
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 3, 1995                   TAG: 9502030050
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RETREAT

FINALLY it is clear why a nation so comfortably ensconced in an economic recovery is still feeling so grumpy.

There is the two-income-family theory: It takes both Mom's and Dad's paycheck to make the family as comfortable as Dad's alone used to.

There is the four-, five- or six-income-family theory: It takes Mom and Dad working two or three different jobs each to make the family almost as comfortable as Dad's alone used to.

And there is the multi-income-but-no-benefits theory: It takes Mom and Dad bringing in several paychecks to keep the family comfortable - but it still isn't secure because none of their various jobs offers health insurance coverage.

Forget all of them.

The clearest evidence yet that we are living in a time of economic dislocation: The Fords, duPonts and Mellons, and various other corporate titans with less familiar names, are at risk of losing their cherished winter retreat on Jupiter Island, Fla.

The titans and their families belong to a club for the very rich where they can retreat for the winter to modest homes surrounded by nature preserves - and a golf course, 14 tennis courts, marina and croquet lawn. It is called The Jupiter Island Club. Not clever - but then, what these folks will not abide is anything that hints at flash.

It's rather tacky to mention the amenities, in fact. What members cherish, The Wall Street Journal reports, is the club's exclusivity, the chance to live quietly among select friends.

Their way of life is being threatened, though. The founding family, which holds a 60 percent share of the operation, wants to sell out - for $60 million. The titans don't want the club sold to outsiders, but they're balking at the price tag which, divided among about 300 members, works out to $200,000 each.

Now, if we had all their money and were in danger of losing a treasured retreat, protected and nurtured since 1931, to some developer who'd bring in who knows what riffraff, why, we'd fork over the dough. What is money in the face of such a loss? Which is why they have it, and we don't.

As one member told The Journal, "Most of them made their money by not overpaying for things."

by CNB