Everyone Has A Story To Tell: A Visit To The Summit

Grown-up show and tell PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE SUMMIT

When we arrived at the Summit Rehabilitation Center in Plantsville to lead a round of Grown-Up Show & Tell on behalf of the Outsider, we were concerned at first that turnout might be low. But after a meeting with our host, the Summit’s recreation director Barbara Blau, it turned out we had nothing to worry about. The room on the second floor was packed, about thirty residents having gathered in a circle, waiting to share their stories.

While a staff member set up a microphone and speaker to make sure everyone could hear, I introduced myself and offered an illustration of how I pictured it going. Show & Tell is not that complicated, but a quick refresher couldn’t hurt, I figured, given that several decades may have passed since the last time the people in the room had played it. I held up a small glass jar full of grey powder and explained that it was dust from a volcano, Mount Saint Helens, that had erupted in 1980. It had been collected by my grandfather while he was on a business trip to Washington State, I said, and he had given it to me after returning from his trip.

Everybody nodded. They got the idea – although as it turned out, some had their own ideas about showing and telling. A woman named Marie held up her hands and talked about a sewing machine she used to own, describing how it worked and how she used it to make clothes for her family. She moved her hands as if she was operating the machine in her imagination – sliding the cloth, turning a knob. She did not have the machine in front of her, of course – most residents at the Summit have only a few personal mementos with them. But the stories and memories, rather than the objects, were what really mattered. When Marie finished, everyone in the room gave her a round of applause.

After Marie came Bob. Bob was holding a teddy bear, but the story he really wanted to tell was about his life, and specifically about his first job. When he was young in the 1950s or 60s, he explained, his father helped get him a job interview at Cornell University for a janitorial position. He aced the interview and was excited to learn he was hired. But then some people that he knew said, you don’t want to do that job, that’s for Black people. And he replied, 'Don’t say that, we’re all God’s children!' The audience chimed in; ‘that’s right, that's right!’

A few turns later, we came to Billy. Billy was what you might call a character, big-voiced and wise-cracking. He had brought a model of Enterprise spaceship from Star Trek. When I asked him where he got it from, he said, “Earth!”  He pressed different buttons on the model to produce different sound effects. “Phasers on stun!” he cried out, unprompted. A staffer shared that Billy received the model at Christmas time as a Secret Santa gift.

After Billy, George raised his hand. He held up a small foam-rubber toy in the shape of a brain that he would squeeze as therapy for his hand. His therapy regimen seemed to be working, because when he shook my hand he had a powerful grip. “Pleased to meet you, sir,” he said, laughing, “very pleased to meet you,” and let go slowly, happy to have demonstrated his strength.

Next Lois told a story about her family. It involved her granddaughter, and the time she brought her girlfriend home to meet her parents. The story was about nervousness and love and acceptance. It seemed like it had no physical object at its center until Lois got to the end, when she described her granddaughter’s tattoo, which was a design built around flowers representing her grandmother’s birth month.

To my mind the most memorable story was shared by a woman named Andrea. Andrea could not summon a lot of words to speak, but her eyes were intense and full of wonder. She held out a pen shaped like a doll. It was green. “Green is my favorite color,” she said, and repeated the phrase. She could not say much more about the pen, but it clearly meant the world to her.

The hour flew by. At the end, everyone who wanted to participate - and that was most people - got their chance.

If you know of a group of any kind – young or old – that would like to have us lead a round of Show & Tell, please reach out to us at editor@southingtonoutsider.org. We'll do it for free, although donations are always welcome, since we are a non profit. We do it as part of our journalistic mission, much of which involves telling stories.