The Villages

The people who attend the 4:00 Saturday Mass in The Villages look pretty much like the people who attend the 4:00 Saturday Mass anywhere else.  The difference with The Villages is that ALL the people in The Villages look like the people who attend the 4:00 Saturday Mass.

Here is an example:  Last week I was grocery shopping at Publix.  When I was paying the cashier, the bag boy asked me if I need help getting my bags out to my car.  The bag boy was old enough to be my father!  And no, I didn’t.

Here is another example:  You may remember the video arcade game, Frogger.  The goal for the player is to get the frog safely across the road while dodging traffic.  Cathy and I played a similar game at one of The Villages’ many pools.  There were 16 senior citizens walking from pool side to pool side.  It took Cathy and I a great deal of planning and patience to negotiate all 16 just so we could make it to the deep end of the pool.  We should have gotten extra points for being able to avoid the old guy who was water walking, refusing to look up while doing his crossword puzzle in the pool!

But it’s too easy to criticize the Villages.  Jokes abound about the golf carts on the roads and how everybody is afraid to buy green bananas.  My cousin said that every time they hear a rescue squad siren in their area, people wonder if there will be another home on the market.  However, The Villages is more than that.  The weather there is ideal, it is safe, clean and it seems that everything is well cared for.  There are pools, pickelball courts, tennis courts and golf courses everywhere.  The is also entertainment and social clubs to suit most people’s tastes, even if they are geared to “people of a certain age”. 

While there last week, we enjoyed our visit with our friends from Sister Bay, Dick and

Bev, Patti, Lloyd Kolb & Cathy

Penny Schiller and we also managed to sneak in a visit with some more of the Kolbs, Lloyd, Bev and Patti.  We sincerely enjoyed spending time with my brother, Bill and our hosts, Bill and Karen Early.  We had a good time and look forward to a return visit after three more weeks of being on the road. 

We are off to Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine!

Karen & Bill Early

Bill Blaney