While I am home with the family, I tend to make it out to a place called Pheasant Inn which is in an unincorporated town named Briggsville about fifteen minutes out of Wisconsin Dells. I have a particular night that I go and that is Wednesdays. My grandmother and her companion Rue go out there because it is considered senior citizen night. Why is Wednesday senior citizen night you ask? Well I will tell you.
The Pheasant Inn was opened in 1854 and has been a hotspot for over a hundred and fifty years. When first opened, it was used as a trading post for the Menomonee Indians. Lake Mason was only a creek, which the Indians would canoe through. Once the creek was dammed & the lake was formed, the Inn was called “The Lake House”. To everyone’s dismay, the livery behind the Lake House caught fire & both structures burned to the ground. In 1912 the block structure, which still stands today was erected. The upper level served as a hotel until the late 1940’s.
In the 1950’s, the hot night to be out there was Wednesday night. All the movers and shakers from the Dells and surrounding areas would go out there for drinking, dancing, and great food. Today it is much more calm and has added on a bakery but those same movers and shakers who would come out on Wednesday nights in the fifties are still coming in for a special menu for senior citizens. The same gossip and the same circles of people are still out there and despite their ages, this set of adults are as young as freshman in college.
Today age is almost never relevant. If you are young, when is the last time you spent time in the middle of a group of people forty or more years older than you? The same conversations that they have are the same conversations we have. They talk about technology, the price of gas, budget cuts, Lady Gaga.
If you are older, when is the last time you sat in the middle of a group of people who are forty years younger than you? When I volunteer with people who are older than me, they sometimes are hesitant to be around younger groups but my generation has things to learn from are elders. Likewise, my generation have things to share and teach and many times, we need an older generation’s wit to challenge us. I love when my grandmother gets with me and my friends. She drinks with us, keeps up with our conversation no matter what it is dated and often, keeps us laughing so hard our sides ache.
Once we become adults, we have it in our head that there are still separations between us and people older than us but besides just common courtesy and respect, we are all adults. We all will continue to learn new information and teach information until the day we are no longer around. So, with that said, age is almost never relevant.