
Charles,
Can you write an article on the knockout game, I’m sure you know about it. African American youth assaulting white americans on a daily basis for no reason. Can you explore the racism behind this?
You have done a great job exploring other avenues of race, would like to see you address this one.
@rje@gmail.com I have heard of young guys historically “wilding out” causing general chaos but the knockout game is a new concept to me. I will research it. Thank you for reading and sharing possible topic ideas.