Page 23 - C.A.L.L. #39 - Spring 2015

Living Inter-Generationally at Dancing Rabbit

"The Times They Are A-Changin'…"

By Sharon

When my partner and I first considered moving to Dancing Rabbit, our dear
friend Patricia responded in great surprise, “But, you’d be the ELDERS!"

Yes, I agreed, we probably
would; Dennis was 60 and I

was 50 at the time, and
most of the folks at Dancing
Rabbit were in their 20s and
30s. And so what? As a
teacher, I had spent a good
part of my adult life with
younger people, and had
developed some close
friendships with my former
students as they grew into

adulthood. The role of
"elder" didn’t daunt me at
all. In fact, the thought of
living "inter-generationally" Sharon and Aurelia, playing inter-generationally in the
really excited me. straw on Sharon's roof!

Soon after I moved to Dancing Rabbit I began to understand what Patricia was
saying. I began to have a strange craving for conversation with ANYONE who
looked to be over 40. I started an elders group of the few folks who were over
45. I began to be very conscious of the fact that I could have been the first
grade teacher, or even the parent, of many of my neighbors, setting up an
expectation for myself that I should behave at all times in a "grown-up" way.

At the same time, I was very conscious that I didn't want to be teacher or
parent, and that my neighbors weren't looking for that either. I couldn’t quite
figure out how to be "me." While I really wanted to be "age-blind," age kept
seeming to matter.

It became particularly hard for me when the mostly young interns we call "work
exchangers" populated DR each summer. With great energy and enthusiasm,
they created their own twenty-something social world, and most of them,

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