Have you ever considered a commune?

[CarolAnn]

I've been knocking around an idea . . . I'm too stubborn and independent to go for living in a group home of ANY kind, but I acknowledge that as I get older, I'm going to be less able to get along on my own.

I guess what I'm thinking of would be considered a GEEZER commune!

I'd want my own private space. I like to be with people, but I also require "alone" time.

I could envision a tiny cluster of cottages or tiny houses with some handicap provisions (walkers & such!) but with handy access to common areas.

Other things that would be nice to share:
A small heated pool for exercising creaky old bones & joints.

Raised beds so we could plant and harvest without having to yell "get the forklift! I've fallen and I can't get up!"

Common kitchen and canning area where we could prepare our meals and the garden produce.

Rental housing available to relatives who come to visit. (Free housing would just encourage them to stay on too long!)

Possibly a live-in ade or young family who could do things the geezer's can't & in return for free rent?

~ ~ ~
Could this work?

[flatwater]

CarolAnne ~~~ It's called a retirerment center or gated community and we already have them. Besides I'm refusing to get old.
flatwater

[CarolAnn]

Flatwater,
Notice I rejected traditional group homes in my first sentence? That would also go to gated communities. I can't think of one that would promote something as uncool as vegetable gardening or canning for it's inmates.

Also, I really hate to be the one to mention this to you . . . but "getting old" only has one alternative and that's what happens when your heart stops and you are no longer breathing. I'd like to avoid that alternative as long as possible!

What I'm picturing is a way to ESCAPE from what I see happening to most older people - and that's loosing all freedom of choice and self-determination. It's the true "SHTF" situation, and it's happening to older folks everywhere: you get into some retirement "community" and give up your personal freedoms left and right. Someone tells you to do what you need to "for your own good" - whether it is or not - and you'd darn well better toe their line or get out.

And they cost a lot. This is a disagreeable situation in every way I can think of. I'd rather find other like-minded folks who have similar tastes to mine (for the sake of smoother near-habitation) - and put together some sort of cooperative where we could help each other, but remain essentially free of younger and stronger people telling us what to do: a geezer commune.

Rock on.

[ozarksnick]

CarolAnn, what you're describing sounds a whole lot like my idea of family.

I'd rather find other like-minded folks who have similar tastes to mine (for the sake of smoother near-habitation) - and put together some sort of cooperative where we could help each other, but remain essentially free of younger and stronger people telling us what to do:

[MooseToo]

i'm not sure i'd want to join ANY group that would have the likes of me -

(brazenly stolen from groucho marx)

[flatwater]

OK ya talked me into it , I'm going to get old. What would be nice is if you could get a community like that going and have a younger couple that could be like care takers of the elderly. Something like a slight assisted living couple that would be able to help if needed. Sounds like an interesting idea. especially with the numbers of baby boomers getting ready to retire.

[johnjmw]

Carol, sounds to me like your describing the family structure of a couple of generations ago. AKA the extended family. Living and eating as a big family with often three generations living in the same house.
I like the idea of a commune though with a wide variety of ages. I can picture a cluster of dome homes all connected to a larger "Common Room" by covered walkways which could contain a pool, small exercise room, community kitchen and meeting room. Maybe even a small greenhouse on it also for winter strolling and gardening.
That way anyone who had anything to can could do it in the community kitchen. There would almost always be someone around who would want to learn, help or just join in for company.
But boy would it be hard to get enough people of like minds to get a project that big started. The results would be worth the investment I think.
John

[MooseToo]

if my recall of history is accurate, did not the pilgrims try something similar before they switched to private property and individual family responsibility ?

[gregabob]

if my recall of history is accurate, did not the pilgrims try something similar before they switched to private property and individual family responsibility ?
They sure did! Teamwork is one thing, but 'communism' is a whole 'nuther deal. Extended families working together is also doable, but there seems to be a critical mass where it gets too big to manage. Then the problems start.........

[RangerRick]

Ever heard of Jamestown, VA? It's a lovely little place on a peaceful river setting of about 30 arces. They all died.

Just kidding. Carol, sounds like heaven but I'm afraid I've gotta have alot more action going on including a good dose of grandkids underfoot.
;D

Rick

[Shamrock1121]

Commune - the quintessential ponzi scheme.

I had a very able-bodied, 70ish friend who sold her home, most of her belongings, and moved into a Religious Commune in the Dakotas. It cost her a substantial amount to "join", including a monthly fee. So she essentially added to the bank account of "God" and made payments on the place too, without any of the benefits of personal ownership.

It sounded like the perfect place for a lonely woman to live out her days around a new "family". I'm sure she thought she was buying a few indulgances to get into heaven by joining this commune. She loved attending daily Mass in Latin (no less). She said it just wasn't as "special" since they started saying it in English....

The community work included gardens, food preparation (canning, etc.) and animals to tend to.

It followed the downside of any good socialist experiment - sounds wholesome, good and generous on paper, but it involves too many power-hungry people who want to rise-to-the-top and lord it over the underlings; and the human equivalent of a tick that come along to suck off the benefits without the involvement of work. Somehow it's always the backs and bucks of the few in the middle who make it - sorta - work for the many.

It wasn't long before she was back here - broke and discouraged. Thank goodness she couldn't turn over her SS check to the group, or she wouldn't have had anything left.

She quickly found out you don't have to pay a commune to be closer to God, and work is never really equally divided....

-Karen

[conundrum]

Actually, "Geezer Acres" has a certain appeal, at least for me. I am reaching an age where things, while still do-able, are becoming increasingly more difficult to get done on my own. And having a near miss with a laden log truck with me going over a hill and getting sorta mangled has given me pause to reconsider many things.
It would take a degree of cooperation and allowance for others that I think most of us are probably not equipped for or willing to enter into. However, it is certainly an interesting idea. The mechanics of the thing seem to always get in the road of the doing of it from what I have seen. And beliefs seem to muck things up a bit.
I have looked into communal situations in the past, more from curiosity, but have always been put off by things like "tantric cauliflower worship" or some such gibberish. I wonder, given the times we are approaching, if people who have ground and room will "take in" friends and family members in a manner similar to Carol Ann's idea. Not a commune, but more an approach to the traditional family of years ago where three generations lived together.
Just some idle thoughts.

[ArmySGT.]

My only experience meeting a commune in Oregon was a group of individuals, working harder for the group to service them , than working hard to service the group. Failed.

[flatwater]

Didn't the moonies have some sort of a commune in oregon?

[ArmySGT.]

Didn't the moonies have some sort of a commune in oregon?
Do you mean the Unification Church? I wouldn't know. I was referring to some Rainbows in the Applegate area, from years ago.