The Soundtrack of our Lives
While we’re celebrating the ever-popular Solheim Senior Community’s 100 years of serving seniors, let’s take a tour through one hundred years of popular music. Feel free to sing along!
In 1923, Adolph Larson envisioned “a cozy Christian home to rest when the sun goeth down” and Solheim Lutheran Home was created in Eagle Rock, California. One year later, Al Jolson recorded “California, Here I Come,” a song often called the unofficial state song of California. (The official state song is 1913’s “I Love You California.” Agreed: “California Here I Come” is infinitely better.)
In 1932, Solheim Lutheran added more bedrooms, providing a safe place “where troubles melt like lemon drops,” a wonderful line from Judy Garland’s signature song “Over the Rainbow.” (“The Wizard of Oz,” 1939.)
In the early ‘40s, Solheim purchased an additional acre of land with two more cottages, providing shelter to still more seniors. Amidst the travails of World War Two, Solheim Lutheran Home celebrated their twenty-year anniversary on November 21, 1943. Did celebrants slow dance to Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas”? (Upon penning that song Berlin said, “Not only is it the best song I ever wrote—it is the best song anybody ever wrote.” No wallflower, he.) Bing Crosby’s version of that song is still the best-selling single of all time.
Come the 1950s, rock ‘n roll had arrived and was here to stay! In 1954, Solheim Lutheran Home completed construction on the main building—the same year that Bill Haley & His Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock” was heard by millions of people worldwide. We were bogeying now!
Solheim’s dedicated Skilled Nursing Facility was completed in 1965. One year later, Southern California’s very own Beach Boys released “Good Vibrations” which vibed its way to the top of the charts. Good vibrations were everywhere, as was irresistible music by the Beatles and Rolling Stones, the Supremes and the Temptations.
The seventies kept rocking (and folk-rocking) bookended by Helen Reddy’s 1971 power ballad “I Am Woman” and Gloria Gaynor’s 1978 disco anthem “I Will Survive.” And who can forget Abba’s 1976 “Dancing Queen,” where “You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life.”
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts blasted into the eighties with “I Love Rock ‘n Roll” and in 1981, Solheim’s Manor House completed construction. Everyone wanted their MTV, which played 24/7 videos of our favorite pop and rock stars, including Cyndi Lauper’s 1983 hit “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and Tina Turner’s 1984 hit “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” her biggest selling single. In 1986, Solheim acquired their first van, and Solheim residents went mobile! One hopes they were blasting the radio.
In 1990, Madonna inspired us to “Vogue” as the main entrance to Merton Manor was completed. The nineties also brought boy bands like NSYNC (“I Want it That Way”) and West Coast Hip Hop, personified by Snoop Dog and Dr. Dre. We were “Living la Vida Loca” (Ricky Martin) and what wedding was complete without line-dancing to Los Del Rios’ “La Macarena.”
As the new millennium broke, Solheim’s Halvorson Special Care campus was dedicated to our beloved seniors with memory loss. Meanwhile, skater-girl Avril Lavigne urged everyone to be less “Complicated” (2001) while Beyonce was “Crazy in Love” (2003). Planning ahead, Solheim purchased the Eagle Rock Hardware and Lumber for future expansion.
The 2010s began with Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” and Nelly’s “Just a Dream.” In 2015, as Adele broke the world’s heart with “Hello,” Solheim began renovations on the Halvorson lobby and exterior.
This brings us to 2020, when we all joined hands and locked down for Covid, which the Solheim community came through stronger than ever! In 2022 we sang along to OneRepublic’s “I Ain’t Worried” and Harry Styles’ “As it Was.” And while Miley Cyrus celebrates better times ahead with “Flowers,” we are celebrating Solheim Senior Community’s 100 Years of serving seniors!
This soundtrack is far from conclusive. We could spend the next one hundred years listing the songs that moved us, changed us, made us sing and dance and feel alive.
Happy 100th anniversary to Solheim Senior Community. May our soundtrack of love and service play another hundred years!
(Many thanks to Solheim resident and board member Barbara Rogers for compiling such hugely fun playlists for each of the past eleven decades.)