Sun Lakes Writers Group

The Real Housewives of Sun Lakes, Arizona

Dick Nelsen

Many programs have been on television about the housewives of cities like Beverly Hills, Atlanta, and New York, but none about the real housewives of Sun Lakes, Arizona. So let’s give it a go. First most of the Sun Lakes housewives are retired, or their spouse, is retired, or is a widow or care-givers. But they live in Sun Lakes because of the life style. A lot because of the warm weather or actually the lack of cold weather. Women from the mid-west or northern snow areas were just sick and tired of being house prisoners. They were confined inside for days sometimes and had only their husbands to look forward to coming home from work. Grumpy tired of the traffic, and counting the days to retirement. He plops down in his easy chair turns on the TV and pops open a cold beer. “What’s for dinner he grumbles?”

“I couldn’t get to the grocery store because of the snow and the TV station kept saying stay home unless it’s an emergency.”

“So what’s for dinner?”

“I’ll open a can of beans, or some soup. We need to get out of this winter wasteland. There has to be a better place.”

“Right we will, I retire on June 30. Let’s try Arizona, no snow.”

Happy to finally be in Sun Lakes they moved into their home mid-July and immediately began to look for neighbors to meet. Only to find most have left town for cooler climates. But, Agnes and her husband toughed it out in the 100 degree summer heat looking forward to the up-coming warmer winter in Sun Lakes, Arizona.

So I sort of snooped around a bit to get an idea about the ladies that so graciously are residents in Sun Lakes. Many will not miss Friday at Cocktail Corner at PVCC. Interesting that the women sit at one table and the men sit at another. Listening to the hum emanating from the ladies table I discovered that women have the unique ability to listen to multiple conversations and not miss a thing. This may be contributed to the fact that women use both sides of their brains at the same time. Men on the other hand use only one side of their brain…sometimes.

Agnes was thrilled to retire to Sun Lakes now that her husband had retired, but was not totally prepared for him being under foot all the time. She was beside herself when he volunteered to alphabetize the spice rack. That’s when she suggested he take up golf. He did and that was the last she saw of him during the day, He still came home asking what was for dinner and her answer was she too had retired, especially from cooking. Thank goodness, there are many restaurants in the area, including the restaurants at Palo Verde and Cottonwood plus if the Diamondbacks scoring six or more runs the next day they could get three free tacos at a nearby Taco Bell.

Not to be out done the ladies took up golf also. Where else but Sun Lakes can you see a garage with one car and two golf carts? But Bridge is really big and at any hour of the day and night somewhere in Sun Lakes there is a Bridge game being played. The housewives are not waiting around in the house for the snow to melt. They walk and many with a dog. These dogs are smart and have their handlers well trained so they get a walk in every day, plus a good way to get rid of plastic bags. Another place to find a Sun Lakes house wife is the swimming pools where they bob around like corks and discuss the local gossip, at least I think because I never got close enough to hear what they say.

If you see a pattern in Sun Lakes it is that they’re really are no house wives living in the area. Rather you have a community of active women who get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather, stay active, and encourage their husbands to fire up the barbeque grill and cook dinner, or the car to find a new restaurant. I think the housewives of some city are usually jealous of one another, concentrate on shopping, and nasty gossip. In Sun Lakes we should change the title if a television station wants to do a program on the house wives of Sun Lakes, Arizona, to “The Active Ladies of Sun Lakes, Arizona.” Has a nice ring to it doesn’t it, Agnes?

The Faded Echo

Margaret Daniels

Hearing the word echo I was taken back to my childhood and to the song of Little Sir Echo. This little song was written by John S. Fearis and Laura Rountree Smith in 1917. During my childhood many famous musicians sang this tune including Guy Lombardo and Bing Cosby along with other singers down through the years following. Whoever sang the song usually used backup singers to create the echo effect to make this piece more effective.

Bing Cosby was my mother’s favorite singer. She probably bought one of his records and played this piece in which my sister and I indirectly memorized the words of this short tune. The first verse goes like this:

Little Sir Echo, how do you do? Hello! (Hello!) Hello! (Hello!)

Little Sir Echo, we’ll answer you Hello! (Hello!) Hello! (Hello!) Hello! (Hello!) Hello! (Hello!)

Won’t you come over and play? (and play)

You’re a nice little fellow I know by your voice

But you’re always so far away (away)

Now envision the scene of four active little girls living on a body of water called Big Lake in Washington State with only few families living there. You’re at the edge of the water. As you look up you see the Cascade Mountain range across from you in the distance. Turning your head to the right, you are gazing at the two other smaller mountains.

I don’t know if it was the large body of water or the mountain that created the echo of our “Hello” as we shouted at the top of our voice. We quietly listened for the return reply. A few seconds later you could hear the word “Hello.” As it came back, I secretly pretended and hoped that there was someone who would come over the play.

Many hours were spent calling out “Hello” and waiting for the return echo. There was something magical when I heard the sound coming back to me. It was is I had a special friend even though the echo was just my voice.

It’s funny that a short little musical piece could still be remembered even though it has been more than several decades ago. The echo that was once heard around the lake has been silenced due to the progress of extensive building that has occurred over the years. The children in that area now will not able to experience something as simple as hearing the echo of their own voice as I did when I was a child. The echo I experienced has faded and lies dormant only to resurface occasionally as a distant memory.

Summer in Arizona

Jim Glueck

Summer in Arizona is definitely here

We are feeling the hottest days of the year

The day temperatures range around 110 as the norm

And then there is the annual monsoon storm.

I kind of like the monsoon lightning, the wind and the rain

I can enjoy the sights from my patio again

But along with the monsoons are the walls of dust

Painting the skies and my patio the color or rust.

A benefit of summer though is less traffic on our roads

For the Snowbirds have left our hot city in droves

To be honest I really can’t say that I care

For it’s just too hot for me to drive anywhere.

Who I really feel sorry for are the landscape workers

And maintenance people and construction fabricators

Whether you are for the immigrants or you are not

One has to admire how hard they work when it is so hot.

My beautiful flowers have dried up and died

I couldn’t save them no matter how hard I tried

They just could not take the sun and the heat

Poor things they just wound up on my trash heap.

Even Annie, our Yorkshire Terrier, is getting a bit stir crazy

She has to spend full time indoors with her Mom and me

She just loves for me to take her for a walk

Now I cannot, for her little feet will burn on the hot asphalt.

In summer our meals change as one would expect

Salads and fresh fruit are better than grilling outside on the deck

Sipping a summer fruit drink or a sweetened iced tea

Makes the hot days of summer tolerable at least to me.

When speaking about the heat to our family back East

They tell us to cool off under a cold water shower, at least.

Cold water? I tell them the last time that I remember

Cold water from my faucet was sometime last December.

Then how do you live in such a hot place they ask

I tell them it is simple, you just need to walk fast

From the air conditioned car to the air conditioned store

Back to the air conditioned care and air conditioned home once more.

Still my family back East calls and asks how we can

Live indoors in the hottest place in the land.

To spend the summers indoor here I have only one bit of advice

Make sure you are married to a very patient wife.