DAVIS, Calif. — They are unlikely revolutionaries. Bearing walkers and canes, a veritable Merck Manual of ailments among them, the 12 old friends € average age 80 € looked as though they should have been sitting down to a game of Scrabble, not pioneering a new kind of commune. Opting for old age on their own terms, they were starting a new chapter in their lives as residents of Glacier Circle, the country’s first self-planned housing development for the elderly € a community they had conceived and designed themselves, right down to its purple gutters. Over the past five years, the residents of Glacier Circle have found and bought land together, hired an architect together, ironed out insurance together, lobbied for a zoning change together and existentially probed togetherness together. “Here you get to pick your family instead of being born into it,” said Peggy Northup-Dawson, 79, a retired family therapist and mother of six who is legally blind. “We recognized that when you’re physically closer to each other, you pay more attention, look in on each other. The idea was to share care.” The four couples, two widows and two who are now living […]