{"id":230953,"date":"2019-02-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-08T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/these-eyes-have-seen-maybe-everything-2\/"},"modified":"2019-02-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-02-08T08:00:00","slug":"these-eyes-have-seen-maybe-everything-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/these-eyes-have-seen-maybe-everything-2\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018These Eyes Have Seen\u2019 \u2026 maybe everything"},"content":{"rendered":"

Doug Curlee | Editor en general<\/p>\n

Walking into a room of senior citizens has always triggered the same reaction for me.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t help but wonder what stories might be behind those eyes \u2014 what life-changing events they have known that might have changed their lives, for better or worse.<\/p>\n

The people who run Sunshine Retirement Communities thought much the same thing, which is why the company has started a program called \u201cThese Eyes Have Seen,\u201d in an effort to capture and document those stories at the 21 facilities it runs in 10 states.<\/p>\n

Sunrise Retirements CEO Luis Serrano decided to start compiling those stories for the company\u2019s website and a Facebook page, both called These Eyes Have Seen.<\/p>\n

As a child, and then a young man in Mississippi, Bill Goggin was a scholar who ended up being recognized by the city, the state, and ultimately as a Presidential Scholar \u2014 he wound up at Harvard College.<\/p>\n

The Jan. 31 stop at Waterford Terrace Retirement Community in La Mesa yielded some rich material for the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never expected any of that,\u201d Goggin said. \u201cBut I\u2019m really glad it all happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

George Howell said he escaped death three times in his youth. First, a nearly fatal childhood battle with malaria, and then two incidents as a young sailor stationed in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

\u201cI almost got shot by a police officer for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a buddy and I almost got killed riding in a car driven by a driver we didn\u2019t realize was blind drunk when he picked us up hitchhiking. He ended up rolling the car three times.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u2018These
Joanne Livingston<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Joann Livingston\u2019s family homesteaded near Yuma, Arizona, and started growing things that weren\u2019t normally grown in the desert \u2014 and wound up doing it so well the family was invited to Egypt by then-president Anwar Sadat, to show Egyptians how to do it.<\/p>\n

The list includes Richard Lederer, a prolific author and longtime language columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune, whose columns on language and the proper use of it made me a better writer over the years.<\/p>\n

But possibly the most life-changing story \u2014 one that was all too common in the late 1950s and early 1960s \u2014 happened to Dr. David Eiser.<\/p>\n

He was a young kid who was looking forward to his father renting a house at the seashore in New Jersey.<\/p>\n

The family went to the rental office to sign the papers and pay the rent. When the rental agent asked them to fill out the formal application forms, Eiser\u2019s father scratched out the word \u201cchurch\u201d from the question about where the family attended services, and substituted the word \u201csynagogue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rental agent saw that, and told the family he needed to go to the other office and make sure the house was ready for occupancy.<\/p>\n

A few minutes later, he came back and apologized, saying, \u201cI\u2019m so sorry, that house has already been rented, and I didn\u2019t know that. We don\u2019t have another house open right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family left, and as they got into their car, David\u2019s mother asked him if he knew what had happened there.<\/p>\n

David said, \u201cWell, they rented to someone else \u2014 it\u2019s no big deal.\u201d His mom said, \u201cNo, David that\u2019s not what happened. What happened is that they won\u2019t rent to Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a life lesson David Eiser never forgot.<\/p>\n

Things like that make you realize that there are stories everyone should hear and learn from.<\/p>\n

Things our seniors could teach us all, if only we listen.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what These Eyes Have Seen is all about, obtaining and conserving the stories \u2014 good and bad \u2014 that life experiences can teach us.<\/p>\n

If only we have eyes and ears to learn.<\/p>\n

Which stories make the Sunshine Retirement Communities website will be determined by the company\u2019s home office in Bend, Oregon, and the results won\u2019t be known for several weeks yet.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019ll be worth looking at when it happens.<\/p>\n

\u2014Doug Curlee es editor general. llegar a \u00e9l en doug@sdcnn.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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