Go to that place down by the sea

A Senior View

By Ed Lyons

(Updated: Friday, May 09, 2008, 5:53 PM)

"I have a place to go......

When life weighs down on me.

I have a place to go......

And that place is by the sea."

Ironically, that expression is about 180 degrees out from the way I felt 30 years ago.

After a naval career that lasted 30 years, I found the idea of living inland, in the mountains, was an attractive one.

And a quiet one, too!

Years of assault on my ears by aircraft engines, carrier operation, explosives and the high frequency screech of military operations, left me to find the silence of the mountain to be deafening.

But welcome.

Settling down for my retirement, I welcomed the absence of hustle and bustle.

Insects made more noise than the people, and deer were a bigger nuisance than the early morning garbage trucks.

City folks that came to visit actually complained that the silence of the night kept them awake.

There was no graffiti either. There weren't any walls to write on.

And there's not much street crime when you've only got two streets.

Hard to find any gang action when most of the inhabitants are over 50.

Yes sir, it's a good place for those golden years.

But, every once in a while, every so often, across the mountain range and through the wooded forest, I swear that I can smell the salty air and hear the sound of the surf on the sand and rocky shore and I find myself looking westward.

A little time at Carmel or Asilomar or Pacific Grove is all it takes to cure that ache and last week I took...

"Those cares and longings

To that place I go to see

And I left them there

In that place down by the sea."

Grandpa sez: "Nostalgia is when you find pleasure in the memory."