‘Senior Chat Hour’ celebrates five years

WINSTED — In early June, a milestone of sorts was reached at public access Channel 13.While local programs on the station come and go with great frequency, the show “Senior Chat Hour,” shown on Thursday nights at 6 p.m., has lasted for five years.The show was created by resident Joanne Schmidt, who said the show has been successful due to its easygoing nature.“I would describe the show free of politics and religion,” Schmidt said. “It’s a light hour, and people call in and talk about tips about being a senior. I read clean jokes out of magazines, read tips from diabetes magazines and my mother and I banter about things.”She co-hosts the show with her mother, Lorraine Hart.Schmidt’s nephew, Alan Larson, who is a truck driver, calls in during the show from the road.“When he’s on the road we have a contest where I ask him where he is, then he hums a song relating to that town or or state,” Schmidt said. “People call in to guess where he is based on the song. Little things like this are why people like the lightness of the show.”Schmidt said she had the idea after she suffered a work accident at a factory in 1999. She would not say what factory it was, but the accident put a piece of steel in her body.“I could not walk for three years, and everything was damaged,” Schmidt said. “I did not want to be put into a convalescent home, so Chestnut Grove made a special exception for me in order to live with my mother, who took care of me.”Chestnut Grove Apartments, located on 80 Chestnut St., is a federally funded complex for senior citizens.“The residents there did everything for me,” she said. “They helped me when I was going through daily therapy or they would cook me and my mother supper. One lady was 96 years old, and she would come down in the morning to help me walk around.”Schmidt said that, after she got better, she wanted to find a way to repay the seniors who helped her and her mother and allowed her to stay there.“It was just amazing how they all pulled together to help me,” she said. “All of these people my mom’s age, they all became part of my life.”That is why she started “Senior Chat,” which she says will continue for the foreseeable future.“For the older generations, there’s nothing on television for them anymore,” she said. “The show is very clean and very simple.”The show has a Facebook page located at www.facebook.com/pages/The-Senior-Chat-Hour-6-pm-Tue-nights-ctv13net/171....