Phila. Granny Brigade wages peace

The Granny Peace Brigade gathered at noon in Rittenhouse Square, nine of them. They divided up their 400 leaflets and took their positions.

Evelyn Alloy, 96, pushed her walker across 18th Street, in front of TD Bank, and covered the corner like a middle linebacker. Nobody got by her.

"We're for peace, not war," she said. People had to work hard not to take her flier. She shoved it at them, pushed it, as much as any feathery, frail woman one week shy of 97 could push or shove.

"Don't join the Army. Stay at home, sir," she said to a man walking by in a FedEx uniform.

"Oh, I will," he replied kindly, taking her flier.

A man holding hands with a woman walked by in a T-shirt that said, "Where is the Finish Line?"

"The finish line is the end of war," Alloy said, and tried to give the man a flier, but he waved her off like a gnat and kept walking.

This group of grannies formed in 2006, at the height of the Iraq war. Most are lifelong activists who have marched on Washington many times, been arrested, and think war is never the answer.

Bill Thomas, the Harvard geriatrician and aging expert, has said the scourge of life in a nursing home, and the peril of old age, is boredom, isolation, and lack of purpose.

These grannies have found the antidote to all three.

"You have to have a purpose for living," said Pauline Labovitz, 93. "And ours is a good purpose."

"We need to do it," said Goldie Petkov, "because the young people aren't comi   ng out."

"To stop doing it, I think, is to die," said Helen Evelev, 85.

On alternating Thursdays, they have a meeting or distribute leaflets, usually in Rittenhouse Square. Once a month, they join other peace groups protesting drone strikes. The group has 18 to 20 active members, and 200 on a mailing list.

The active members are informally divided into the "olders" and "youngers." Alice Elle Rader, 69, met a granny at the Occupy Philadelphia protest, and joined.

"I fell in love with the group immediately," said Rader, a "younger." "They're such an inspiration. They're an incredible resource."

The Grannys will sing next Saturday at Peace Day Philly, including the chorus to a rap written by one of their grandsons.

After about 15 minutes on her corner, Evelyn Alloy was fading. She was wobbly and had to sit.

"I don't think my body will take any more," she said.

But she couldn't help herself. A young woman walked by. Alloy handed her a flier, admonishing, "And tell your friends not to go in the Army."

A bike messenger, Randon Martin, asked whether he could take her photo. "I'm going to post it online," he said. "I think it's awesome you're out here doing this."

Wearing ruby-red lipstick, she gave a big smile.

"I've been doing this all my life," she told him. "I'm a peacenik."

By 12:25, she was dizzy and done.

Diagonally across the street, in front of Barnes & Noble, her friend Ruth Balter, 91, was going strong.

"You're a young person," Balter said to a passerby, "this is very important for you to have."

A woman took the flier.

Many smile kindly, but mostly there is a sea of indifference.

Two young people:

"No, thank you."

"No, thank you."

Sometimes, people will stop, discuss, even promise to call the numbers for the president and senators listed on the flier.

Lilly Vamberi, 21, on break from Joe Coffee, took a flier and couldn't leave. "This makes me so happy," Vamberi said. "She's adorable. It's unbelievable she's doing this. I agree with her completely."

Well before 1 p.m., all 400 fliers were gone. Their work complete, the Granny Peace Brigade headed to Cosi for lunch.

Contact Michael Vitez at mvitez@ phillynews.com or 215-854-5639, or follow on Twitter @michaelvitez.