Sex tales bring unwanted focus to Sun City West

Charles Kelly, The Arizona Republic, Jun. 11, 2001

The heat's on since recreation officials moved to stomp out public sex in Sun City West.

Reporters and talk show hosts from as far away as London have been panting after tales of senior lust in this retirement community, picturing it as a place where people have a better time in the bushes than in the Barcalounger.

Some of the publicity has been overblown, residents say, but maybe it's better to be considered randy than rusted out.

"It tells you one thing: We're not dead," said Bob Gerolamo, 74, a former circulation manager for Newsday who has lived in Sun City West for 11 years.

The brouhaha began a month ago when members of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Sun City West Posse caught a couple engaged in sexy antics in a parked car.

When officials and staff members of the Recreation Centers of Sun City West compared notes on such out-of-line incidents, the anecdotes began to flow.

A recreation staff member coming to work early had caught a man and a woman in a spa. One wasn't wearing a swimsuit.

Other couple encounters reportedly occurred late at night under the olive trees in the "doggie park" canine exercise area and on the benches on the rise known as Meeker Mountain, overlooking a golf course.

For the most part, these were undocumented reports, said Mauryne Hall, public relations spokeswoman for the Recreation Centers. Even the tally was vague, perhaps one or two dozen over several years.

Still, recreation officials are warning residents that intimate encounters in public places will not be tolerated.

They also met with the Sheriff's Office to ask for help and were told that sex in public is a crime only if the participants intend to be observed. That wasn't the case in Sun City West, where the encounters took place in parked cars, pools and spas, under cover of darkness, behind trees or in other circumstances in which there was a reasonable expectation of privacy.

"This was not a case of public indecency," Hall said.

But it certainly generated a decent amount of publicity. In addition to talking to local media, Hall did interviews with CBS News in New York, the BBC in London, radio stations across the country and the Washington Times. The Daily Show in New York reportedly was dispatching a crew to get the low-down. Comedians cracked jokes, and cartoonists sharpened their pens.

A favorite theme was sex in a golf cart. Early media reports referred to that athletic endeavor, though Hall now says officials haven't found anyone who witnessed it in Sun City West.

Residents reacted to the public-sex revelations with varying degrees of amazement, amusement and upset.

"I think it's terrible. I think it's a disgrace to our community to have this," said resident Shirley Scolastico, 72. "Why don't they go into their homes or a hotel?"

Rose Thiede, a resident in her late 60s, said she thinks too much has been made of the matter.

"I think it's out of proportion," she said. "Everybody's making jokes about it."

Not everybody, perhaps, but a good many.

Some neighboring Sun City residents reportedly quipped that Sun City West fees were higher because they included sex. A woman golfer, according to Gerolamo, recently approached the dog park fence and asked, "What time is the action?"

Gerolamo himself jokingly told a reporter, "I understand that the price of the houses has jumped."

More seriously, some of those involved complain that the reaction is at least partly due to the outmoded idea that seniors don't, or shouldn't, enjoy sex.

"Seniors aren't dead from the neck up or the neck down," said Dee Hjermstad, president of the governing board of Recreation Centers of Sun City West. "They're just normal people like everybody else."

Dr. Robert Butler, co-author of Love and Sex After 60, agreed and said poking fun at seniors engaged in sex is not helpful.

"Over the last quarter-century, there has been greater respect for . . . late-life sexuality," said Butler, a Pulitzer Prize-winning gerontologist who heads the International Longevity Center-USA in New York.

Still, both Butler and Hjermstad said sex shouldn't be enjoyed in inappropriate places. And Hjermstad doesn't think that will happen from now on in Sun City West.

The word is out that posse patrols and recreation staff members will take the names and license plate numbers of anyone caught engaging in public sex. Mostly, they will be told to "move along," although they could lose membership privileges.

The most potent deterrent, however, is simply the risk that word will get out, Hjermstad said.

"I rather doubt that anybody is going to want to (take) a chance of being caught doing this," she said, "mainly because of the publicity."

Reach the reporter at charles.kelly@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8584.

-- Anonymous, June 11, 2001