Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - What is Wildwood like?
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Old 12-18-2009, 10:14 AM
Larryandlinda Larryandlinda is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Taj44 View Post
I agree with all the comments on Wildwood depicting it as essentially a "slice of small town Florida life". For those of us who grew up or lived in small towns, there are always a few negatives but we are familiar with a lot of the positives. I'm heartened to see Villagers apologize for the dissing, and their acknowledgement of the nice things about Wildwood. I never knew Wildwood had a farmer's market, for example - worth checking out!
It's refreshing to see the growing sentiment for tolerance and diversity coming out in this topic. (Which emoticom is best for that?)
I'm reminded of my days at OU in Athens in the 70's.....most of the 17,000, especially us in Fine Arts, were from metropoli and civilizations like NJ, NY, DC, Cleveland, and Cinti.

It was fascinating travelling out into the surrounding 'developing' Appalachia on our bicycles, motorcycles, Corvairs, and VW buses to find subject matter for journalism and photography. Social landscapes were my specialty, and like the areas surrounding TV, Southeastern ohio and West Virginia were paradise.

Many of us were addicted to the abundance of thrift shops, rummage sales, carnivals, and country auctions as well. I collected thousands of old books and records for nickels and dimes.

People would often ask..."y'all from the city?"
We'd answer "Nossir, Athens"

They come back with "that's what I meant"

Just as many of us would like to have a friendly, accepting presence in our surrounds here in TV, we wanted the 'townies' to accept the long hair hippie freaks in the day. Most of us were fine folk and learned more about life outside the classroom than in.

Those that stayed in the campus bubble never knew.

Two of our off spring went to college deep in South Central LA - a great experience for two kids growing up in a rural Md county with little ethnic and social diversity.

Leaving our compound provides us with great therapy and fine shopping.

L&L

Let's