HOW ONE SOLDIER CHANGED THE COMMUNITY OF SOLANA  BEACH, CA  

            For many of us, the idea of aging is frightening.  We have been led to believe it brings pain, loneliness, and idle time for regressing mentally. Remedies, products, prescriptions, and escapes offer youthful looks, energy, and vitality. The thought of aging is brutal; we pretend we can buy youth. What if you met a man who told you he could do everything today, at eighty-four, that he did all his life without injections, medicine, special diet, or specific training?  

            What if I told you all his family, including his brothers, mother, and father, is gone?  His wife died twenty years ago. That he lives alone and is not lonely. He claims he is the happiest man in the world.  Would you want to meet him?  He wants to meet you. He would like to be everyone’s neighbor. He has much to teach in a country of strangers about meeting neighbors and making friends. We who know proclaim him an inspiration, a legend, an angel. And to that, he always replies, “I‘m just a regular guy.”  

            Maurice Roberts has lived in Solana Beach since 1936, and his recollections of the area are intact. I recorded his history and began writing everything down. Next week, I will start the first in a series of historical perspectives.