The Moorpark Active Adult Center will honor the men in the audience at its celebration of Father's Day, a social luncheon on June 15, with fun games and special prizes for male guests.

To enhance the activities, the monthly comedy club will meet after lunch for everyone who could handle a little humor in their lives, followed by the screening of the monthly movie. Except for a donation of $2.25 for a fabulous lunch prepared by Nellie Meza, everything is free.

The center is at 799 Moorpark Ave., Moorpark. Call 517-6261 Tuesday to reserve your place at the table. Of course, ladies are invited, too.

New service for veterans

For your information, the Department of Veterans Affairs has developed new appointment cards that modify information, and inform servicemen and women about features and possible benefits. The mailer is easy to read and clearly notes appointment time and date. The improved provider and clinic information is formatted on a postcard-sized mailer for convenience and arrives sealed for privacy. Included on the card will be important telephone numbers for you to call if needed.

Future of senior centers

Will this be the way for all senior centers in the foreseeable future? The Goebel Center on Janss Road in Thousand Oaks is a full-blown service center, offering events for multi-generations of active seniors, and others, that offers 12 1/2 hours of available programming four days a week.

The center starts its day at 8:30 a.m. and closes its doors whenever the schedule of events has concluded, or at 9 p.m. On Fridays, the closing time moves back to 5 p.m. On Saturday, it's a short day that starts at noon and ends at 4 p.m.

It's normal to see seniors arriving at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday for dances such as a sock hop, wearing leather jackets, poodle skirts, saddle shoes, or penny loafers, and clothes from the '50s, to match the music from that era.

Will the Moorpark Active Adult Center and the Simi Valley Senior Center be able to provide full-service activities on a regular basis? Seniors continue to vote with their feet. Most, now reading newsletters from all three centers, enjoy the aggressive approach of all the centers courting their favor with imaginative scheduling.

With continued spiraling gas prices estimated this summer to challenge fixed-income seniors' purse strings, the silent generation will be opting for close-to-home entertainment.

Tai chi for body and mind

Tai chi classes are available in every senior center in east Ventura County. The program is often referred to as a soft-style practice of the Chinese martial art best known for improving health by limbering up the body and improving the mood of the student. What's not generally known is the belief that the practice improves the students' chances of avoiding conditions such as shingles, a painful reactivation of the chicken pox virus. On the meditation end of the program, a study claims tai chi is effective in resisting influenza, which, along with pneumonia, is the eighth-leading cause of death in the senior population.

It is widely accepted that as we age we lose T-cells, the white blood cells that fight recurrences of previously experienced infections, including some that can lie dormant for decades.

Memory alone is a good enough reason to take part in the program. Tai chi boosts the performance of the white cells we have left and helps us avoid the return of an old adversary that could affect good health.

David Nankivell is a Star columnist. He may be reached by fax at 482-6167.