“In March of ’78 I moved to the residence club on 860 Sutter, of course that is just a nice way to say room and board with two meals a day for 6 days a week,” said John Elliott, San Francisco resident of what is now a freshman college dormitory, the International House, owned by Academy of Art University.
“When the club switched ownership, most residents moved out, one by one. Until there were only two left, Manny (another elder resident living in the International House) and I. We are the last ones left of the original, and we were offered to sign a lease and a contract: as long as we could live with young people, and oblige by the rules of taking out the telephone lines and TV’s, we could stay.”
Elliott, who is now retired from a long career working at the United Artist Theatre Inc., spends his days studying music, seeing 3 films a week, taking walks in his neighborhood, and of course, the routine meal twice a day he shares with hundreds of college students.
“There are no challenges, I love it. I’m as please as Patty’s Pigs,” Elliott chuckles as he pauses in describing the lack of challenges of his living situation. “I hope the students don’t mind me much. We stay out of each other’s way, I don’t think they want much to do with an old person,” said Elliott.
Elliott’s room is equipped with a couch that he has slept on for 30 years, “I haven’t slept in a bed in over 40 years. I don’t have problems with it, and there isn’t much room in here anyways.” Shelves are scattered across the room, covered with books of travel places, music, and film history. Within the first 30 seconds of being in this room, you can tell its full of character and more complex than any temporary living situation such as the other residents in the building, after all- he has over 30 years to collect his life into one room.
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