Cumberland — CUMBERLAND — It won’t be easy for Joanne and Charles Stevens to move from their Campground Road home, where they’ve lived for almost half a century.

But at ages 77 and 82, the Stevens are trying to prepare for a change.

“We live in a place that’s too big for us,” said Joanne, who picked up information about area retirement villages during the Senior Jubilee Golden Expo on Thursday.

 “We just can’t handle it anymore,” she said. “The yard is too big. The home is too big.”

“The traffic is terrible,” Charles said.

Several hundred people attended Thursday’s Expo at the Allegany County Fairgrounds, where about two dozen vendors offered information about local services for seniors.

Schrock Travel passed out brochures about senior bus trips to casinos, zoos, air shows and other attractions.

Western Maryland Regional Medical Center gave passersby virtual tours of its new hospital.

Miracle-Ear touted its hearing aides.

Sponsored by the Times-News, the event was free to the public.

“You know, the technology nowadays is so awesome,” said Miracle-Ear’s Bobbi Phillips, who used an otoscope to look in people’s ears Thursday morning.

“It used to be when you had a hearing aid you just had amplification. All it did was turn up the volume. That’s why people were putting them on a shelf before, because they were getting too much of what they didn’t need. Now, we have hearing aids that turn up different frequencies.”

Sewing machine technology has also advanced. Somerset Sewing Center’s Tammy Sheeler demonstrated how to use a new Brother sewing machine, which threads itself and can be programmed to perform other tasks.

“Senior citizens are our biggest market,” Sheeler said. “We have a lot of younger (customers), but so often I have people say ‘I don’t want it until I can have the time to sit down and really devote to it.’”

Frostburg Senior Center manager Joy Shade thinks some of her clients might like to check out the high-tech machines.

“I have a huge quilting group,” said Shade, who invited Sheeler to display her sewing machines at a Human Resources Development Commission event in September. “I don’t know if they use computerized machines, but I know they all have really nice machines ... . They’re just so involved. They don’t do much else. They live and breathe quilts.”

A number of nursing homes and assisted living facilities had booths at the expo, including The Lions Center, Cherry Hill Assisted Living, and Frostburg Village.

Deciding to move into assisted living can be a difficult process for families, said Lisa Humbertson, director of program development at Allegany Health Nursing and Rehabilitation.

“It’s a transition period,” Humbertson said. “There’s a lot of emotions that go on.  Families go through that transitional phase of guilt — ‘I should be able to take care of them’ — but it’s a matter of quality of life. There comes a point and time where safety is an issue, I mean, if the person is a fall risk, or just can no longer take care of themselves.”

Tom and Kathy Duckworth haven’t reached that chapter of their lives just yet. But like the Stevens, the Duckworths, of Rawlings, took home some information about Homewood Spring House Estates in Bedford.

“It’s a community in a community,” said executive director Brenda Bomblosky, adding that the development has a post office, convenience store, fitness center and library. Staff includes a nurse.

“A lot of people don’t want to move into a small room when they age,” Bomblosky said. “Here you have lots of room. You don’t have to give up your independence, but as you age you can get more of the care you need.”

Homewood, which has 32 apartments and 32 houses, is building an additional 50 houses and 60 apartments in Bedford to meet senior housing needs, Bomblosky said. An increasing number of inquiries are coming from Allegany County, she said.

The Duckworths would like to stay a little closer to home if they ever decide to make a move.

“We’ve talked about the possibility of doing that someday,” said Kathy. “It’s something I’d like our area to get more of.”

For now, the Duckworths, who retired about a decade ago, still mow their own yard, are active with their church and bowl every Tuesday night with a group of senior citizens.

“It gets us out of the house, and we’re meeting people that we didn’t know before,” said Kathy, adding that the couple found out about the senior bowling league at last year’s Senior Expo. “We’ve met some nice people.”

Contact Kristin Harty Barkley at kbarkley@times-news.com