[graciegirl]

We had vacationed in Florida many times. And there were favorite places we went including Disney World but I never EVER wanted to live there. I don't LIKE Florida and I still don't.

Florida and getting old meant couples dressing alike and men wearing white loafers and a LOT of geezer hair cuts and fifties hairstyles for the women and eternally the same small social group and playing Mahjong and dances at the Elks Club and having cocktail parties........... and leaving lovely, LOVELY Ohio which is where all the nice people I knew lived, including the smartest and sweetest and cutest grandchildren in the world.

Until the lifestyle visit.

I just loved the people and their quick wit and the varied experiences and the friendliness and the opportunity to finally study art and play golf without competition and I adored the immaculate streets and PERFECT landscaping and all of the things you could do and an opportunity to meet 80,000 new people who were all old enough to know what I was talking about and didn't look right through me.

I loved the golf carts and the fact I didn't have to worry about my figure and that the gray hairs were quite common, even the ones that are misplaced.

I loved the belly laughs and the fun. The knowledge that those decades also spoke of some heartbreak and sadness and disappointment...you just can't get old enough to live here without some of that.

I liked that some people thought just as I did and plenty did not. It was new and different and pretty and interesting and fun.

And...our grandchildren were going away too...to college. That made it easier.