By Michaela Lyons and Maddy Taylor
This spring, local Wakefield seniors and Wakefield Memorial High School seniors came together for lunch, conversation, and interviews as part of a cross-generational program called Seniors to Seniors. The resulting articles written by journalism students are being published as a series. Seniors to Seniors is a collaboration between Wakefield Memorial High School, The Savings Bank, JC Marketing Associates, The Room to Write, The Wakefield Daily Item, and the Wakefield Senior Center.
On a Wednesday afternoon in early March, our journalism class walked into the Wakefield Senior Center to interview seniors about their lives. We were overwhelmed with the amount of seniors who graciously volunteered to share their stories with us, so it was a hard decision to make when we had to choose which senior we wanted to interview. As other groups were choosing their seniors, we settled at a table with a man sporting a name tag that read, “Jay Landers.” He greeted us with a warm smile and shook our hands. He was excited to not only share his story, but learn a little bit about us as well. We enjoyed a nice lunch and talked about our future plans which Jay was very keen to hear about. As we were gathering our questions on our computers and cell phones for the interview, Jay joked about how he didn’t have such technologies when he was our age, not even what he calls an “adding machine” (calculator). We laughed and as we finished our lunch, we got started with the interview.
John Joseph Landers Jr., better known as “JJ” as a kid and “Jay” as an adult, was born on June 13, 1949. JJ is a Wakefield native and grew up in Greenwood. He grew up with his mother, father, and three siblings: an older sister and a younger brother and sister. His mother was a nurse during World War II and won a bronze star. After the war, she started a family with his father, who worked for General Electric and helped build parts for NASA spaceships. He even worked on parts for the Apollo missions! His father did not want his mother working, so she hung up her scrubs and took on the role of a stay at home mom, cleaning the house, doing the laundry, and feeding the family. JJ’s father didn’t make a ton of money, so when he got off work at General Electric, he would drive the school bus home with JJ and his siblings in it.
JJ’s favorite memories as a child are the yearly family trips up to Lake Winnipesaukee. General Electric would give their employees two weeks off during the month of July, so JJ’s family would take the opportunity to go on vacation. He enjoyed participating in the typical lake activities like swimming. Additionally, every year on the Sunday before Labor Day, JJ visited Epping, New Hampshire. There, he would make homemade ice cream with his grandparents.
In high school, JJ remembered that there were two groups, the sports kids and the music kids. JJ was one of the music kids and sang in the chorus. He was very clear to us that he was not particularly good at singing and didn’t even participate in the “top chorus,” but he enjoyed it. Additionally, he struggled with a lung condition as a child and couldn’t sing much. He wasn’t even allowed to participate in phys ed. However, he participated in other activities. For example, he was president of the Rocket Club, and he fondly remembers building rockets and launching them on the field of the junior high. JJ graduated from Wakefield Memorial High School in 1967 and went to Salem State University for his undergraduate degree in Business Administration.
After “Jay” graduated from Salem State College, he wanted to get a master’s degree. However, he knew he wanted to go far away for school because he “wanted something different.” Therefore, Jay decided to go all the way across the country to Oregon State University, where he pursued a master’s degree in Business Administration. Although he only went home about twice a year to visit for holidays (there was no FaceTime back then), Jay enjoyed his time being a Beaver. Jay loves to learn, so shortly after, he returned home and studied accounting at Bentley College.
After his long education career, Jay moved back home to Wakefield ready to start in the world of business. He saw an ad in the newspaper that there was a job opportunity to work at Atlantic Gelatin in Woburn, Massachusetts and it seemed that it would be a good fit for him. Throughout his time at the company, he worked his way up to receiving the position of controller. Although he reached a high status in the company he did not necessarily want this role, but it was given to him.
After thirty years of employment, Jay retired and spent his time traveling the world with his husband Jasper. He and his husband met at a small club for the LGBTQ+ community called Chiltern. They fell in love and got married in 1994, and they hold the title of being one of the longest legally married gay couples in the world. Throughout their time together, they have traveled to forty-eight states and have visited all seven continents.
Jay Landers has lived a life full of adventures and new beginnings but still finds the time to be involved with the Wakefield community that he grew up in stating, “It’s nice to give back” to the town that has been so good to him. Jay is currently an active member of The Scholarship Foundation, the Wakefield Historical Society, and the Hartshorne House Board. When asked about advice he would give to the younger generation, especially to us seniors graduating, Jay says to “be yourself.”
