By LINDA KELLETT

C-S-E News Staff

CANAJOHARIE — Witty one-liners from the past set the stage for a light-hearted and nostalgic Valentine’s Day program performed by members of Elinor and Friends at the Arkell Center Thursday.

Around 95 people — including residents of the Arkell Hall Adult Care Facility, Arkell Center Apartment tenants, members of the Canajoharie Senior Citizens Club and members of the public — were present for the presentation by keyboard player Elinor Douglass and vocalists Marion Harris, Nancy Mace, Carolyn Crouch, Alice McEwan, Dorothy Morrison, Dorothy Mailloux and Josie Jones.

Arkell Hall Activities Director Linda Klump noted the eight-person group provides entertainment on a regular basis for the residents. A few of the performers are also members of the adult care facility’s Resident Advisory Council.

“It’s strictly to bring pleasure to the ladies at Arkell,” Douglass said.

Quotes attributed to comedienne Gracie Allen and sultry 20th-century sex symbols Mae West and Marlene Dietrich helped enliven the group as love-themed songs such as “Peg of My Heart,” “I Don’t Know Why I Love You” and “Ain’t She Sweet” were introduced.

Segueing from lunch to their first selections, Douglass shared Allen’s classic recipe for roast beef, which called for a large and a small roast: “Take the two roasts and put them in the oven. When the little one burns, the big one is done,” Allen is reported to have said.

On the topic of housework, Dietrich also had a snappy comeback. Douglass repeated: “A man would prefer to come home to an unmade bed and a happy woman than to a neatly made bed and an angry woman,” Douglass quoted.

Finally, drawing from the droll humor of West, Douglass recited, “All discarded lovers should be given a second chance, but with somebody else.”

A member of her father’s dance band while growing up, Douglass recalled that her father played the dance halls and Caroga Lake in the 1920s. “He had a violin,” she said. “All of the dance bands then had a violin.”

Among her memories of that time was her father’s constant admonition: “Keep the beat. Keep the beat.”

The presentation followed a Valentine’s Day-themed meal of chicken with stuffing, red cabbage, roasted potatoes and cherry cobbler that was prepared by the Office for the Aging of Montgomery County. Joan Cimino, the program assistant at Arkell Center, said the Meals of Montgomery is a “wonderful program. More people need to come out, Monday through Friday at noon.”

She said the cost per meal is $3 for Montgomery County residents 60 years and older. “Others are also invited, but their meal is $7.95,” Cimino said.

Upcoming joint programs at Arkell Center include St. Patrick’s Day and Easter luncheons and entertainment, she added.