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Touch
of Gray - July / August 2001
Mark
Maxwell oversees CM dining servies
Residents cheer staff playing softball
Versatile winners at 2001 Senior Games
Fifteen years of Meet The Author programs
at the Meadows
Mark
Maxwell oversees CM dining services
Major overhaul of center dining room
Today
is a very special day at Carolina Meadows when the Stars and
Stripes fly from many of the villas. Independence Day is one
of the two holidays in the year — the other is Labor
Day — when everyone turns out for a Sports Jamboree,
followed by a very special Indoor Lunchtime Picnic of traditional
Fourth of July favorites. From early morning, residents will
be competing for prizes in Golf putting and driving contests,
Croquet, Bocce, Horseshoes, Darts, Beanbag Toss, Ping Pong,
Shuffleboard. and Tennis. There is even a free-for-all Bingo
contest in the afternoon.
Mark
Maxwell, Director of Dining Services, prides himself on the
special holiday meals he offers throughout the year. There
are monthly Birthday dinners, Mother’s and Father’s
Day Specials, Irish, Italian and Greek nights. But the Fourth
of July lunch is really special and always draws a full house
of residents in red, white and blue anxious to sample the
traditional burgers, franks, chicken, pork barbecue, baked
beans and corn on the cob. Delicious traditional desserts
are also a big attraction today.
But
even on non-holiday everyday meals, the food is far from humdrum
at Carolina Meadows, as residents will attest. This is not
your average retirement community food service. "When
people hear the words ‘retirement community’ they
think institutional food that’s bland and uninteresting
", comments Mark. "That’s just not true, especially
here at Carolina Meadows. Residents expect — and get
— much much more". Like roasted Salmon-Crawfish
Scampi, Roast Cornish Hens in a Cilantro Cumin sauce, Rosemary
Roasted Leg of Lamb and Pork Chops with Barbecued Corn Salsa.
Or perhaps Belgian waffles, crepes or omelets prepared on
the scene by a talented chef right before your eyes. Not to
mention enough savory soups, delectable sandwiches and truly
spectacular desserts to satisfy any tastes.
Next
week will bring some major Dining changes at Carolina Meadows.
From July 15 through July 21 the main Dining Room will be
completely closed down. During that week no meals will be
served there because of a planned $120.000 reconstruction
and modernization of the buffet line and the serving areas.
Normally,
Independent Living residents can enjoy either lunch or dinner
in the Dining Room. During the big makeover week, only one
meal will be served daily, a lunch in the auditorium. However,
the other two Dining Rooms, in The Fairways and in the Health
Center, will continue normally to serve three meals a day.
The employee Dining Room will also remain open.
Fifteen
years ago, the Club Center Kitchen and Dining Room were designed
for institutional cooking. It is quite a different story today.
Over the past few years, under the inspired leadership of
Mark Maxwell, the kitchen has been modernized to reflect residents’
tastes and expectations. It is now country club style —
and boasts of sparkling clean with gleaming stainless steel
countertops, spotless floors and the latest versatile kettles
and broilers. Even more improvements are planned in the kitchen
in the months ahead with a new pannine grill to speed up sandwich
preparation, built in refrigeration under the cooking equipment
and a new stove-top cooking area.
Mark
knew that the dining area too had to be updated and with the
help of local designer John Lindsay, Carolina Meadows staff
and numerous suggestions from residents a plan to bring the
Dining Room into the 21st century was developed.
It
will be hard to recognize the Dining Room on July 22 when
the reconstruction is complete. Instead of the single buffet
line extending the length of the room, you will first come
to a separate salad and soup station, with heated soup cups
and chilled salad plates. An open crossway follows. No more
long lines! The next serving station will be somewhat lower
than the old counter, so making serving easier. Instead of
the old five hot wells we will now have six, in different
pans with better presentation, as Mark puts it. . Sauces and
gravies will be on the end, again lower than before, and easily
accessible. But that is not all. There will be yet another
serving area — what Mark calls a catering and show table,
a general multi-purpose area, where special dishes will be
speedily prepared to order.
Central
staff access will be available to the new soup and salad bar
so that soup and salad crocks can be refilled without having
to do it from behind residents’ backs as we do now.
CM
residents enjoy their wonderful display of desserts at the
other end of the Dining Room. You will see some major changes
there too. As Mark explains it, the problem used to be that
the old serving station allowed either for inefficient chilling
by a "cold plate" or room temperature desserts served
at room temperature. In the center of the dessert area there
will be a reach-in air curtain refrigerator, just like they
have in major food stores, from which you can pick out your
special treat, served at just the right temperature.
If
anyone really enjoys his job it is Mark Maxwell. "I guess
you would say it’s in my blood. I can’t imagine
doing anything else this rewarding," was his soft-spoken
comment as we sat in his well-organized office looking at
the blueprints for the improved Dining Room.
Remember
the Falklands Islands war some years ago? Well, Great Britain
had a similar showdown with Argentina many years ago, and
among the British troops in The Falklands was Mark Maxwell’s
father. Mark’s mother had been a Queen Alexandra Nurse
with the British Army and had seen service on the Northwest
Frontier between India and Pakistan, and also in Palestine
and Egypt. Mark was born in the Falkland Islands. He and his
parents returned to England two years later.
Mark
began his food service career almost forty years ago as an
apprentice waiter in a five-star hotel in England. A stint
at a hotel-management school in London, finishing at the prestigious
Culinary Institute of America; a business degree at Penn State
and years in hotel, university and large hospital and CCRC
Food Service management prepared him well for his job here.
Mark
lives in Downing Creek within easy reach of his work and of
UNC Hospitals, where his wife, Jeanne, is a charge nurse and
works in the Burn, Surgical and the Transplant Clinics. Mark
has two sons. Erik, 24 years old, married to Amy, lives in
Columbus, Ohio. Kevin, 15 years old, will be a junior this
fall at Jordan High in Durham.
In
his sixth year here, Mark constantly comments on how much
he enjoys his work here. "The strong support we get from
residents as well as from the administration is heartwarming
and much appreciated, " he adds. " Every day is
a challenge, but rewarding too. We enjoy providing a quality
service, especially as it so appreciated by the residents.
We can’t wait to get back to full service in our upgraded
facilities later this month." Neither can we.
We
asked Mark if he had a special recipe that he could recommend
to us, one that would be appropriate for the country’s
birthday. He came up with this suggestion for Marinated Grilled
Vegetables, which certainly sounds appetizing and should go
well with traditional cooking on the grill for the Fourth
of July.!
MARINATED
GRILLED VEGETABLES
(serves 10, preparation time 20 minutes)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup olive oil; 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar;
1/2 package fresh cilantro; 1/2 package fresh thyme leaves;
2 inches fresh ginger root; 1 pinch kosher salt; 1 pinch freshly
ground pepper; 1 bunch fresh asparagus; 2 zucchini; 2 yellow
squash; 1 eggplant; I yellow bell pepper; 1 red bell pepper;
1 orange bell pepper; 2 portobello mushrooms; 2 vidalia onions.
Combine
vinegar, ginger, herbs, salt and pepper in cuisinart and drizzle
in oil while processing to emulsify the marinade.
Wash
and pat dry all vegetables. Slice about 3 to 4 inches
thick (on the bias if necessary to prevent falling through
the grids on the grill). Toss each type of vegetable in the
marinade and store in a non-reactive container and refrigerate
from 6 to 12 hours.
Here’s
a suggestion. Keep each type of vegetable together to make
the grilling and plating process easier. Also marinate the
eggplants only one hour before grilling, as it tends to absorb
a lot of marinade and may get too soggy when grilled.
Preheat
the grill to medium hot and starting with the asparagus, then
eggplant, then squash, then peppers, then onions, then mushrooms,
cook as space permits on the grill. As vegetables show the
grill marks, turn over to cook other side.
Should
make a tasty dish to go with your franks and burgers!
--
Des Reilly
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Residents
cheer staff playing softball
Sometimes
we miss the best of the free entertainment available. I'll
bet you don't know about the fiery softball games played at
Anderson Park off Highway 54 in Carrboro. The Carrboro Recreation
& Parks League had ten teams playing slow-pitch softball
during their Spring season that ended June 28. They expect
to have fourteen teams for the Fall season starting in August
and going through the end of September.
Oscar's
Bar & Grill sponsors one of the teams that features our
own staff member Teena Capps, who heads up the Transportation
group at Carolina Meadows and Jody Rite from the Activities
Department. Teena plays as a fierce defender of second base
and has been with the team since they started seven or eight
years ago. Jody is a late comer with only four years in the
line-up and is recognized as a star pitcher.
Several
Carolina Meadows residents have cheered them on to the Spring
2001 Championship, but they welcome more residents to come
out and join their cheering section. Games are usually on
Tuesday or Thursday evenings. You may want to bring a cushion
to soften the metal bleachers. Last but not least is that
sometimes Ed Blalock, who cares for our golf course, is a
league umpire and this gives us an opportunity to boo an umpire
we know!
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Versatile
winners at 2001 Senior Games
When
the Council on Aging recently announced the winners of the
2001 Senior Games, several Carolina Meadows received multiple
awards. Jim Butcher was cited in Cycling 5K (gold), Swimming
Backstroke 100M (gold), Swimming Backstroke 200 M (gold),
Swimming Butterfly 50M (silver), Swimming Butterfly 100 M
(silver), Track/Field Discus (gold), Track/Field Football
Throw (gold), Track/Field 1500 M Race Walk (gold) and Track/Field
Standing Long Jump (gold). Not to be outdone, Jim’s wife,
Claire Butcher received the gold in Cycling 1 Mile, Cycling
5 Mile and Track/Field 1500M Race Walk. Another husband and
wife couple from the Meadows were the Kents. Betty Kent received
the gold in Bowling Singles and in Bowling Women’s Mixed
Doubles. Bob Kent, Carolina Meadows best-known distance cyclist,
won the gold in Cycling 5K. In Golf, Carolina Meadows were
out in force, taking three of the seven gold awards. A Meadows
husband and wife, Bob R. Wilson and Helen Wilson, and Fred
Govern were the three winners. Other gold winners in this
year’s Games were Bob Nelson in Bowling Mixed Doubles
and Arnold Post in Tennis Men’s Singles.
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Fifteen
years of Meet The Author programs at the Meadows
There
were 54 residents in Carolina Meadows in 1986. One of these
was Kathleen Mast, the second person to move into the community
a year earlier. Kathleen, now in her nineties and still living
in the same villa, remembers those early days.
"We
had come from many different parts of the country" she
commented, "and shared the same values and interests.
How could we get to know each other better?" she asked.
At the request of the newly formed Residents Association,
Kathleen headed a committee called RAP — the Recreation
Activities Program. She asked her friend, Dorothy McCuskey,
another recently arrived resident, for help.
Dorothy
McCuskey, Phi Beta Kappa, and a Ph.D. from Yale in American
Literature, had been living in Chapel Hill since 1973. She
taught Teachers’ Education in eight States and served
for three years in the Navy in World War Two. She spent 16
years as a professor in Educational Leadership at Western
Michigan University. In Chapel Hill Dorothy had been one of
the founders of Peer Learning, that remarkable volunteer program
that draws on talented local residents as speakers on a variety
of topics.
"Let’s
form a Book Discussion group here at Carolina Meadows,"
Dorothy suggested. 30 residents signed up and 10 attended
a meeting. But no one was willing to review a book, Dorothy
remembers. "So we decided to get the authors themselves
to come and read from their books. That’s how Meet the
Author began." "I was so glad to work on this program,"
Dorothy commented. "I did not really enjoy being retired
— when I felt there were ways I could introduce my friends
to the world of books."
Fifteen
years later, Meet the Author continues to be one of the outstanding
monthly programs on campus. Now 94 years of age and a resident
of the Carolina Meadows Health Center, Dorothy still follows
the activities of Meet the Author with interest. She attended
the final Spring offering in June of this year when Rod Cockshutt,
book reviewer for the News & Observer and English professor
at NC State, presented his choices of mystery writers for
summer reading.
How
did she get her early speakers? As we sat and chatted in her
sunlit room overlooking the first hole of the golf course,
she told me how she went to the authors listed to speak at
Friends of the Library in Chapel Hill and asked them to read
from their latest books at Carolina Meadows.
So
the first program was offered on Tuesday afternoon, January
6, 1987 in the basement of the Club Center. An overflow crowd
of fifty residents heard Chapel Hill newspaper man Roland
Giduz discuss his new book, Who's Gonna Cover Em Up! Chapel
Hill Uncovered- 1950-1985. Three years later Roland Giduz
returned with another newspaper columnist, Jim Shumaker, whose
selected columns from The Charlotte Observer had just been
published as Shu. Roland Giduz will be back again this December
presenting readings from his latest book.
Over
the next six years Dorothy brought sixty authors on to the
campus reaching out to a variety of contacts at UNC, Duke,
State and Research Triangle Park to find her speakers.
There
is a second resident of Carolina Meadows who is an important
figure in the Meet the Author story. That is Elizabeth Tate,
another Phi Beta Kappa with her doctorate from the University
of Chicago. Elizabeth came to Carolina Meadows in March 1991
and became a most valuable assistant to Dorothy in organizing
and running the program. Her professional background in Library
Science and many years of work with the Library of Congress
and the National Bureau of Standards was put to good use.
She became co-chair of the program in March,1993. A year later
she assumed full control and she has been running Meet the
Author ever since.
Programs
are usually held at 2 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month,
but nowadays in the auditorium. After most sessions, an autographed
copy of the author’s book goes into Carolina Meadows
8,000 volume library. Each meeting ends with cookies, fruit
and punch and the opportunity to meet the author in person.
The program runs all year except for the summer months when
movies made from notable books, like The Agony and the Ecstasy,
Of Human Bondage, The Good Earth and Little Women are presented
instead.
Both
Dorothy and Elizabeth in addition to recruiting authors —
and they always ask residents ahead of time whom they would
like to hear- work on researching the backgrounds of authors.
Each meeting starts with an illuminating and often humorous
introduction to the program. Don Hamm, a fellow resident who
never misses a program, confessed to me before a recent session
that he really comes to hear Elizabeth’s introductions
as much as the presentation of the main speaker1
Other
newspaper authors who have been guests on the program included
Vermont Royster, retired editor of The Wall Street Journal,
William Warner, author and former editor of The Independent,
and Hal Crowther, a columnist for that same paper. Hal was
back recently, this time accompanied by his wife, Lee Smith,
also a speaker here in her own right on several occasions.
Local
columnists have been popular with Carolina Meadows audiences.
We have had more than once, Louis Rubin, founder of Algonquin
Press, Joe & Teresa Graedon, of The People’s Pharmacy
fame, Edmund Fuller of the Wall Street Journal, Robert Seymour
and G.D. Gearino, both well-known local columnists.
Politicians
have come too. Our local congressman, David Price, talked
about his book, the Congressional Experience. Terry Sanford
made one of his last public appearances here in November.
1997, when he shared with us his beliefs in Outlive your Enemies:
Grow Old Gracefully.
William
E. Leuchtenburg was here in 1991, lecturing on FDR and the
South. Some five years later he was back with his FDR Years.
This fall, when the program resumes in October, he will visit
us again with more of his reports on U.S. Presidents he has
known.
Most
familiar of all to Meet the Author audiences are the CM residents
who have been our guest speakers. Former longtime residents,
Harry & Evelyn Groves, spoke on their book, USSR Odyssey,
in 1990. In October 1994 Sterling Brackett and Peg Wharton
came to the rescue when the scheduled speaker unexpectedly
moved to Connecticut. Elizabeth Kytle shared with us her compassionate
observations in The Voices of Robby Wilde and Willie Mae.
Five CM poets, Elizabeth Bolton, Dorothy Ferster, J. Ross
Macdonald, Nanette Melcher and Joe Patterson, read some of
their poetry in November 1998. Fred Kilgour, Distinguished
UNC-CH Professor since 1990 and an authority on research libraries,
spoke on The Evolution of the Book in 1992 and in 1998 was
back for another presentation on the same topic.
Historians
are popular with CM audiences and we enjoy their visits. Many
of the books based on our speakers' scholarly research have
made "familiar things new". Louis A. Perez, Jr.,
most certainly made us see the Spanish-American War in a new
light when he spoke about his work, The War of 1898: The
United States and Cuban History and Historiography. An
intimate glimpse of a Southern hero and his family was shared
with us when Robert E. Lee's great- granddaughter, Anne Carter
Zimmer, carne here from Virginia to tell us about The Robert
E. Lee Family Cooking and Housekeeping Book.
"How
do you manage to get all these authors to come here?"
I asked Elizabeth. "Aren’t you afraid they will
turn you down sometimes?"
She
admitted that it did take a lot of courage to call the busy
authors she wished to invite until she realized that a busy
person can always say no, but he or she can’t say no
until you have invited them. "And", Dorothy added,
" so few have said no that the residents have had the
pleasure of hearing a goodly number of authors who are experts
in their fields."
There
have been 154 different presentations by authors in the fifteen
years the program has been in existence. And Meet the Author
will be back again this fall, one of the most successful and
popular programs ever offered to Carolina Meadows residents,
thanks to the perseverance and hard work of two talented ladies,
Dorothy McCuskey and Elizabeth Tate. -- Des Reilly
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