The other day, Everleigh (where we live) held a meeting for the community gardens. Mark, the GM, wanted to go over the rules. Tristan, the activities director, was there to keep us under control. We tend to go off topic.
One of the issues that Mark addressed dealt with the current drought in Colorado. Now, I’ve lived through at least ten drought summers and am overly familiar with the rules and regulations for watering.
They’re pretty simple, so I’ll tell you what they are:
Everyone can water two times a week for twenty minutes each time. No watering between 10 am and 6 pm. The days of the week are assigned by odd/even/multi-family complexes.
Drip systems can be used any day but not between 10 am and 6 pm.
Hand-watering is permitted any day but not between 10 am and 6 pm.
Trees, bushes, flower and vegetable gardens may be hand-watered or irrigated with drip systems.
That’s it. Pretty simple.
But not to Mark. His advice from the people who do the landscaping and irrigation systems at Everleigh didn’t include anything about drip systems or hand-watering.
In short, they were advising the death of our trees, shrubs, flower and veggie gardens.
At that point, a few of us in the meeting just went whacko. Especially me. I carefully explained the Denver Water Department rules. The group began murmuring. I could sense a revolution brewing. I stuck to my guns. The meeting ended after I promised Mark to provide him evidence. I did. I printed out the Denver Water Department rules.
I also yelled at Mark. I said there was no reason to impose draconian measures for water when the City does not require them. We have some drip systems on the property. We also have sprinklers which will have to abide by the two-day a week rule.
As my niece, Laurie, would say, I was “triggered”. I was! Makes me crazy when people (the irrigation “experts”) are too damn lazy to read the law.
Last night, Tristan stopped me and said she had a great idea. She asked Mark if she could take over planting the various pots and he agreed. She wanted to put together a committee to research drought resistant perennials.
YES! That’s perfect! I am on it!
I returned to our apartment to begin researching and my mind went off topic. I wondered if it was normal for people in apartment complexes to create volunteer groups for things. Everleigh is a 55+ complex. There are no assisted living nor dining rooms that serve food every day. It’s just an apartment complex where retired people live. The people who live here were doctors, lawyers, teachers, carpenters, executives, architects, homemakers and any number of other occupations. They all had lived in homes where they raised their families. Ninety percent of our residents come from out of state and moved here to be close to children and grandchildren. GB and I are the exception because we’re both Colorado natives.
Everleigh has an activities director, and she coordinates the various activities. But the thing that I find most interesting is that all these events utilize residents as volunteers. The weekly wine event includes appetizers prepared in our chef’s kitchen. Everleigh pays for the wine and the food, but everything is prepared by residents who also set up and clean. Once a month we have a residents’ breakfast. This is coordinated and executed by residents who set up the tables with tablecloths, flowers and then establish a buffet with resident made food. There is a workshop that is filled with the most amazing collection of materials and equipment: all donated by residents.
There are book clubs, movie screenings, games, grief support, AA, lectures, music, dog groups, poker groups, exercise classes. All resident invented and led.
It’s a community. And, frankly, I’ve never known regular apartment complexes to have anything similar.
I have a theory why. We’re all people who have lived complicated, productive lives and we care about where we live. We’ve chosen to live in a 55+ place because we 1) wanted to be closer to family; or 2) we no longer wanted to live in our home; or 3) we wanted to be sure to socialize with others and not isolate ourselves in our old age. More significantly, when people congregate, we naturally create community to meet our needs. Humans are herd animals and we need the comfort and enjoyment of one another.
Michael Smerconish, an American journalist, mourns the lack of mingling in our society. He frequently cites a book, “Bowling Alone” by Robert Putnam, that outlined the decrease of communal activities (bowling leagues, fraternal orders, interest clubs) and the increase in loneliness among young people. This trend was picked up by Scott Galloway, an American political scientist, who points out that today’s youth are not dating, marrying, reproducing. They’re lonely. Smerconish has attempted to counteract the current epidemic of loneliness with his “Mingle Project” which encourages people to talk “face-to-face”. Not through Facebook. Not through texts. And, he encourages us to talk to people who are different than we are.
And that is what we have here at Everleigh. One giant “mingle project”.
So, we fight with Mark when we know he’s wrong about the water restrictions. We fight because we don’t want the trees and shrubs to die. And, we know they don’t have to. We fight with Mark when he removes the water dispenser in the Great Room because people want access to filtered clean, cold water.
Now, I don’t want people to think Mark is a tyrant. He’s not. He’s a good guy and both he and Tristan work incredibly hard to provide a structure for our mingle project. He works for a large corporation, and they make all sorts of rules. He just must try and follow them and it’s up to us to crate the change.
That’s what makes living here so different from, I think, other apartments. Or maybe even condos. We are a bunch of Boomers who are used to making trouble, getting our way, creating change and refusing to accept a status quo. I like that about us. It defined our generation, sometimes for the worse; oftentimes for the better.
Moving here was the smart thing to do. New friends, activities, perspectives, and challenges.
It’s fun and challenging to be a part of a community that is randomly thrown together. I think I’ll send this blog Michael Smerconish’s way and thank him for helping me to see that I landed inside a mingle project.
Air. 
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