Super Senior Bob Ross

He had a cup of coffee in one hand and was gesturing while telling a group of six ladies around a small table in the lobby that he was supposed to be here at 8:30 am to meet someone.

That someone was me and I waved to him and indicated I was waiting in line at the fancy cappuccino machine. There were six versions of lattes. What’s the difference between a Dali latte and a French one? I didn't know. The woman in front of me blindly chose from a different screen, apologizing for her hesitation.

“I just moved in,” she explained. Another group of women at another table welcomed her over. I followed Bob Ross over to a table in a quieter area.

“What’s your secret?” I asked him, while sliding into the facing chair. If I were one of those vendors at the State Fair who have to guess your age within five years, I would have lost. I would’ve guessed Bob was in his seventies. It ends up he’s ninety-two.

“Good genes, exercise and friends,” he answered.

Bob does weight-training three times a week, cardio two days, and then walks with a group he’s known for over forty years the other two days.

“He’s always out and I am not joking at all when I ask him if he can fit us into his busy schedule,” Martha Bader said.

“Have you always been that way?” I asked.

He admitted he had not. In his later forties, after being pretty inactive for his early adulthood, he had taken up racquetball, but was often losing. “I wanted to get better and someone told me running was the way,” he said, and then he was interrupted for the third time by yet another friend greeting him in passing.

“I liked running so much,” he told me, “I quit racquetball. There were seven or eight of us guys who would get together every weekend to run. What started as a running group became a social group. It really became my second family. We still get together to walk twice a week.”

I asked Bob if his kids had forced him to move. Bob had lived in same large four-bedroom home for the last 51 years.

“Oh, no, the kids were surprised,” he smiled.

“I just thought it’s silly to be worrying about having to hire someone to mow the yard, clean the house and all that rigmarole. Nuts!”

A friend told him about the Overture at Crabtree, a 55+ community, and after a visit, he signed on. He was one of the first to move in.

“I was lucky,” he said, “My daughter and her husband and my son and his wife all live locally and helped. We were in and done in two days—even hanging pictures.”

Then he looked up, “Good morning Jane,” he said, then leaned over and told me she was part of the Overture Team. “She’s great!”

“Any advice about making new friends at this age?” I asked.

“I don’t know any formula for that,” he said. “If your personality is receptive to friends, I think you’ll attract them. It’s hard to make new friends if you’re a real crab.”

I thanked him for his time and as he stood up, he started to say good bye, but then said, “Maybe I’ll see you at one of our Wine Down Wednesdays or later this week at the Luau?”

Maybe so.