You’ve talked about joining an AARP chapter. And getting the name changed.
Right. And sometime after I joined I became aware of a connection the chapter had with the county.
Specifically with the county’s Department of Aging.
And a county-wide seniors organization — a volunteer group — called the Baltimore County Association of Senior Citizens Organizations.
A mouthful.
Yeah. That’s why we refer to it by its initial letters: BCASCO.
Got it.
Its membership consisted of representatives of AARP chapters, senior centers, golden-age clubs. Any group or individual interested in furthering the goals of us old people.
Of course, I had to get involved. I attended meetings where we would have speakers on relevant topics.
And eventually I was elected to the Board of Directors.
Someone else was doing a fine job with the newsletter, so I just contributed information to it. But — and here we fast-forward again — when I eventually got into computers
I built a BCASCO Website and maintained it.
Anything else about what BCASCO did?
Yep. Each year the county Department of Aging put on what they called a Senior Expo. They later expanded it to include a younger crowd. The Baby Boomers.
Many booths would be set up in a large hall. Goods and services would set up tables to advertise their offerings.
We of BCASCO would join them to let people know who we were and possibly to pick up new members.
Did it work?
To some extent.
I’ll leave you with one lasting memory from those days.
Okay.
Typically we — and other booths — would have both literature about ourselves on the tables plus a collection of freebies. Note pads. Key rings. And especially pens.
At opening time — 9 a.m. — there would always be a line of attendees waiting to get in.
Sometimes it even seemed like they had their noses pressed against the glass doors.
Then the doors would open and the people would head for the tables.
And?
And they would bypass the literature, scoop up pens and other goodies, and move on to the next table.
Swell.
Later in the day, after they had plundered all the tables, they might come back and look at the literature.