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Carol Noble: Be Involved and Knowledgeable

Being an active participant in group activities has been a strong element of Carol Noble’s life since her childhood when the freedom she experienced at a very young age quickly demanded diplomatic organization just for play.

“When I was playing out on the street, we did our own organizing and our own planning. There was a lot more creativity going on in my mind when I was playing than what goes on now,” she says.

Since then, Carol has remained an active individual who has always been eager to help, be involved, and educate others. She carries this feeling as a resident of The Landing of North Haven, where she found a place to satisfy her innate desire to be an involved and social person, bringing her out of living alone before coming to her current residence. She enthusiastically participated in a variety of activities, keeping her mind sharp and schedule filled.

“They have a gym and a great teacher. You can take physical activity at any level at which you can work, so that’s a big plus. And then we have a theater. I’m a TCM [Turner Classic Movies], fan. I love old movies. But I do watch Hallmark,” she says with a laugh. “There’s arts and crafts, [it's] a relaxation thing for me, to sit there with something to paint or to make. I’m a hands-on kind of person, so I do that.

Many years prior, she participated in as many activities as she could in college, some of which have come full circle. Whilst she loved being a part of her school’s theater, she graduated from college with a degree in physical education. With no positions available at the time, she fulfilled her love to teach in a classroom-type teaching route instead.

“I went and taught in the classroom, and I loved the classroom. Especially first graders and I did that for 37 years, and I moved from first grade all the way up to high school, where I became a reading consultant,” Carol says. "That was a very rewarding experience. Working with students who needed a great deal of help in classrooms reading their materials.”

Carol’s approach to teaching was a simple and direct form that sowed rewards and gratitude for her students, as they discovered later on in life.

“Learning was their ticket to life. If you don’t learn, you’re not gonna get anywhere,” Carol says. “When the students left [school] and you would see them later in their community, they would tell you, ‘Thank you.’ Even though it was tooth and nails trying to teach them. [I told them], ‘Please, learn to read. You’re gonna need this.’”

After her education career was over, her group involvement persisted with various entities and even became the president of several organizations she joined, a role in which she is very comfortable.

“I had that feeling that I wanted to lead people. I liked leadership, and I like working with committees and groups of people. It’s one of my things,” she says. “I very rarely do things on my own. Whether we’re going on a vacation, going shopping, and here at the Landing, I try to participate in the things I enjoy doing. That’s the way it’s been.”

At 87 years old, Carol has seen a great many changes occur in the world, from technology that has changed the way people communicate, to the many social and political movements in the 1960s up through the 1990s. Always being an active person, she recalls the thrill of her first time being involved in political matters.

“My first time to vote was for Eisenhower. I thought that was the most exciting thing. I saw the man drive down Crown Street in New Haven sitting on the back of a car. That doesn’t happen today,” Carol says.

While Carol has discovered a new sense of community at the Landing, she’s in a new era of simplicity in her life as well, which cannot excuse complete idleness.

“I don’t have to clean my room, I don't have to make my meals, I can choose to have someone do my laundry. Talk about simplifying your life: that should leave you with so much more time to grow your mind because your mind doesn’t stop growing! I don’t care what they say in the books!”

Personal development doesn’t end with yourself, either, yet extends from first being comfortable with who you are, to then knowing how to get along with other people, and never stop learning how others want to be treated with respect and dignity.

“I have learned how to handle anything like that. I learned how to compromise, how to understand other people’s frailties, disabilities, and inabilities, and not make them the focus of my friendship with them. From the very beginning, it’s in your head how you conduct yourself with people. You have to love yourself to give love."