One group practiced fire drills as students in school.
The other group goes through lockdown drills these days.
But the fear of the what-if links both groups.
Through a grant from the state Council on the Arts and run through CNY Arts, six senior citizens and six teens met for six weeks at Kirkland Town Library to bridge the decades and learn about each other. Called Common Thoughts, Connected Stories, they wrapped up their time as a group with a presentation at the library for family and friends recently.
The group began in March and broke the ice with some improv skits. They told the audience that helped find shared things to laugh about.
They all agreed that when people can laugh together, it can build a bond.
They also knocked down some assumptions about the other group. Seniors listed some traits about teens, such as they always think they are right. The teens, in turn, described the older adults as needing to ‘get over themselves.’’
Some of their shared traits were being loving, caring, emotional, stubborn and depressed.
One of the seniors described using her computer mouse upside down. One got in the wrong car to drive home from the store. Terry Rainey wrote a story about going skydiving for the first time with his daughter on her 21st birthday, then doing so again with his son.
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