As couples glided across the dance floor past cardboard cutouts of Frank Sinatra, Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable, Gertrude Lowenstein sat at a crystal- and rose petal-topped table listening to a five-piece ensemble play classicslike “My Blue Heaven.”
“I love music and I hate being alone in my room,” Lowenstein said. “I love to watch all the young people. It gives me a lift and it reminds me of when I was young. That was the best part of my life.”
Lowenstein, 93, was among about 50 senior citizens who attended Northwestern Community Development Corps’ annual Senior Gala, a free social event for Evanston seniors held Sunday in the ballroom of the North Shore Retirement Hotel, 1611 Chicago Ave.
The gala featured student performances by Cirque de NU , the X-Factors , TONIK Tap , Indian folk dance team NU Raas and Indian-fusion dance team Mirch Masala . There was also a drawing for raffle prizes donated by nine local businesses including Le Peep and Andy’s Frozen Custard. NCDC special events co-chair Susan Sun said photographs by Justin Barbin (Comm ‘11) were given as mementos to the senior citizens.
Sun said the purpose of the event is to “build a community between Northwestern and Evanston.”
The Weinberg senior said in order to encourage more Evanston senior citizens to attend, NCDC moved the event from the Louis Room at Norris University Center, 1999 Campus Dr., where most past dances have been held.
“This year we wanted to bring it to them,” Sun said. “Last year it was really cold and a lot of them couldn’t make it out.”
A “Classic Hollywood” theme provided the opportunity for some senior citizens to share, in open-mic format, their experiences from the 1940s.
Blair Laden, 85, has helped organize the event for the past eight years. Laden recalled victory gardens, pinup girls and “the promise of the hopeful future” and compared the difficulties of the wartime era to those of today. Bill Oog, 86, remembered dancing in Chicago as a member of the U.S. Navy.
Laden and Oog were the first on the dance floor, swing-dancing to music from the Senior Stompers, an all-senior citizen band that has been playing together for 26 years.
Laden said the event allowed busy students and senior citizens to make social connections and share their stories.
“It’s important to have linking generations,” Laden said. “It’s a way of communicating with each other. We both can learn from each other. Not just learning history but what’s happening today. I think that creates a better world.”
