[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

I just went by SS this morning and it's all blocked off for St Patrick's Day. All of the parking spaces are blocked off and people have put their personal chairs on the street behind the blockades. I don't have any problem with that. What I also saw and is a big problem is that several of the table that the vendors put out so that people can eat have been roped off. Some have table cloths and signs on them with the names of various organizations, neighborhoods and clubs.

I would think that the vendors would stop people from doing this. The idea of the tables is that you go to a vendor, buy some food and sit at a table and eat it. If the tables are all taken there is nowhere to eat and I would imagine that fewer people will buy food and eat it.

Personally, I stay away from these big events that they have. We used to go to them when we first came to The Villages, but there was no place to park and no place to sit. We would usually wait in line for 45 minutes for some bad food and then ended up sitting on the curb while people who were not eating were sitting at tables.

My brother was down last year during Mardi Gras. We went to the celebration at LSL and waited in line for some Jambalaya. After waiting for a half hour and realizing there would be no place to sit we went back up to SS and ate at Gator's Dockside.

If were up to me they wouldn't have these events. They are just a pain for most of us who enjoy the entertainment in the squares.