"I never had it so good"

After 45 years of teaching in the Northeast at all levels from junior high school to college, I retired with my wife to Sarasota, a city of 50,000 on Florida's west coast. To me, retirement implied a certain aura of peace and quiet, removed from the hassles of my working days, away from the hurly-burly of traffic and congestion. Of course, others have had the same idea. The steady influx of retirees from the snow belt has caused an upsurge in the population of Florida's west coast, and today the peaceful town of Sarasota is inundated with new construction. 

When I first arrived 12 years ago, I was struck by the area's beauty and wealth. But as I drove around, I slowly became aware of the pockets of poverty and the retired Sarasotans who can scarcely get by financially. I can show you a beautiful mobile home park, such as Camelot Lakes, with its comfortable homes and expensive recreational facilities, and then take you to one of the distinctly scruffy older mobile home parks. Some retirees live in plush condos, while others make do in dingy one-room quarters. Near city hall, unemployed workers from the North sit on benches with nothing to do, while not too far away luxurious boats are docked along the bay. 

Retirees who cannot afford regular health care benefit from an innovation begun when the late Dr. Irwin Portner discovered that retired physicians could, under Florida law, provide certain limited medical services. Dr. Portner enlisted retired doctors and nurses to staff a free clinic, which has now become very popular. Volunteer physicians diagnose simple ailments, refer serious cases to hospitals, and give appropriate counselling to patients. The clinic has received national attention as a model for what other retirement centers can do. 

The county also has eight Senior Friendship Centers where senior citizens may gather to socialize, play bridge, sing, or take classes. Such projects as Meals on Wheels bring food to people who have difficulty preparing hot meals for themselves. Residents living alone may take advantage of daily phone check-ups and a transportation service that offers rides to doctors' offices or social centers. One of the more recent projects, called The Living Room, provides what amounts to daycare for older and handicapped citizens, in comfortable surroundings. 

My wife Rose and I live in a well-planned community called Lake Tippecanoe. It's a "middle" sort of place, not too rich and not too poor, with 254 families living along the winding streets in triplex condominiums. Along the lake are two-story buildings with six units. We have our own water and sewer system, a cable hook-up for our televisions, a nightly volunteer citizens patrol, garbage collection, professional grounds keepers, a spring-fed lake, pool and club house, and common recreational and laundry facilities. We paid about $40,000 for our home 12 years ago (it would have cost about half that much 10 years earlier), and now pay a monthly maintenance fee of $80 to our Lake Tippecanoe Owners Association. The cautious and clever officers and directors of the association keep the condos running well and at a minimum cost. The 12 members of the board of directors are dedicated volunteers, elected by the homeowners at our annual meeting to serve staggered two-year terms. 

Despite our differences in backgrounds and interests, those of us living at Lake Tippecanoe do have a sense of community. We are on the same ship traveling the sea of retirement. Should someone become seasick, we sympathize and try to help, because we, too, may need help later in the voyage. Shortly after we moved into our present home, I had a freak fall and needed an operation. Help came in goodly amounts; friends took me to the doctor and helped with the shopping, and their kindness was obvious. In a casual neighborhood, a sense of solidarity may not become as strong. Here we pitch in to help a neighbor because we never know when we shall require help ourselves. 

Sarasota County is a Republican enclave, and our condo is no exception. My wife and I do not agree politically with many of our fellow homeowners, but we get along. A sense of humor helps. So does the sense of tolerance shared by most of our neighbors. Few of us have led ideal lives. We have experienced our share of frustrations and fear, loneliness and sorrows. Nevertheless, we carry on. All of us know, by this time, the human condition. 

The attitude of the larger community of Sarasota and environs is sometimes not so congenial. As it happens, I am a confirmed addict to writing letters to the editor, which sometimes are printed and sometimes not. So far, I have received two death threats. One came after I wrote a letter against the Klan, and the other, several years ago, when I blasted the then Shah of Iran. 

I have belonged to Common Cause and the ACLU, but at present my main emphasis is WILPF, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. (Yes, they accept men as members.) We started out with something like seven members and are now approaching about a hundred. I also help with the Gray Panthers as much as I can. 

From its inception, WILPF has taken as one of its projects working with the United Farm Workers and the Farm Worker Ministry. We have supported the grape boycott and other boycotts, and raised funds through an art auction, annual dinner, and other events. This past year, on very short notice, the members sponsored a dinner that raised about $1,000 for FLOC, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee based in Ohio. 

We have plenty of problems right here in Sarasota. Vestiges of Jim Crow are still alive. Even progressive groups have their difficulties with this problem. Our own WILPF branch has only one black member. A few blacks are in the League of Women Voters or in some of the business clubs. The free medical clinic brings in black patients, but few attend the Senior Friendship Centers. All in all, blacks and whites remain in their own churches and organizations, and the task of intermingling still remains to be accomplished. 

Our WILPF branch has featured black speakers at some meetings and sponsored a program on the death penalty at a black church. We have made a few attempts. What is obvious is that we shall have to redouble our efforts to increase black participation. Our main priority must be to increase their confidence in our sincerity and to create two-way roads between the groups. 

As in other parts of the retirement sunbelt, there's the added tension between the haves and have-nots. The old-timers and natives may resent, to varying degrees, the incursion of people from the North, many of them with ample supplies of greenbacks. While business owners might welcome the newcomers and the money they spread around, the working stiff who has been scratching out a marginal living resents the extravagant lifestyles and blames outsiders for the high prices. 

Of course, all migrating retirees are not rich or reactionary. Sarasota County, with 202,000 people, ranks among the highest counties in the nation in per capita income, yet it has 25,000 residents living at or below poverty, and 7,000 of these are over 60 years of age. The influx of people from the North has also brought many progressives who lived through the Great Depression and the social upheavals that followed, and who are now busy creating changes in this bastion of conservatism. The Gray Panthers of Sarasota, for example, have steadily grown since beginning in 1975, and have organized activities ranging from street demonstrations for Social Security to cooperative efforts with local black and white high school students. With nearly 200 members, the Gray Panthers are respected in the community for paying attention to issues affecting young and old. 

As you can see, life in the Sunshine State is not a placid existence devoid of all problems. Retirees need not become onlookers, far removed from the struggles of human beings. Many of us continue our interests in the causes around us. Perhaps we feel better that way, despite the aches of old age. 

Yes, it is possible to live quite well along Florida's west coast, even with modest resources. The people are generally friendly, the weather is kind, and one can dress casually for almost all occasions. And as a person who is not handy with tools, I am especially happy not having to cut the grass or bother with repairs. As the song goes, the living is easy. 

To tell the truth, I never had it so good.