Age Is No Object

Harry Tewksbury and Cece Joyner are pals, despite their 73-year age gap.

At 76, Harry is a frequent visitor to the Highland Club, a senior citizen day-care center in Oxnard.

At 3, Cece hangs out at Children’s Wonderland, a kids’ day-care center just down the hall.

On a recent day, the two friends engaged in a friendly game of ring toss.

“C’mon Cece--you can do it!” Harry whispers, guiding her tiny hands around the ring.

She hesitates, but he keeps up the encouragement, as upbeat as a veteran trainer giving a pep talk to a fighter.

When she finally tosses the ring at a board with stakes on it, the room erupts in cheers.

She missed, but that’s OK. The point of the game isn’t winning, but connecting. The 5-year-old Highland Center offers the only intergenerational day care in Ventura County, according to officials of Aloha Pacific Inc., the company that runs both Highland and Children’s Wonderland.

Twice a day, five days a week, a platoon of up to 20 young children marches into the Highland center, affectionately known as the “grandma and grandpa room.” They play games, they sing, they read and generally have a quietly marvelous time.

The interaction fills a need on both ends, said Becky Graves, the director of Children’s Wonderland.

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“Some of the children are apprehensive when they start here because they have not had exposure to elderly people,” she said. “Many of their grandparents live out of town, out of state. This teaches them that the elderly individual is a person with gifts to offer.”

The gifts include good cheer.

On this day, the seniors belt out a song to welcome the wee ones:

“Everything I want the world to be--is now coming true especially for me.”

Old voices crack, and some are off-key. But the kids seem not to notice as they climb into well-worn laps. The beat goes on:

“And the reason is clear--it’s because you’re here.”

A young voice shouts out: “How about we do ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider’ ?”

Without hesitation, kids entwine their fingers with those on wrinkled, arthritic hands, and proceed to “climb the spout.” Suddenly, the room is alive with creepy-crawly digits. If the children are at first hesitant to be united with their elders, the feeling is not shared by the old folks.

“You put your hands out and they come right to you,” says 84-year-old Alice Saez of Ventura. “We enjoy it a lot. It makes my day!”

Sometimes, the activities at Highland are as simple as bouncing a ball, a kind of interaction that even disabled seniors can enjoy, as well as those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

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The best part is, no previous experience with kids is required.

Highland director Norma Nalus introduces 77-year-old Caroline Peyton to the kids as ‘Grandma Caroline.”

“I don’t have children,” Caroline points out. “I never married.”

“How would you feel to have all these grandchildren?” counters Nalus. “We’ll loan you some!”

Caroline breaks into a wide grin and says that would be just fine. And the children, getting the high sign from Nalus, surround their new pal in a great big hug.