%
Senior citizens clu
emotional stability
By AUDREY L. WILLIAMS
Chronicle Staff Writer
Seventy-one-year-old Baxter Holman Sr. never pictured
himself getting old, he says, nor did he think about
being a member of a group made up of only senior
citizens.
"I didn't think I'd ever get this old," says the cue and
piano man for the Rhythm Band, one of 24 senior
citizens group formed through lIxtiCTinrewfr- in Self-?
"? ReffiHIW? FlfC. founded 18 years ago under the present
president, a spry 88-year-old Gladys Gaither, along with
Alberta Reynolds and Euphonia Workman, members
meet each Thursday at ESR's Senior Center on Patterson
Avenue to play their favorite hymns and gospel selections
on tambourines, drums, bazookas and cymbals.
Overall, there are over 121 senior citizens clubs supervised
and coordinated under the Winston-Salem Recreation
Department. The general concept surrounding senior
citizens clubs, say geriatric and mental health specialists,
is to ensure that their members remain active mentally
and physically.
Joyce Jackson, coordinator of the clubs who meet at
the Patterson Avenue center, has been working with
senior citizens five and a half years now.
"The senior citizens clubs are really active," she says.
"One of our clubs is going to Canada for a week and the
Bon Air Club is going to the beach in July.
"A lot of the trips are one-day, but they're going
places," she says, "and then we have an adult basic
education class for those who want to get their GED
(general equivalency diploma*or high school credit)."
The North Carolina Senior Citizens Federation
Association, an advocate for the elderly, was founded
. here in Winston-Salem and ESR's executive director
Louise Wilson played an instrumental role in organreing
the now statewide group. At the recent NCSCFA
^ ' vaiia.., I BN^
z **
Talented
Anthony Brown is already making his mark in t
music (photo by James Parker).
?7 rwi f
rur rruner 1 ucner,
* *
? "nSy-KCWnrADAMSr
Chronicle Staff Writer __
Walter Tucker, the new senior vice president and city
executive of Mechanics and Farmers Bank on Claremont
Avenue, doesn't say much about the sudden resignations
of Mel White and Betty Hanes, the bank's former two
top executives.
Instead, Tucker says he prefers to talk about the job he
came to Winston-Salem to do. Number one on his agenda
is improving the bank's relationship with the black community.
4'We don't have the kind of relationship I feel we
ought to have," says Tucker. "The income per capita
among blacks in Winston-Salem, I understand, is higher
than in any other city in'North Carolina. We (Mechanics
and Farmers Bank top executives) are impressed with that
market but we have not scratched the surface of breaking
that market. We haven't got to where we ought to be." '
Getting to where Tucker wants to be might take a little
time. After all, the black-owned bank only opened in
Winston-Salem in 1981 and still operates under the old
bankers hours, closing daily at 1 p.m. and reopening at 3
p.m. Unlike the other banks in town, it only has one
branch, with its closest competitor located directly across
the street.
But Tucker is willing to wait. He says it takes a while
for people to change banks they have been doing business
with for years.
"It takes time. People are not willing to change banks
X
%
V
ibs: A way to
r and happiness
pageant, Winston native Dessie Oliver, 75 and a member
of the Gray Avenue Senior Citizens Club since 1968, was
the first runner-up.
She represented all the senior citizens of WinstonSalem.
"It gave me a lot of experience," she says. "I enjoyed
it because people think you're too old to do things like
this. I enjoy working with other senior citizens. I think
Ij ?A*ii i
i in suu oeautiiui ana I'll do what I can to stay that way
"I joined the (senior citizens) club because 1 was sitting
around at home with nothing to do and no where to go,"
says Oliver. "1 think it's a wonderful privlege when you
"I enjoy working with other senior citizens. I
think I'm still beautiful and I'll do what I can to
stay that way until the Lord takes me. "
? Dessie Oliver
get our age and have other people to be with and do
things like learning to read together, learning to sew. It's
a wonderful blessing."
Delores Guthrie, director of the Senior Center, says the <
biggest problems senior citizens clubs are facing is lack of
transportation to get to and from their meeting places, i
unless members live at their meeting places, like those of
Sunrise and Crystal Towers, apartment buildings for the <
elderly. Then, she says, transportation is still a problem, i
Having available vans to take the senior citizens on
outings has also been a problem. But, Guthrie says, the (
major needs of the elderly are being met.
"It's very important that we continue these clubs," she
says. "We have people who are socially as well as
economically deprived.
"These clubs help promote mental health and they
IV Ijfik ^1 I
i
1
he world of art. ' Now he's experimenting with <
%
it's business as usua
untesy trtey wrtTr^fo-cti ^prtsct A "i
bank," he says. "It's almost like a church relationship.
People don't change churches unless something awful >
happens. c
"In due time, people will see our good work and come
to us. We consider ourselves a symbol for black North r
Carolinians. It's different riding down Claremont s
Avenue and pointing out Wachovia and pointing out \
Mechanics and Farmers. There is a sense of pride in seeing
that it is owned by us, and it's ours." \ t
The sense of pride that Tucker says the community j
o
"In due time people will see our good work and <
come to us."
? Walter Tucker 1
(
should have for Mechanics and Farmers is one of the <
reasons he has been employed with the company since
1958. <
After completing college at Virginia State and a two- I
year tour of duty with the Army, Tucker left his native i
Blackstone, Va., and moved South looking for a job. He
thought he had found one with black-owned North 1
Carolina Mutual Insurance Co., but was mistaken.
"North Carolina Mutual was located in the same
building as Mechanics and Farmers,M says Tucker. 44I
thought I was at the insurance company but I was in the
\ ?,
w
zine Sectii
A
** *^JH
|k] LyJ L l
I aHHHHK^V^
Keeping Active
Mrs. Maggie Brown, a member of the Rhythm Band
rendition of MAmaz!ng Grace** (photo by James Pari
ceep the elderly socially active and theV (the members)
also use their resources," says Guthrie. "Some may sew,
others type and then some may have public speaking
skills, but they*re still using their resources and keeping
them in the community through these clubs."
According to experts, the major problem facing the
elderly isn't always the fact that once they retire they
must live on fixed incomes, but that they tend to suffer
from severe depression and loneliness, in turn leading to
deteriorated minds and bodies. Barbara Muse, assistant
director of the Forsyth-Stokes County Mental Health
Association agrees with Guthrie that senior citizens clubs
promote mental wellness.
"I personally believe that clubs and support groups are
important for everyone's mental wellness," she says.
Sibling rivalry spark
By AUDREY L. WILLIAMS
Chronicle Staff Writer -
One of the reasons 13-year-old Anthony Brown has excelled
in art and academics is because of an age-old condition
called sibling rivalry.
"I got started into art through my brother Richard,"
says Anthony. "He would draw pictures all the time and
bring them home and mom would be impressed. I was .
jealous, so I started drawing."
Anthony, the eldest child of Richard and Rosa Brown
who reside in a tidy brick home on Pleasant Street, have <
his brothers, 10-year-old Richard Jr. and 7-year-old
Alain, to compete with for his parents' attention and
praise.
But Mrs. Brown supports all three equally and says she
finds their artistic talents true gifts from God.
, "Their talents just manifested in them," she says. "It's
amazing. My baby is scribbling now. It's in him, too.
"I'm very proud of Anthony and all of my boys," she
says. "They didn't get it from me but then again some
people just think of art as just drawing, but it's
decorating, doing odd things around the house, cooking,
floral arrangements. I like to do all of that/'
Anthony's work consists of a variety of pencil drawings,
charcoal and watercolor paintings. His work has
been displayed at Hanes Mall, Wachovia Bank and Trust
Co. and recently displayed a still-life charcoal at the
Journal and Sentinel building. A conscientious student
l at Mechanics and I
The foul-up didn't disturb Tucker too much because
vorking for a minority-owned bank, like an insurance
:ompany, amazed him.
"1 liked the icjea of blacks owning businesses that were
lormally associated with the majority community," he
;ays. "I was really looking at being affiliated with a
)lack-owned institution."
Tucker made that mix-up 26 years ago, but his love for
he banking industry has not changed even though he has
noved from a teller window to the top executive's office. ^
" i ne jod nas oecome very complicated, though,"
rucker says. "The environment has become more
:onsumer-oriented and banking is very diversified now. ]
We used to have only one kind of savings account .... s
Mnow there are 16 different kinds of savings accounts." *
Because the banking business'has changed so much,
rucker says minority-owned banks, like other '
:ommunity-based banks, have a difficult time trying to
:ompete with the larger, more diversified institutions.
"There are some areas we can't get into because we
don't have the staff or it's too expensive," Tucker says.
But the one saving grace of Mechanics and Farmers is to
remain a community bank and become people-oriented.
Although banking has been Tucker's life for most of
his adult life, he himself is as diversified as the banking
industry. 1
His wife died a year and a half ago and he has since
become both mother and father to his three children. I
Please see page B5 ?
^ *
Section B
jJM M Thursday, June 21, 1984
b
K
fl ^k
\j M
^^^BBMBBiMfcPWgHgWpp^ii ^ r. *-- J*F^-i**' J9 I
M^^fl B^HMk .^5 jH
V
Senior Citizens Club, gives her all during the band's
;er).
"Loneliness is one the major problems and if senior
citizens stay at home," says Muse, "that loneliness tends
to grow, but if they get out and become active, then they
don't have time to sit and think about their problems or
their aches and pains."
Musew says research has proven that physical activity
increases the chemical in the brain that fights against
depression, and with the elderly depression can be deadly.
"Staying shut up alone and inactive only feeds depression,"
says Muse, "and the deterioration of aging.
"We don't like having to treat people with mental illness,"
she says. "We're promoting physical activity and
laughter, which works to keep the elderly and everyone
healthy and happy."
pH Qrf Intorocfc
MI 1, 1111V1 VJiO
who chalks up only A's and B's, Anthony will enter the
eighth grade at HiH High next year and begin a much
more strenous academic curriculum.
"1 want the enrichment in academics," he says, "and
in art, too."
Because his talents were recognized at an early age and
thought to be above average,-Anthony received a scholarship
to study basic adult art at the Sawtooth Center. His
younger brother, Richard, will also attend in July.
While in the seventh grade at Philo Junior High School
this past year, the honor student knocked other com'7
want to make art a part of my life ... "
-Anthony Brown
petitors out of the running when he presented his interOretation
of an PYfitino rar#?#?r Hnrino cr?hr*rkl
f ? ? v?l ?aut ll>g kliv JVIIWI J J JIWIII a
citywide career poster contest. The finished product is
now on display at the city-county school administration
office.
44I want to make art a part of my life," says Anthony.
44I want to study art and all the basic skills of it. Maybe
one day I can branch off into other jobs that call for art,
like architecture." ? T
At Philo, Anthony played corner back for the school
football team and competed and won in the 220-relay in
Please see page B5
farmers Bank
' '.v-vv
'-;^^ fl
JB ^S
^ Hi ii I
J B
I^^HRRMfuTn^fflBSilHHI
Walter Tucker: Mechanic and Fanners new city
executive says the bank has a ways to go be
'ore getting where It wants to be (photo by
lames Parker).