Ginger Williams - Transcript

Transcript of Ginger Williams
Interviewee: Ginger Williams
Interviewers: Dorothy Nygren and Michael Helmut Meyer
Date: November 29, 2019
Place: Home of Ginger Williams, Edgewater, Chicago, IL.
Transcriber: Michael Helmut Meyer
Time: 22’37”

Copyright © 2019 Edgewater Historical Society

DN: Today is November 29, 2019, and this is Dorothy Nygren of the Edgewater Historical Society with Mike Meyer, also at the Edgewater Historical Society, doing an interview with one of our 2019 living treasures, Ginger Williams. First of all, Ginger, let me thank you for all the efforts you’ve made over the years for our community, and for a well, well deserved award, congratulations.

(0:34)

GW: Oh, thank you so much, it really means a lot to me. Sometimes you feel like you’re working alone and no one knows what you’re doing. That’s not the reason to be doing it, but it is nice to be recognized, so thank you.

DN: I’d like to start out by asking you when you came to Edgewater, and why you decided to settle here.

(0:55)

GW: So, we moved here thirty years ago in September, and the reason I know that is because that’s when we burned our thirty-year mortgage, so that was nice. The reason we came here is we were actually living in Rogers Park in a condo, and my son was getting older, and we wanted a house and all, didn’t know much about the neighborhood at all, and a friend of mine that I worked with at the hospital said “Oh, you should move to Edgewater, it’s such a great place.”

So, we came and looked at it, and fell in love with it, and obviously moved here. Then six months later my friend moved to Indiana, so [laughter] it wasn’t good enough for her I guess. But the funny thing is that the realtor we were working with, he really tried to steer us away from this area. He said it wasn’t good, it was going downhill, it was, you know, too wild, and that we should move to Evanston. So, he took us around to places in Evanston, and I just started like getting teary, because I wanted to live in Chicago, not a suburb. So, I’m glad when we didn’t take his advice and ended up here. [chuckles]

(2:13)

DN: The next question I’d like to ask you is how you got involved in volunteering and doing community work, and why you felt that that was important.

GW: I guess I’ve always been a big volunteer person. This current era of volunteering started when I was working as a nurse at the time, and my son was in the Army, was deployed to Iraq. And I was just a mess, I was so anxious all the time, and especially when the doorbell would ring, so I finally resigned being a nurse. But in my mind, it was taking a temporary absence, just so I wouldn’t impose my anxious self on patients, and I could feel better.

So, but then when I was home, I needed to do something, so I started volunteering up at Edgewater Community Council, which was right up the street at that time. And then, after a few months there, there was an opening for Housing Director, and so Doug Fraser offered me the job and I was like, “I don’t know anything about housing!” And he said, “It doesn’t matter; you can learn!” So, that’s how the working in Edgewater started, but I also continued to volunteer a lot in the area.

(3:37)

DN: So, let’s go back to what your first volunteer effort was, maybe St. Gertrude’s [Roman Catholic Church]?

GW: Oh, man! In Edgewater? Cause I could go all the way back to college if you want. [chuckles]

DN: You’re a lifelong volunteer!

(3:52]

GW: Yeah, probably at St. Gertrude’s because yeah, my son entered first grade here and I immediately got active there and like volunteered in the library, I was on the school board, helped with their fundraisers, and so forth, and then I had three daughters that went to the school also, which became Northside Catholic Academy. So yeah, that continued for a long time. But then I got more interested, as they grew older, I got more interested in the neighborhood as a whole.

DN: And block parties?

GW: Oh, block parties! That was another great thing of organizing. Yeah, this neighborhood is great for that.

(4:37)

DN: And the library?

GW: Oh yes, you’re reminding me of a lot of things! Yeah, so we had the old library. I was active in that Friends of the Edgewater Library group. I was, I think I was the Treasurer for a while and that’s when I got to know Betty Barclay and it was great. But then as you know, that library closed and I think like what, three years went by or so before It was reopened.

And so then there was no Friends group, but I knew there was still some money left in the old treasury and I didn’t want that to disappear, so yeah, I started up the Friends group again.

But fortunately, there’s a whole great group of younger people in that organization, so I didn’t have to maintain leadership for very long, then other people took over, so that’s great.

(5:33)

DN: You had many children at home, so it must have been a juggling act to take care of some of these volunteer activities and taking care of home things. Why did you feel it was important to do the outside work with the community, to volunteer and do that?

GW: Well, interestingly enough, I would say one reason is my children, because I wanted to model that for them, and I tried to pick volunteer jobs that I could bring them with me. Certainly, a lot of things at St. Gertrude’s, I could do that. And actually, when I was volunteering at Edgewater Community Council at first, that was just helping Lyn Pierce with the newsletter, but I could bring my daughters there with me and they could hang out.

Yeah, so I think kids need to see their parents being very involved in the community. But yeah, other times, I just left them with their dad.

(6:35)

DN: So, let’s talk a little more about your current volunteer project.

GW: Oh right, yes, that’s Edgewater Village, which I’m very proud of. So about two and a half years ago, I started reading about this concept of Elder Villages. There’s now two hundred and fifty of them throughout the country. It started in Beacon Hill, Massachusetts. And through working as a nurse, I often worked with older populations like nursing homes, or adult daycare, or whatever, and I really enjoyed working with older people. And as I was aging myself, it was really important to me to make sure that I and other older people in Edgewater remain in the community, and so this Elder Village concept seemed to be a good way to do that.

(7:31)

So happily, just when I was thinking about that, the City of Chicago was thinking the same thing, and so the Department of Family and Support Services offered us space over at the [Broadway] Armory in an office. No money, but at least there was a venue. So, it just worked out beautifully, and the amazing thing was this great group of volunteers that have come together. Older adults who are retired or are working part-time. I mean, it’s not something that one person could, you know, do it by themselves.

(8:12)

Actually, there was a meeting today where we were talking about other [Elder] Villages in the City, and almost all of them have paid staff, a lot of paid staff, in some cases, there’s one in Lincoln Park, the director is making six figures…yeah! [chuckles] But we’ve been able to do this, and we think really well, for no money and no paid staff. And I think that’s one thing that gives vitality to the organization, because we don’t feel like we’re a bunch of old people just, you know, like “gimme gimme!” and just waiting around for people to help us, but we feel like we have a lot to offer each other and offer the community.

(8:58)

DN: Could you talk a little bit about what you see as the mission of Edgewater Village?

GW: Well, we even have a mission statement, [chuckles] if I can remember it. “Engage and support older adults so they remain active and contributing members of the community.” The old saying used to be “age in place,” that was the buzzword, but what people have realized that it does, you can age in place in your condo, but if you’re alone and ill, and don’t have any food and everything, that’s not a very good aging experience, so the thing now is to age in community.

(9:37)

DN: Could you give a few examples about how you have helped foster that?

GW: Well the, I guess one of the biggest things we do is have a lot of programming, and that might sound trivial, like, you know, “what’s the big deal about having a retired professor from DePaul give a lecture about the solar eclipse?” or something. But besides stimulating the mind, I think there’s always a hidden agenda of getting older people together, and forming bonds of community, which incidentally has been found if you’re isolated or alone, that’s got to be more dangerous to your health than smoking, so we’re trying to prevent that isolation.

(10:30)

DN: Mike, you know Ginger from Friends of the [Edgewater] Library…

MHM: I do know Ginger from Friends of the [Edgewater] Library.

DN: So, did you have some questions specific to that you want to jump in?

(10:38)

MHM: Well I know it’s been exciting to see you kind of foster a relationship between multiple groups [Ginger chuckles, “yeah”], what have been some of your, some of the fun things that you’ve kind of brought to the library that was from the Senior Village or Elder Village?

GW: Yeah, I guess thinking of all the fun things the library has brought to me through the years [Michael chuckles] from the time I was a little, the library means so much to me. But, yeah, we’ve developed this great partnership between Edgewater Village and Friends of the Edgewater Library, where like we cosponsor events together, we get to use the great space at the library. Yeah, so, that’s been a great thing.

(11:22)

And, if I can brag a little, I think that that’s one of my skills, is like…well Saul Alinsky, the community organizer, once said that “the most radical thing you can do is introduce people to each other.” But I love that quote, and I think, I’m not, I won’t say I’m that good at what I do, but I’m really good at making connections in the community. So that would be an example of like if Friends of the Edgewater Library together with the older folks at the [Edgewater] Village, and get them related to the [48th Ward] Alderman’s Office, and maybe bring in something from St. Gertrude’s Church, and you mix it all together, and it comes out pretty good.

DN: It really does foster a sense of community to mix those disparate groups together.

GW: Yeah, it really does.

DN: And people, too.

GW: Right.

(12:14)

DN: Now, you’ve been involved in all these projects for years and years, what is left to be done?

GW: [chuckles] Well, as you know, I also work for the Alderman, and I mainly assist older adults there. As I was telling Michael before you came, I just came home from meetings all day at 4:15 [p.m.], and I thought, “Ah, I got two hours to curl up with a good book, you know, before you guys came, and then I get this phone call about this constituent who just got, he’s 84 years old, he just got evicted from his apartment yesterday, now he’s living in his car, he’s got medical issues, he’s not going to survive for very long in this weather. So, you know, we, I, you know, worked on things…again, it was basically connecting people to each other. Connect the social worker to the ER doctor, and this and that.

(13:20)

But so, I think that’s one thing that still needs to be done. For everyone like me who’s well connected to the community, there’s a surprising number of people, mainly older adults, who are incredibly isolated, especially along Sheridan Road, as they age and become more and more infirm, especially with cognitive difficulties. They often start hoarding, and it’s real sad.

I mean like the three of us [Ginger gestures toward Dorothy and Michael] are very well connected in the community, and you go in and see, you know, these people and it breaks your heart. So that’s definitely one thing I’m trying to work on.

(14:06)

MHM: Now I was just thinking about that, because I haven’t even really heard of these villages until I started talking to you [Ginger nods, “Ah, right, yeah…”], and yeah, it’s been kind of exciting to see that. So, you would say there’s even opportunities, are you looking to bring in some of the younger people to do that?

GW: Well, that’s a very good question. I actually hate to say that our organization is for, well I never use the word “seniors,” that’s verboten, but older adults. But what, I don’t think of it that way at all. To me it’s very important to be intergenerational, and so I’ll give a couple of examples I’m really proud of.

(14:45)

We started partnering first with Loyola University and their students, and then Loyola got us into Senn High School, and we got a good relationship with one of the English teachers there. So last year he had his kids [students] write memoirs, and so a group of us older adults went in and listened to the kids’ memoirs, and then we had like roundtable discussions with the kids where we, you know, we heard from each other. And it actually got very intense and emotional, like one young student was crying cause of the things we were talking about.

(15:26)

So that was great, and then another thing we did was we, the English teacher had them teach rap, how to rap, to us, which he called spoken word poetry. So, we had…

DN: That must have been really fun.

GW: [Chuckles] It was a riot! Yeah, so the kids taught us how to rap, and then they performed their compositions, and we got up there and performed ours.

(15:54)

MHM: Do you have yours still memorized?

GW: [laughs] It’s there somewhere, but I’m not going to perform it. [all laugh] My husband did really well though, surprisingly for an attorney.

(16:03)

But yeah, so on Monday we’re having Loyola students who’ve been interns with us, they’re going to give a presentation on the effects of global warming on older adults globally, which is like really interesting. So, there’ve been a lot of things like that where we just don’t want to be sitting around with other people our age.

DN: I think it’s really important to foster intergenerational not just programs, but even living.

GW: Yeah, yeah.

DN: It’s important too because in most societies they do that.

GW: Yeah…

(16:40)

DN: It’s only in our society where everybody’s running around doing different things, that life gets very segmented.

GW: Yeah, right. Well, that’s one thing I love about Edgewater, that I could never imagine being down in one of those planned retirement communities, where I’m just going to be with other people my age. Yeah, you go out on Glenlake and there are all kinds of people. One day, my dog got loose and she was running down Glenlake and it was just so amazing to see, like, one by one, [cat (Tilly) appears on table] people started helping and following, running after her and it was like a young black kid and then a white teenager and then an Asian woman and, ok, Tilly. [removes cat from table] It was just so lovely to see like this whole community coming together to help my dog, so obviously she got caught.

DN: It reminds me of that folk tale where, I don’t know, something goes rolling down the hill and first, somebody starts chasing and then you have a whole community after it.

GW: Right, it just kind of snowballs into this big community thing.

(17:55)

DN: So, what do you feel is left undone that you really feel, if not you, someone else could pick up the slack?

GW: I think that I really worry about communities becoming undone, that sense of community. It really scares me. I mean, I’m sure you’ve heard of that book Bowling Alone. That, you know, we used to all go bowling together and now we’re all on our iPads together. And I think a lot of technology and societal changes conspire to break down community. And so, I really think we need to be careful and make sure that isn’t lost.

DN: I think that’s a very prescient thing to say. I mean, I think it’s important and needs to be heard more.

GW: [nods] Yep.

DN: What advice would you give young people about getting involved in community?

(18:59)

GW: Oh, do it! It’s, you know, I always say that I have gotten so much more back than I get from it. It’s just always so interesting, and you meet people, and you get a gratifying feeling, and it looks good on your resume, so definitely get…I’m always telling my daughters, who sometimes, like, say they can’t find anyone to date, “Go and volunteer! You’ll find someone who has the same values that you do.” So, you can even do that while you’re volunteering.

DN: Mike, was there any other questions that you wanted to ask?

(19:39)

MHM: I mean, I was just going to say even for me it’s been really interesting to meet you

GW: Yeah.

MHM: And we’ve been through some experiences and it’s been great.

GW: Definitely! Yeah.

MHM: But yeah, I’m excited. I remember, there have been times of…maybe…what keeps you…sorry, the cat! [laughter]

GW: The cat! How did she get out of the basement?

DN: It’s fine. Don’t worry about it from now on.

(20:08)

MHM: No, I kind of forget what I was saying, but…especially just how do you have the energy, I guess, to keep on going? [chuckles]

GW: Sometimes I do think it’s funny because really, I’m an introvert. But as I said, I just get so much more back from it. It’s all very interesting too, like I’m always fascinated by the dynamics of people working together voluntarily, which is real different than when you’re paid for something. So, something I’m really struggling with is how to keep volunteers for the Village, like, motivated when they’re not getting paid six-figure salaries. And working with older adults, I mean, you get sick more often. A couple of our people have actually gotten dementia in the past couple years. One person has died, so, it’s kind of hard to keep up motivation. So, we’ve talked like about having leadership training classes, so that’s the kind of stuff that’s really interesting to deal with.

(21:18)

DN: Ginger, we’ve asked our questions, so now the rest of this is just for you, if there’s something we haven’t touched upon that’s important to you, or just anything else that you would like to say, please jump in.

GW: Yeah, I do want to say something and I’m going to start getting teary here, but just how much Edgewater has meant to me for the past 30 years. I mean, probably a day doesn’t go by that I don’t walk down the street and just feel a sense of wellbeing and like, “Wow! How did I get so lucky to end up here of all the places?” I’m from St. Louis, which is not a bad town, but, when I just, you know, I can walk to the library, the Red Line [Train], the lake, the grocery store, the church…I can meet all kinds of people. My husband has two best friends that live across the street, I have several on this block, it’s all the opportunity that’s here. I just feel really grateful that I ended up here.

(22:28)

DN: I can’t think of any better way to end the interview than this. Thank you so much, Ginger!

GW: OK, you’re welcome

MHM: Thank you.