After Batten’s husband died in 1981, her nephew began checking on her regularly. He called her two or three times a day and visited her in Smithfield if he could not get in touch with her. Once, Batten’s nephew was so worried he called the police. But Batten was only out with friends.

Eventually, Batten, who had fallen several times and has a heart condition, moved to Clayton to live with her nephew. “My nephew is disabled, so I have someone with me, but I really needed to be around more people,” the 86-year-old said. “I was at home and had nothing to do.”

Batten decided to cure her loneliness by going to the Clayton Senior Center, which draws the most people of the eight senior centers in Johnston. A few days a week, the Johnston County Area Transit System, or JCATS, takes Batten to the center, where she paints, folk dances, quilts, exercises, plays trivia games and solves word puzzles.

For others, such as 62-year-old Pat Collier, taking trips with the seniors has become a real treat. Seniors at the Clayton Senior Center venture to Wal-Mart weekly. The fun always starts before the shopping even begins. Collier, known as the jokester in the bunch, normally has everyone laughing in their seats before the JCATS bus hits the Wal-Mart parking lot.

“Everybody has different personalities, but all of us enjoy laughter,” Collier said. “If anybody could come in, sit down, not say anything and just observe, the one thing I think they would see is it is more like a family atmosphere than basically a senior center.”

But as Johnston senior centers have been offering more activities, the number of participants has been decreasing over the past year. The centers in Benson, Clayton, Four Oaks, Kenly, Pleasant Grove, Princeton, Selma and Smithfield have been open for at least 15 years, said Donna Creech, executive director of the Council on Aging. Clayton is the only full-time senior center; the others are open for a few hours on the weekdays.

“We had one lady in Pine Level who is now deceased and went to the Princeton Senior Center every day,” Creech said. “She said, ‘If I didn’t go see my friends, I would sit here all day in my nightgown and watch television.’ Her issue was, ‘I need to be involved in life.’ and she helped at the center.”

The centers were designed as a place for residents 60 and older to be active, socialize and eat nutritious lunches. But more and more of the longtime participants are dying off, living in nursing homes or becoming homebound. Others might have to go back to work to make ends meet, because Social Security is not enough to pay the bills.

In 2006, the centers had 113 eaters daily, but last year, the number fell by 13. This year, the centers have averaged 105 people daily.

But as the numbers are falling, the Council on Aging’s budget needs are growing. For the fiscal year 2007-08, the centers had a combined budget of $425,000, with seniors raising some of that money by selling baked goods, crafts and quilts.

The centers will need at least that much money in the year ahead, or the Council on Aging might have to close or consolidate some centers, Creech said. “We have to decide where does the money do the most good and do something for everybody,” she said. “It may be that nothing changes, but that is always a touchy point about senior centers.”

Closing or merging centers would affect more than the centers themselves, Creech said. “If you do say, combine two senior centers, how do you handle the home-delivered meals?” she said. “If we were to go to two or three days a week somewhere and had one coordinator for both centers, how do we get home-delivered meals out to the people the day we weren’t there? At every center, the meals are taken out of each location. That is our drop site.”

The council hopes more seniors will take advantage of the centers. Leo Sanders, 75, has been attending the Smithfield Senior Center for about 10 years. When he first came to the center, the people were not being active. Sanders changed that quickly. He got the seniors to take walks around the block, meet monthly for socials, play horseshoes and take trips to malls.

“When I started coming, the first thing I observed was people weren’t enjoying being a senior citizen,” said Sanders, who comes to the center with his wife, Mary, a few days a week. “I said, ‘You all are in your golden years. You should all be enjoying yourself.’ I got them a little more motivated.”

Motivation has changed many visitors at the Smithfield Senior Center. Coordinator Sandra McCain has seniors who came to the center shy and withdrawn; they are now talkative and more alive than ever. Rachel Bailey, 100 years old, may have trouble hearing but fits in with the crowd like “an old shoe,” McCain said. The seniors have become a family that looks past each other’s faults.

“A lot of these people in here have a need to do something,” McCain said. “They really and truly do a lot of things for the community. It makes them feel good to do things for other people. It makes them feel young. It doesn’t make them feel old and decrepit and like they can’t do anything anymore.”