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Letter to the editor

I Live Here

Sun City Center

The Fountain of Youth can be found in Sun City Center, where activities abound.

By DONNA AND GENE EARNER
Published July 2, 2004

I was born and raised in Chicago and the Chicago suburb of Evergreen Park. I truly was a hometown boy.

In Evergreen Park, my wife, Donna, and I raised nine boys and three girls. We thought there was no other place like the South Side of Chicago.

Time flew like a jet plane, and retirement age was upon us. I was working about 75 hours a week, and Donna was working in a bank when the time came to say goodbye to cold winters, the high cost of living and the work force. We set out to find paradise in Florida and found it in Sun City Center. We had visited communities from Ocala to Naples. They were all neat and clean, but none offered the activities and luxury of having 99 holes of golf to choose from at the low price of $40 per week for unlimited golf.

The brochures boasted 200 different clubs or groups that were available. It proved to be true.

Besides the activities and year-round golf, we yearned for more property. We had lived on a 20-foot lot for 34 years. We found a sweetheart of a real estate lady named Joy Sparkman. She found a house on the golf course for us with 154 feet of frontage. We now have a small-town atmosphere with more to do than we had in Chicago. Ideal for retired people. We are now 72.

Sun City Center was promoted as a golf community, but activities and hobbies are endless. As a hobby, we still take care of fundraising shows and parties in Chicago for very poor children. With help from Deirdre Reilly, a country-western singer who lives in Nashville, we raised $74,000 for Maryville Academy in February. We continue to do that here at the beautiful auditoriums built and maintained by the community associations.

We also do that for civic functions. Our next show with Deirdre is July 1 in our community hall.

Our old Cadillac is now our second car. Our golf cart is our primary source of transportation. Just like the brochure said, we use it for grocery shopping, Wal-Mart, church, and errands. The weather is perfect, the people are warm and friendly and the lifestyle is active yet relaxing.

If I meet Ponce de Leon in the life hereafter I will tell him he should have looked in Sun City Center for the Fountain of Youth.

- Donna and Gene Earner live on El Rancho Drive.

[Last modified July 1, 2004, 11:25:16]