{"id":23317,"date":"2022-06-12T07:13:49","date_gmt":"2022-06-12T07:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=23317"},"modified":"2022-06-12T07:13:49","modified_gmt":"2022-06-12T07:13:49","slug":"im-80-and-ive-got-more-energy-than-most-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2022\/06\/12\/im-80-and-ive-got-more-energy-than-most-people\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m 80 and I\u2019ve got more energy than most people\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

S<\/span><\/span>un City, Arizona was the first large-scale retirement community in the US when it opened in 1960. For the last 43 years it has been home to the cheerleading grannies of the Sun City Poms, a marching and performance group whose 28 members range in age from 58 to 89; they practise three times a week and appear at up to 50 events a year. US photographer Kendrick Brinson has been documenting Sun City since 2009, and describes it as a \u201cjoyful and uplifting\u201d place to work. Towards the end of last year, as vaccines were bringing the Covid-19 pandemic under control, she wanted to know how the Poms were faring, and flew back to Arizona. On 11 December, the Poms marched in the Christmas in the Park holiday parade in Litchfield Park, only their third performance after the pandemic put community events on hold for 18 months. \u201cWe all worked hard on Zoom to be ready to perform when the lockdown was lifted,\u201d says Kathy Villa, 65, the Poms\u2019 marching director. \u201cI might have teared up from seeing so many happy faces at once,\u201d Brinson says.<\/span><\/p>\n

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  • Members of the Sun City Poms hula hooping in October 2020 (top) and practising marching and dancing in unison again when Covid restrictions were lifted<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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    Sharon Word (above, second from right) has been with the Poms for nine years. \u201cWhat keeps you young?\u201d she says. \u201cLearning \u2013 never lose the child within your soul, and have a zest for life. The first time I came here, I thought: oh, this is like Girl Scouts\u2019 camp! I\u2019ll just keep going till I die.\u201d<\/p>\n

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    • Ginger Price (centre of top pic and above left) is 89 and says: \u2018I hope I\u2019m still a Pom when I\u2019m 90\u2019<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

      Some of the Poms managed to carry on meeting, in member Sherri Sharp\u2019s backyard, when the pandemic put a stop to their regular practice sessions. Greta Paulsen, 73, said it \u201cfeels wonderful\u201d to be able to march and perform together again.<\/p>\n

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      • Mary Zirbel gets ready at her home in Sun City<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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        Mary Zirbel, 80, is the longest-serving member of the Poms. After 21 years, she has no plans to quit. \u201cI\u2019ve got the energy,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve got more energy than most people.\u201d As the group\u2019s majorette \u2013 a role she also filled at high school \u2013 Zirbel leads the marches and loves hearing the crowd\u2019s reactions: \u201cYou girls go! Oh, I wish I had those legs! We love you.\u201d<\/p>\n

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        • Zirbel (above right) with the baton whose twirling she says always makes the crowd smile<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

          Members hold hands and pray (above) as they get ready for the 2021 Christmas parade in Litchfield Park, Arizona \u2013 their third performance back together after months of lockdowns kept them apart. President Peggy Parsons (right of centre pic), 80, says: \u2018We\u2019re like sisters now. I have osteoporosis and deteriorating disc disease, and the more exercise I get, the better.\u2019<\/p>\n

          story by\u00a0Kendrick\u00a0Brinson<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          Sun City, Arizona was the first large-scale retirement community in the US when it opened in 1960. For the last 43 years it has been home to the cheerleading grannies of the Sun City Poms, a marching and performance group whose 28 members range in age from 58 to 89; they practise three times a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":23327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[9951,7144,9214,5110,9331,5222,5200,9171,10505,11403,5494,12310,13330,1971,8235,6220,9833,7968,5485,3805,12103,8443,6736,5374,7143,7145,8916,8862,6348,10415,5140],"class_list":["post-23317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-style","tag-age","tag-arizona","tag-child","tag-christmas","tag-city","tag-covid","tag-covid-19","tag-crowd","tag-die","tag-disease","tag-energy","tag-exercise","tag-ginger","tag-holiday","tag-lockdown","tag-love","tag-meeting","tag-nine","tag-pandemic","tag-president","tag-price","tag-retirement","tag-school","tag-sun","tag-sun-city","tag-sun-city-poms","tag-together-again","tag-unison","tag-us","tag-work","tag-young"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}