Elderhostel

A correctional officer at the maximum-security prison opened a cell door and asked Betty Carp if she would like to step inside. The 77-year-old Pikesville woman found herself in a small room with a cot and television set. On the wall was a bulletin board filled with pictures and a hand-lettered note from a little boy which read, "We Miss You Daddy."The prison tour was "fantastic," Mrs. Carp says of the memorable field trip arranged by the warden who was teaching a course in crime and punishment that she was taking.

Harriette D. Holway, a former dietitian who was an active member of Catonsville Presbyterian Church, died Dec. 15 of cancer at the Charlestown Retirement Community. She was 85. The daughter of a grocer and an educator, Harriette Dean was born and raised in Trafford, Pa. After graduating in 1944 from Trafford High School, she earned a bachelor's degree in 1948 in dietetics from Lake Erie College in Painsville, Ohio. While completing her dietetic internship at Grasslands Hospital in Valhalla, N.Y., she met her future husband through her supervisor.

Elderhostel is a non-profit organization that provides low-cost educational programs for adults aged 60 and older. The Boston-based headquarters oversees a network of nearly 2,000 academic and cultural institutions throughout the United States and Canada and in 47 countries overseas. Hosts include colleges and universities, conference centers, youth hostels, YMCAs and YWCAs, state and national parks, museums, theaters and other sites.Starting this week, the expanded Elderhostel program at Peabody Institute will bring approximately 4,000 senior citizens a year to Peabody for week-long courses in music and dance.

Janice W. Harwood, who brought a love of art and plenty of enthusiasm to her work as a Walters Art Museum docent and educator, died of heart failure Sunday at Holly Hill Manor, a Towson nursing and rehabilitation facility. She was 74. Janice R. Wagner, the daughter of an industrial arts teacher and homemaker, was born and raised in Canton, Ohio. She earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts from Bowling Green State University in 1957, and a master's degree in studio and art history in 1960 from what is now Case Western Reserve University.

With little local fanfare, the Peabody Institute has quietly become one of the preferred destinations for couples and individuals participating in the Elderhostel program for adults ages 60 and older. The Peabody's intensive, week-long, music and dance courses are regularly packed. Long waiting lists are not unusual.This popularity among studious seniors led Peabody officials to undertake an ambitious expansion project that included the total renovation of four large town houses on Mount Vernon Place as the new Elderhostel headquarters.

Elderhostel is an organization that lures retirees out of their comfortable homes and into far-flung dormitories for weeklong meditations on subjects from physics to poetry to architecture. It began as a collaboration between a visionary hippie and a university administrator, and grew into a nonprofit group that has grabbed a massive market away from the highly competitive travel industry. It is frequently what older people talk about when younger people aren't paying attention.But now the elders are getting younger, and their travels are getting bolder.

Elderhostel, a non-profit network with a lip-smacking smorgasbord of live-in academic programs for travelers 60 and older, served up 265,000 courses last year. And its average participant came back for a fourth helping.Since its founding in 1975, Elderhostel's enrollments have increased 15 percent to 25 percent a year, from 220 to last year's 265,000. Now other organizations and tour operators are taking note of this seemingly insatiable hunger of mature Americans for deepening their learning as they travel.

Q: ld you give me an address for contacting Elderhostel to obtain program information?A: Elderhostel, which offers thousands of short-term cultural and educational programs for people age 60 and over (the spouse of an eligible participant can be 50 or over), is at 75 Federal St., Boston, Mass. 02110.It mails catalogs 10 times a year giving details of thousands of programs at colleges, conference centers and other institutions in the United States and 47 foreign countries. Expect a four-week wait in receiving the first mailing.

It's not a typical vacation -- a week in a college town studying the history of comedy and the art of math.But 25 years ago, Evelyn and Murray Amster vowed to keep their gray cells active during retirement. Since then, the Cranbury, N.J., grandparents -- she's 85, and he's 87 -- have traveled to dozens of cities throughout the nation attending Elderhostel programs to learn about various subjects."We're always looking for outlets for furthering education stimulation," Murray Amster said. "We don't like to sit at home, staring at the four walls."

In early morning, Hessian Lake in the Hudson River Valley is as still as glass. Trees, banked up against Bear Mountain like tiers of colored lollipops, paint their picture on the smooth surface in autumn shades of gold and crimson. Then, as a little breeze makes ripples in the water, the foliage shifts from mirror image to impressionistic color swatches.Jacketed against the late October chill, we snap some photos, disappointed because we can't get the whole picture without a panoramic camera.

Phyllis H. Field, a homemaker, died of pneumonia June 21 at the Charlestown Retirement Community, where she lived for the past nine years. The former Columbia resident was 92. Born Phyllis Hambsch in Rochester, N.Y., she moved as a child to Gwynn Oak Avenue and was 1932 Forest Park High School graduate. As a young woman, she worked as a medical secretary for Dr. Robert Garis on Cathedral Street. She was also a Baltimore City public schools substitute high school English teacher and did survey work for the University of Chicago.

Last spring, for her 74th birthday, Lore Cohn received a gift certificate from her brother, Werner Cohen. It was for a one-week Elderhostel program offered by Baltimore Hebrew University. Cohn, a former schoolteacher who lives in Baltimore County, was delighted. Without traveling, as most Elderhostelers have to do, she would be able to take part in the kind of educational opportunity that is the heart of Elderhostel -- a worldwide network of learning institutions that provide short, noncredit courses to people age 55 and older.

It's not a typical vacation -- a week in a college town studying the history of comedy and the art of math.But 25 years ago, Evelyn and Murray Amster vowed to keep their gray cells active during retirement. Since then, the Cranbury, N.J., grandparents -- she's 85, and he's 87 -- have traveled to dozens of cities throughout the nation attending Elderhostel programs to learn about various subjects."We're always looking for outlets for furthering education stimulation," Murray Amster said. "We don't like to sit at home, staring at the four walls."

The search continued yesterday for a retired scientist from Beltsville Agricultural Research Center who has been missing since June 10 when a sightseeing boat capsized near the Galapagos Islands off Ecuador.Richard Sayre, 80, and Diane Sayre, 70, were thrown from the 70-foot Moby Dick when it hit a rough swell and pitched four of its 15 passengers into the Pacific Ocean. The accident killed two people and left two missing at sea and feared dead.Rescuers found Diane Sayre's body, but were looking yesterday for Richard Sayre and another passenger, Lyon Zeisler, 75, said Stephen Richards, president of Elderhostel Inc., the Boston-based company that sponsored the trip.

In early morning, Hessian Lake in the Hudson River Valley is as still as glass. Trees, banked up against Bear Mountain like tiers of colored lollipops, paint their picture on the smooth surface in autumn shades of gold and crimson. Then, as a little breeze makes ripples in the water, the foliage shifts from mirror image to impressionistic color swatches.Jacketed against the late October chill, we snap some photos, disappointed because we can't get the whole picture without a panoramic camera.

Elderhostel is an organization that lures retirees out of their comfortable homes and into far-flung dormitories for weeklong meditations on subjects from physics to poetry to architecture. It began as a collaboration between a visionary hippie and a university administrator, and grew into a nonprofit group that has grabbed a massive market away from the highly competitive travel industry. It is frequently what older people talk about when younger people aren't paying attention.But now the elders are getting younger, and their travels are getting bolder.

Q: I have been to several Elderhostel programs and enjoyed them very much. However, I heard someone talking about her great experience at a Senior Ventures program. Could you please inform me whom to contact on this?A: I tracked down Senior Ventures programs at nine universities in the western United States, and they sound a lot like Elderhostel: Folks of retirement age spend time on a college campus, take enrichment courses, go on field trips and do a lot of socializing, with theater, concerts and movies in the evenings.

A row of vacant and dilapidated town houses overlooking Mount Vernon Place would be converted to a specialized hostel for visitors to Baltimore, if trustees of the Johns Hopkins University and city officials approve the project.Baltimore's Commission for Historic and Architectural Preservation is scheduled to review plans Friday for a $2.5 million renovation of the town houses at 601 to 607 N. Charles St. The four-story buildings, which date from the 1850s, would be converted to housing for visitors enrolled in the "Elderhostel" program, a nationwide network that enables senior citizens to travel nationwide and take courses during intensive, one-week visits.

As I headed out to market a couple of weeks ago, birdseed was on my list, and as I walked out the door the serious man on television was saying, "To attract the widest variety of birds, use sunflower seed."So I bought a few pounds of sunflower seeds from the bulk bin and filled the bird feeder. I then sat back and watched what turned out to be a wonderful squirrel circus.I thought perhaps I had misunderstood the man on TV until I received a mailing from the Friends of Quiet Waters Park promoting the group's birdseed sale.

Q: I have been to several Elderhostel programs and enjoyed them very much. However, I heard someone talking about her great experience at a Senior Ventures program. Could you please inform me whom to contact on this?A: I tracked down Senior Ventures programs at nine universities in the western United States, and they sound a lot like Elderhostel: Folks of retirement age spend time on a college campus, take enrichment courses, go on field trips and do a lot of socializing, with theater, concerts and movies in the evenings.