If reaching retirement means slowing down, these folks didn’t get the memo. It must have gotten lost among their performance schedules, social calendars and boarding passes.
From performing all over town to traveling across the globe, these three local seniors are clearly making the most of their golden years.
Anthony Pires
Age: 70 // Wyomissing
Limerick native Anthony Pires has spent more than two decades seeing the world in unique ways, from climbing glaciers in the Andes to cycling across Southeast Asia.
An Adventurous Spirit
Anthony discovered his love for travel at a young age. “Like many Baby Boomers in the 60s and 70s, I wanted to see the country. I wanted to go to every national park, so I bought a Volkswagen bus and a Golden Eagle Pass and I went. I didn’t see every park, but I spent two months on the road, and it was quite an education.”
After getting married and starting a family, he took a hiatus from more exotic adventures in favor of camping in the Poconos and playing tennis, until the late 90s when he got together with a group of old friends who started listing all the places in the world they wanted to see. They’ve been planning trips together nearly every year since.
More Passport Pages, Please!
In just the last 10 years, Anthony has added many new stamps to his passport. “I’ve been many, many places, and I have some lasting memories I’ll never forget,” he says. He recounted some of his favorite trips, starting with his trip to Cordillera Blanca in the northern Andes in Peru. He celebrated his sixtieth birthday climbing a glacier at 18,200 feet. “It was a real pinnacle of my life, to be up that high on top of the world.”
Since then he’s taken on the Annapurna Circuit Trek in Nepal, competed in an international dragon boat tournament across China, and hiked the famous W Circuit in Torres del Paine, Chile. Most recently, he cycled 512 miles from Bangkok, Thailand, through Cambodia and into Saigon, Vietnam.
Anthony has documented his travels through photography, and now that he is retired, he hopes to start showing and selling his work locally. “I used to write quite a bit about my travels, but I’m a horrible writer. So now I let my photos speak for themselves,” he jokes. His work can be seen on Instagram at @a_marques_p.
What’s Next?
Anthony’s most recent adventure was relocating to Berks County. He moved in December 2018 and has already established an active routine. Aside from hiking Nolde Forest, biking the Schuylkill River Trail, and playing tennis, he’s also soaking up the culture in his new hometown. “Touring around town here is great. For a small town, it has so much to offer culturally,” he says.
But Reading can’t contain him long. “We always talk about what’s next,” Anthony says. “We’re not waiting around; it’s got to be done now!” This month he is setting off for the southern coast of Portugal to hike in the Rota Vicentina region before traveling north to Nazare – one of the greatest surfing meccas in the world. And his next trip is already in the works.
“One of the greatest parts of these trips is that you meet people from all over the world. I stay in touch with a lot of them and will hear from them occasionally about a trip they’re planning.” Upon his return from Portugal, Anthony will already be in planning mode for an adventure with friends from abroad; this time they’re headed to Morocco.
Think a lifestyle this adventurous is out of your reach? Think again. “Most people think that adventure trips are out of their reach, and it is a lot of hard work. But if you put your mind to it, it’s not that hard, and it’s not that expensive.” Anthony explained that with a lot of research and mileage plans, these trips are accessible to anyone. “You don’t have to be an armchair traveler. I always encourage everyone to get out there and see things for themselves.”
Joanne Grill
Age: 87 // West Reading
It’s not uncommon to find extra time on your hands after retirement, but Joanne Grill rarely has a moment to herself. She dedicates her time to what is most important to her: family, friends and community. She keeps herself so busy that her family refers to her as the “Energizer Bunny.”
A Lifetime of Giving Back
Joanne has always dedicated her time to helping others. While raising her two boys, she wasn’t working, so instead she volunteered at the Women’s Exchange in its early days. When her husband lost his job, she returned to work, first in retail at the former C.K. Whittner and then as a receptionist for a dental practice at the hospital. She jokes, “I couldn’t type that well, but I could talk a lot!” The moment she retired, she returned to the Exchange, where she volunteered for nearly 20 more years until her husband’s care required her to be home. But her time there may not be over just yet. “I truly miss the Exchange,” she says. “Maybe someday I’ll go back again.”
What Matters Most
After her twin grandsons were born, Joanne turned her attention to her family. She retired from the dental practice a year after they were born to be more available to help. The twins, now 24 years old, were born premature and with significant special needs. They are both legally blind and have a range of physical and developmental needs, including cerebral palsy and autism. Joanne has been very involved in their lives and their care since they were young. “They’re such neat kids; they really are,” she says. When she isn’t with the twins, she’s cheering on her youngest grandson at his lacrosse matches and says, “I’ve really gotten to be quite a fan!”
Out and About
Perhaps as a result of so many years with the Exchange, one of Joanne’s favorite things to do around town is shop. Her love of fashion landed her in the Goodwill Runway Show twice, alongside her daughter-in-law Maria. She recalls, “That was the most fun I’ve had in I don’t know how long!” She and Maria are also members of PEO International, a philanthropic organization focused on the education and advancement of women in the community. This is Joanne’s 45th year as an active member, and she concentrates her efforts on obtaining grants and loans to help women complete their education.
When she’s not out around town or with her family, she likes to care for her home and work on her needlepoint. She says she’s “quite handy with a needle and thread.” She’s sold a few of her framed pieces and pillows on consignment, donated some as raffle prizes to local organizations, and gifted many to her family and friends.
Lunch, Anyone?
As if there wasn’t enough on Joanne’s busy calendar, she is now working on planning her 70th high school class reunion. “After this many years I decided that we were going to have a reunion, and if no one else was going to do it I would,” she says. She is also quite involved with the Reading Symphony Orchestra League’s fashion show fundraiser for the third year this year. The big event is Sunday, Oct. 6, at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Reading.
With so much time dedicated to family, the community, and her crafts, what else could Joanne possibly have time for? “I’m a lunch gal! Honey, I’ll go to lunch any time,” Joanne says. She has standing dates with her friends from the Exchange, PEO, and even the old dentist’s office. Joanne says, “If someone says, ‘Do you want to go?’ I’ll go anywhere.” Energizer Bunny, indeed.
Karl Hausman
Age: 77 // Robesonia
After winding down their careers, many people choose to try something new. That’s not the case for Karl Hausman. His schedule is still packed with piano performances across the county, a skill he’s been honing since he could reach the keys.
Young Love
Karl’s first love was his Sunday school teacher and his second was the piano. “I was amazed at how this wonderful woman could make such amazing music out of these little black and white pieces of wood,” he laughs. His father bought him his first piano at age seven, and by his teens he was playing local bars in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia where he grew up.
After high school Karl was offered a place in a band: Roscoe and his Little Green Men. “Right away we went up to Canada and started opening for this big country western star you may have heard of – his name was Johnny Cash.” After a year, he returned to Philadelphia, but he didn’t leave the limelight. He joined The Kit Kats, recording two albums and performing locally for more than 10 years.
In his travels with the band, Karl “met this lovely blue-eyed blonde.” He married his wife Carolyn, moved to Berks and started a family. Taking a brief hiatus from music, he and Carolyn opened an ice cream parlor in Fritztown. But it was back to the stage when he got a call from Walt Disney World to audition as its Main Street Pianist. “My wife told me to go, just for the fun of it. Well, the fun of it turned into a job!” He played for a few years at Disney before returning to play as the park pianist at Herseypark, where he performed for nearly 20 years in the summer, and at the Showboat Casino in Atlantic City, NJ, in the off-season.
Now Taking Requests
After a lifetime of performing all over the country, Karl decided to bring his talents home to Berks. “Today, I’m working for the only people still older than me,” he teases. He keeps a full schedule of performances for local senior groups and retirement homes. “I have a repertoire of 4,357 songs, and that’s what keeps me busy.” Karl was also recently inducted into the Berks County Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which came as a bit of a surprise. “I’m an outsider! I never expected it,” he says. Each of Karl’s 15 albums are available for sale at his shows and on his website at karlhausman.com.
In his spare time, Karl is trying his talents as another kind of artist: a novelist. He recently finished his first book, Life is But a Dream, available on Amazon. The tale follows a middle-aged man through a mid-life crisis over having given up the opportunity to be a musician when he was younger and what he does with his second chance. And Karl is still not done; he’s already working on a new book, Never Love a Piano Player. It’s a compilation of 54 short stories about other musicians he’s encountered in his life, and he’s looking for one last story before the book hits the shelves.
When Karl isn’t entertaining the masses, he and Carolyn spend as much time as they can with their daughters and grandchildren. He’s already given his two oldest grandsons a piano. “They started playing by smashing the keys with their teddy bears, so they weren’t quite ready yet,” he admits. Until then, Karl stands ready to pass along his talents to a new generation.
