On a Wednesday morning, sunlight filtered through the Cache County Senior Citizens Center’s wide cafeteria windows. More than a dozen women do-si-do’d in nearly perfect sync as LaVern Baker and The Gliders played through a small boombox in the corner. It’s an average weekday at the center, said Barbara Johnson, who comes to exercise and socialize at least three times a week. There are not many places that cater to senior citizens in Cache Valley, making the center a gathering place for many people more than 65 years old, she said. Even though walking is a challenge for her, she said when she starts to move with the people around her, she doesn’t feel the pain as much. “My knees are bad, yet, I get the adrenaline going, and I can dance,” she said. The center is just as much about being social as it is about keeping active, she said. While some dance in the center of the cafeteria, others talk at tables, drinking hot chocolate or coffee and catching up on one another’s lives. “The association is just as important as the activity. We never fight with one another,” Johnson said. Johnson said she and her husband love to dance, so coming to the center is about reliving pastimes as well as the actual activity. She said she knows around 105 different line dances. “It’s the most fun kind of exercise you can get,” she said. “We make mistakes, but we laugh about it.”

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