Ledbury U3A
With outings, monthly talks and specialist interest groups, Ledbury University of the Third Age (U3A) is a great way to meet like-minded people. It’s a place where retired and semi-retired people come together to share educational, social and creative interests in a friendly environment. To illustrate some of the benefits, Ledbury U3A has an apocryphal tale to share with us.
Darby and Joan were a married couple now in their late sixties, living in a lovely little village called Blissful Ignorance in Herefordshire. Not a great deal happened in the sleepy village, but Darby and Joan didn’t mind. Newly retired, they looked forward to spending time doing what they wanted to do.
Darby loved reading his newspaper, playing darts and dominos at his local and going fishing. Joan loved knitting, dressmaking, crafting and meeting the other ladies who lived in the village.
They had joint interests and both were keen gardeners. Intellectually they were happy, Darby sometimes solved a few cryptic crossword clues and Joan was a puzzle book fanatic, but they had an uncanny feeling that something might be missing from their lives.
Then, one day, they went shopping in the local town of Golden Opportunity and had a good look round. Golden Opportunity, to a large extent, was very similar to their village, but it seemed to have more going on.
The town had a number of venues where activities and functions happened most days of the week. Many of the activities seemed to be organised by something called the U3A or University of the Third Age which, of course, Darby and Joan had never heard of, having lived for a considerable time in Blissful Ignorance.
Activities included talks at the Monthly General Meeting on the third Thursday of every month, and over 40 Groups such as Science & Technology, Local History, Country Dancing, Walking, Singing, a Recorder Consort, Play Reading, Drawing & Painting and Languages plus a Needlework Group run by Josephine Bloggs, one of their fellow residents of Blissful Ignorance. The sly old thing had never mentioned where she went off to every second & fourth Thursday afternoons of the month and many other times… now Darby and Joan knew.
As soon as they got home they rang the contact number and very quickly discovered that U3A was what was missing from their lives. As well as going along to the various groups that interested them, if they wanted, they could even take part in the administration of Golden Opportunities’ U3A. The organisation was run by the members for the members and gave them every chance to do a lot of the things they previously felt were beyond them.
Now why had Josephine Bloggs not told them about U3A? Well, sometimes you just want to keep some of the great things in life to yourself don’t you!
If you are interested in finding out more about the U3A in Golden Opportunity (otherwise known as Ledbury & District U3A) please ring our Membership Secretary on (01531) 633637 or look at our website www.ledburyu3a.org.uk