Saturday, June 4, 2011

BARNEY ATE AN OMELETTE

BARNEY ATE AN OMELETTE
By Laura Walcher
Presidio Sentinal
June 2011

   Barney may be the one male of late that I can deal with:    Arnold’s  disappointed us (to say the least), and The Donald’s wasted our time.  Barney does neither.  Part of it is expectations, of course; with dogs, you get what you get.

More by far, thought I, than what Isabelle Walcher gets from Millie, her Guinea Pig, and Shelly, the Tortoise. Ms. Isabelle, now 14, has been trying hard to prove me wrong.  Isabelle can “do” 15-minutes on Millie – without inhaling.  Even Shelly – a Tortoise! -  can get a minute!   Go figure.

Poor Ruby!  Isabelle’s smart who-knows-what canine may be perplexed at having been demoted from being Number One Pet since Millie’s arrival, but Ruby’s a lady; she doesn’t complain.

I’m a lady, too, but with a bigger brain (right?) than Ruby.  I yearn to understand the Guinea Pig phenomenon taking over my lovely grand-daughter’s life. “She (Millie) is adorable, sweet, loves to be held, and has the best personality!,” exudes Isabelle. 

I’m working hard to experience this.  Remember Isabelle’s non-stop 15 minutes?   Here she goes:  ”Millie definitely has her own personality! She’s a kind’ve ‘diva.’ She loves people but not other guinea pigs. She is very vocal and squeaks every time she hears the vegetable bags crackle. She loves to curl up on my chest while I watch TV or am on the computer. One of her favorite things is having her chin scratched!” 

Yeah, I say, but it’s nothing personal – not like Barney, who knows his masters, knows his friends.  And how does she know, anyway, about what and who Millie “loves”? At least Barney wags his tail.  Isabelle protests, “I think she ‘knows’ me. She’d better! I feed her. She knows my footsteps when I come down the stairs to give her breakfast  - lettuce, bell pepper, tomatoes, cilantro, and more! She never squeaks when my mom comes down the stairs, only when I do!” 

Could I be persuaded?  Millie, maybe.  But Shelly-the-Tortoise, when abandoned Ruby is slinking in a corner, silently yearning for attention?  You can’t even play with a Tortoise, I declare.  “Not really ‘play,’ “ Isabelle confesses.  Well, duh.  She declares, ”actually, I have!” (Uh-oh). “ I set up a maze for Shelly with bricks; well, OK, she just knocked them down. But I did try to take her for a walk “

“ The most enjoyable thing about Shelly is watching her move! She’s fast! I love watching her eat, too!” Isabelle’s undeterred.  “She has a little tongue  - tiny and pink! I feel a special bond with her.   My brother (Ben) and I had fish, but Shelly was my very first all-to-myself pet. She was my responsibility. She has lived with us for about seven years.  I love her so much! “

Growing up, I had tortoises, too.  Maybe I have a bonding deficiency.

I say, stick with dogs.  (Hear that, Ruby?)  There’s a certain rationality to Barney’s character that I respect. He has his pride.  If he has to vomit, say, he heads for the carpet, where it can then sink into the rug and he can pretend it’s not there.  If he needs to poop, he looks for a low hedge for hiding it, or better, someone’s lovely flower bed.  If I say, “stay” at a curb, he monitors the traffic from the correct direction.  And if he needs a little snack on a walk, he cleverly avoids the fresh tidbits that neighbors leave for him (odor, light), and heads straight for the rotting unmentionables – oh, like that omelette.

At least, I think it was an omelette.  ###














DEBORAH SZEKELY’S “EUREKA” LIFE!

DEBORAH SZEKELY’S “EUREKA” LIFE!
By Laura Walcher

     Deborah Szekely has a problem, but not one related to Rancho La Puerta, the rejuvenating Tecate paradise she’s tended for the past 77 years. She’d worked out how we can successfully manage our lives in divisions of 30:   ages 1 - 30 for  development and parenthood;    30 - 60, for adulthood and contribution;   60 - 90, for achieving confidence and realizing our dreams.
   That’s all very well, but now that she’s in her 90th year and wholly un-fettered by age, she has to revisit - and perhaps re-number - the entire concept! 

   At the spacious Shangri-la-ish Bankers’ Hill home Deborah’s  lived in for 56 years,  Robin, her  King Charles spaniel, rushed to greet me, an exuberant escort to the spacious main house. 

  “ We bought this house in 1954 for $12,000 with $500 down!,” Deborah says.   “ Remember those days, though, when every house had tiny little windows?  The first thing we did was glass in one entire side.  The former owner came to visit and said, “Oh, I never realized this house had a view!”

   Indeed.  Luscious gardens, graceful walks, charming bungalows, panoramic sky and sheltering trees  create Deborah’s haven, from which she oversees Rancho La Puerta, and her numerous involvements and commitments. 

    With telephone at her side, she takes - and out of respect for  her visitor - politely but swiftly dispatches  all  calls - save one, clearly a Ranch issue  which she handles  in  clear, confident Spanish.   

   Her recent 89th birthday yielded “seven parties,” she said.  Her favorite was a celebratory trek she led at the Ranch, with staff and their children - about 300 in all.  Many staffers are third generation Ranch employees.” Pedro Martinez, a masseur is one example, “ she proudly says.  “ He’s worked at the Ranch for 47 years.  Today, five of his sons work with us as
well. “

    As is well-documented by now,, Edmond and Deborah Szekely  were “health nut” pioneers when they launched what was then considered a rather “cult”  type getaway in Tecate, in 1934.    Deborah’s parents had been friends with Szekely, a Hungarian scholar, philosopher and natural living proponent. They were Jewish immigrants,  committed believers in “natural” living.  “We met Edmund in Tahiti, when we moved there from Brooklyn, “ says Deborah.  “ My parents embraced an all-fruit diet  - at the time, little of that in Brooklyn, but plenty in Tahiti!”

    Edmond  was called “The Professor, ‘  noted as an author and a lecturer .   “When his secretary at the time left and was replaced by another, “ says Deborah, “the new man took  one look at the rugged environment we were in -  and
 got right back on the same train to return home!” 

     Deborah, at 17, became Szekely’s assistant.  “He was surely a visionary - yet so impractical, “ she recalls. “ He couldn’t drive.  Couldn’t type.  Couldn’t balance a check book.”  Deborah could, and suddenly she had money and independence.  “He was the dreamer, the teacher, the writer; the magnet that brought people to our ‘camp.’  I was the practical one.  We married when I turned 18; had we not, we’d never have had the Ranch!”

   In the wake of World War 11, Szekely had fled Europe, rather than join the Hungarian military.  Without a passport nor documents for living in the United States, he fled with his young wife to Mexico, where, on a shoe-string and a piece of land beneath Mt. Kuchima, they established Rancho La Puerta. Deborah laughs,” Our earliest guests paid $17.50 per week - and  brought their own tents!” 

   “ After the war,” Deborah continued, “we stayed at the Ranch - it turned out that we had no choice!  We’d intended to go to England, but that just didn’t happen. “

    The Europeans, she explained, were themselves recovering from the war, just happy to have survived and trying to rebuild their lives. “Our ideals and plans for a healthful and natural get-away were quite superfluous to those needs.” she says.   

  “So, we stayed.  It took  ten years to bring the Ranch to a reasonable sort of business, and provide us an income, But we were confident that the service we rendered was valuable – and
to this day, that’s been proven!”

    (Deborah’s phone rang -  but this time, a peculiar conversation took place.   Robin, the adventurous spaniel,  had been “found, “ and was now being held by te caller in Banker’s Hill. Does his owner wish to claim her?   Is Deborah Szekely,  at going-on-90 “spry” ?  Let’s just say that this visitor raced behind her to the car, barreled through the ‘hood, and ultimately collected Robin - the - escapee.    “She did it again!” sighed Deborah.)

   Her energy and drive having been amply demonstrated, we continued our talk, while Robin snored,  guilt-free,  at our feet. 

   “I’ve come to believe that the Ranch, has a special quality, one that’s rare, “Deborah continued.  “Maybe it’s Mt. Kuchima overseeing us; or the auras of the thousands of guests that have been here.  I hope I don’t overstate it ... but I regard the Ranch as a sacred retreat.  I was meant to be there. “

   “ Many guests come annually or sem-annually - often  to celebrate a birthday or anniversary.  They’re busy and engaged every day - with exercise classes, gardening, hiking; they’re never on auto-pilot!  How to keep guests busy was a challenge at first ... we were in such a remote location ... and there was no ‘model’ for what we were doing. “
   “ Elizabeth Arden had a spa, primarily for drinkers, drying out.  We had nobody to imitate!  Eventually, everyone’s imitated us! “

     Within sixteen years of developing Rancho La Puerta, Deborah knew how to provide extraordinary and rewarding experiences for guests. Having paid her dues,  she bought the The Golden Door.   “My husband said, ‘ if we have kids, we need a business in the States.’  He didn’t want kids, and he didn’t want the Golden Door, but I did.  The Door was entirely my project,  “

   The couple did have kids:  Alex and Sara Livia, both of whom became important developers and managers of both properties. 
Tragically, Alex died of cancer at 44, and his sad diagnosis led to the family selling the Door.

    “We only sold when Alex was given five years to live,” Deborah says.  “ He said, ‘ a sale can pay for having a fabulous life, doing everything we want, for five years!’ “

   Yet through a succession of weak owners, the Door faltered, and Alex told Deborah, sadly, “  “mom, buy it back!’ “

    While that didn’t happen, the Golden Door today is successfully run by Luxury Resorts & Hotels.   Many of Deborah’s original staff are there, and a weekly trip for lecturing  and consulting is on Deborah’s  routine.   

   Traveling from her home in Mill Valley, Sara Livia now spends ten days a month at the Ranch, lending her own expertise and creativity to the Ranch’s new cooking school, the property’s architecture and gardens, ensuring that every guest has a unique, refreshing, renewing experience. 

    What can we learn from Deborah’s amazing journey?  “I’m a risk-taker - - I’ve been completely lucky!   I don’t stew, and I don’t fret.   Even bad experiences have given me   ... well, experience! 
     “In my lectures, I tell those over 70 not to suffer from “oxygen deprivation” - - don’t decline. Do more!  I ‘do’ something every day, walking, Pilates.   Everything may ‘work’ less efficiently - but everything still ‘works’ !”

   Deborah hasn’t quite worked out re-packaging her earlier philosophy of life’s”thirds,” but she has excellent expectations for whatever comes with soon becoming  90.   “We might tweak the ‘formula’ of the Ranch - with our cooking school, say, or introduce new menu items or classes, but we won’t veer off on any sharp tangents. We’ve kept to the straight and narrow, deepening & strengthening our formula  - -it’s been key to our success!”

   In anticipation of a 90th celebration, Deborah will arrange 100 percent of the profits of her “Fundacion La Puerta” to support environmental, social and educational projects in the Tecate and border  areas. There will also be a debut for  “Watch Yourself Grow Younger, ”her highly -anticipated new book. 

   And, the satisfaction - even thrills - of realizing how many thousands have been improved by that formula, the philosophy and practices of her Rancho la Puerta continue unabated.  “One attractive woman, in her mid-40’s, came for a week, “ she reports.  “She left, and to our surprise, returned three weeks later.   ‘It was the ‘best week of my life!,’ she said. ‘I looked in the mirror when I got home, and I’d never looked that good!’ “ 

  This resonates with Deborah Szekely, her own best example
of the benefits of the healing and uplifting spirit of Rancho La Puerta.  “Eureka!,” says Deborah. “One of my favorite words. It means,  ‘I found it!’   xxx 

A lovely video about Rancho La Puerta, narrated by  Deborah
Szekely, can be found at rancholapuerta.com.  Click on
“History.”