"Friendliest Hometown"
 

This is where Villagers go to vent, right? Here's my vent.

I'm walking my dog through the big open space under the high wires, next to the Mulberry dog park, way up North. This is the only area big enough that people routinely let their dog run off their leash, and my dog likes to find a stick for me to throw. Yes, it's technically illegal. But so is using the area as your free driving range. Today, there are three guys saving themselves a whole $5 by using the space to shoot golf balls -- despite the nice range at Nancy Lopez, less than half a mile away at the other end of the MMP. I don't know why people wealthy enough to retire to Florida care about saving $5 on something so stupid. I don't even care if they do it at the dog park. Just don't aim your damned golf ball at my dog because you're annoyed at having to wait a whole minute for us to clear the area!

Two of the guys were courteous, waved, and quit shooting as we crossed the lawn. But the jerk directly in our path to the woods at the far end, just kept shooting. When we got close, he started obviously aiming at my dog, and nearly managed to bean him on the head (wish I could hit a chip shot like that!). So I started picking up his balls and throwing them back at him. His smart-ass response? "Thanks, I needed a caddy". Things went downhill from there, and could easily have ended in blows. We just stood there yelling at each other for a bit, while the 85-year-old fart threatened to "kick my ass". I finally turned away and walked on into the woods, leaving him calling me a coward and yelling insults at my back. I don't think I've come that close to a fist fight since 8th grade.

This is such a nice place to live the other 9 months of the year, but even up North, people just get mean this time of year. Was the guy a snowbird? We have a bunch, even up this far North, but usually not that old. I think it's just the overcrowding that turns people into such jerks in the Winter (although being a jerk may be that guy's mission in life). Still, it's enough to make me think maybe we should have chosen one of the thousands of less-popular retirement communities in Florida.

"Friendliest Home Town"? Not today.

Snowbird is tattooed on the bottom of feet, just ask them to remove their shoes and socks. Then again there are some very surly residents that are full time.

"Friendliest Home Town"? Not today.

The Daily Rag claims every week that TV is the "Healthiest Home Town", too.

Not sure what statistical evidence there is for either of these claims but, in general, people here are friendly and (hopefully) healthy.

Perhaps he is suffering to some degree from some form of dementia.

Your yelling didn’t seem to accomplish anything.
I live here it’s a nice place……every month.
Your scapegoat, blaming snowbirds, is a cop out.
Do you really, really believe there are no jerks in those “Less popular” communities.
If you can still walk, it may not be too late to find out.

BTW: thanking the two guys who paused for you……….then walking away was your other option.

Two wrongs don't make a right !

So you're not supposed to have your dog off-leash ... there's law against that.

I know there's no specific rule about hitting golf balls.

So who's in the wrong here?

Dunno what criteria they use either but - I can guarantee the following as FACT:

People who live in The Villages are more likely to die within the next 20 years, than people who live in the suburbs of New York.

People who live in The Villages are more likely to get a cancer diagnosis within the next 20 years, than people who live in Aspen, CO.

People who live in The Villages are more likely to have heart disease within the next 20 years than people who live in Seattle, WA.

Who's in the wrong? The person who was trying to cause physical harm to someone's dog, on purpose. If Blueblaze had his dog ON a leash, and was just standing in that field, and flat out didn't feel like moving - do you REALLY think this putter (with a z) would've said "oh golly gee I'll just wait til the dog-guy goes away, I'm retired, I have all day!"? Or would he have yelled at Blaze to get himself and his *(#$N$# dog off "his" unauthorized fairway?

Are we talking about the same AGE people because if not, for example, people in nursing homes tend to die a lot sooner than say the young people on my street up north.

You Made it Right
 

When you walked off you actually saved the day by demonstrating most here are mature enough to turn the other cheek. Don’t let it ruin your day, instead remind yourself of how you are in the 99% that are better off than that poor decrepit soul. We in mass make this Florida’s Friendliest Home Town!

Another thought, if the guy was mid 80’s it is a pretty good guess he was not a snowbird. At that age most people prefer to live in one home.

It's a marketing slogan.............did you fall for that?? :1rotfl:

Yes, but it is more accurate than calling the restaurants "country clubs".

Probably the first step to "Friendliest Home Town" is to leash your dog. You were straight out wrong not doing that. If your dog wants to run, get a longer leash or go to the dog park.

However, that character aiming golf balls at you and your dog sounds demented. It's a strange world and there is no such place with complete friendliness. Maybe The Villages is better than some.

Your mistake was throwing the balls at him. You should have tossed them into any available water. Or pocketed them. They are 2 bucks apiece.

Anyone that tries to hit an innocent dog with a golfball is a total ahole.

1. Yes

2. Still is, imho.

One bad apple doesn't ruin the whole orchard.
But the apple thief has no right to judge/complain about his stolen fruit. Jmho, based on the admonition, "let him who is without sin cast the first stone." Read that in some book somewhere. 😉😉

One good right can bloody a nose! Don't ask how I know.
Ruined my favorite shirt. 🥴

You have only one person's self acknowledged "rant" offered as evidence. Do you have evidence that "the person" truly was attempting to harm the dog, off leash, continually and intentionally advancing into the line if fire danger zone.
Sorry, OBB, but I suspect you may have jumped the gun on this one.
Personally, had I been one of the golfers (not likely, but for this discussion), having been first on the scene and staked my "territory", as it were, I would have seen the dog walker entering the fire zone as being rude, presumptive, self entitled and without proper regard for his own safety or his dogs.
Had I, on the other hand, been the dog walker, I would have made sure that I and my furry companion were well out of any possible danger by, a- leaving the area, or b- circling round so that we did not disturb or distract the golfers from their activity.
Just another possible point of view.

I've played a lot of golf in TV. Very few golfers can hit a 4000 sq. ft. Green, from 50 yards away. I doubt either the walker or the dog, was in much danger.

& you're 100% right. All we've heard is one poster's rant, which I'm sure is a fair, accurate and unbiased recitation of the facts.

LOL my observations too exactly.

I know some people who let their pooches run in that area rather regularly. Or did. I have not been to the dog park nor to that area up near Mulberry as my dog has some muscle problems.


Hope that man hitting golf balls at dogs stops.

My first reaction would be to protect the dog. The golfers were already there; I wouldn't take my dog in front of where they were hitting. It doesn't matter who is right or wrong or rude or aiming. It's all about the dog's safety.

Regardless of who has the right to use the property, if anyone, if someone purposely tried to hit a golf ball at our dog it wouldn’t end well.

No one should try to hurt any animal (except for mosquitos) that is not trying to hurt them. For the scenario as described to occur, the dogs owner would likely have been aware of the golfers and most likely knowingly lead his dog into danger. Sadly, dog owners seem oblivious to an aire of entitlement they exude when they have "phydoux" (fido) in tow. Approaching folks engaged in some activity, trespassing in neighboring yards, common area flower beds, golf coarses and their conecting grounds, etc. Dog owners are not bad people! BUT, many become clueless and myopic when they have their dogs with them. "Oh, he loves everyone". Maybe. But in the real world, not everyone loves him back or wants anything to do with him.
And back to your point of anyone trying to hit golf balls at your dog, I don't think you have to worry about angry golfers with golf bag, a bucket of balls, chasing you as you walk your dog, teeing up balls and, after a practice swing, tries to lob a ball onto your dogs noggin. Golfers may be nutty, but not that nutty.

There are no golf holes here where the man wrote someone was using that large open area as a golf range.


But people with big dogs running around near the towers is a common sight.

I would have kept his balls.

I’m sorry you went through that ordeal. I don’t think the problem is overcrowding. The people who think The Villages is overcrowded in the winter when our snowbirds are here probably moved here from some farmstead in the mid-west or the Deep South less than twenty miles from a town with a traffic signal. To them this is crowded. Anyone who has lived and driven in a major U.S. city north or south knows that we never have that sort of crowding and traffic here. Honestly, we don’t! Go drive through Orlando or Tampa or Miami or even Ocala and see if I’m not right. Driving there or even being there always makes me tense. The Villages never makes me tense. (It would if I walked my dog where golf balls were flying.)

Some people are just angry, disappointed, frustrated, in pain, about to explode, worried. You don’t know. I don’t know. Maybe they don’t really know. Some are snowbirds. Some are frogs, like me, here ‘til they croak. Those feelings can be found anywhere. They carry their own hell with them wherever they go, and they offer a free taste to everyone they meet. But really, I think there is less of that here than many places because for most of us, most of the time, lonely or not, The Villages really is a fun, happy place to be with a lot more opportunity for friendship than we’d find most places we could go.

As Satan says in John Milton’s great poem “Paradise Lost” (1667):
“Me miserable! Which way shall I fly
Infinite wrath and infinite despair?
Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell;
And in the lowest deep a lower deep,
Still threat'ning to devour me, opens wide,
To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.”

There are some people here who feel that way, alas. I’m sorry you may have met one. Or maybe he was just having a bad day.

Here’s a bright note, though. My sense is that there was a lot more frustration and deep anger going around in 2020 when we were in the depth of Covid restrictions. When we no longer had to wear masks and stay six feet apart in the rec centers, when the games and pools were available again, when those of us who wanted to be vaccinated had been (Yes! Me!), when we felt less like death or illness could strike any day (it can, of course, but it seemed so much closer during Covid), our anger eased, we relaxed, we smiled more. A lot of people were close to exploding back then. I remember a number of people flipping the bird at other people when frustrated. I haven’t seen that in several years. But some people will always be angry. Give them the benefit of the doubt and keep your distance.

Security needs to enforce The Villages rules and regs. Both walking a dog off leash and golfing in a non golfing area..
If rules and regs where enforced, this incident would of never happen.

Hmmm
 

Hmmmmm

On a higher note….

Security?

My thought exactly. It's certainly not related solely to a geographic area. If it was, then we would all move. And we, and apparently the OP, have not.

Now a JERK, always has been a JERK!

I'm heading out there this morning to do some skeet shooting......

We cannot control other people's actions in this world, but we can control our response to them.
The jerk tried to hurt your dog, and that would infuriate most people.
It may seem unfair, but find another place to let your dog run free.

I go up and down the path through the area you're talking about on my bike. I've had a multiple incidents where people were letting their dogs run loose on or very near the cart path. The problem with this is animals are unpredictable and they may just decide to run directly in front of you. Dogs are particularly a problem because they tend to like to chase things. My bike weighs 75 pounds and I'm traveling at 15-20 miles an hour. If I hit a dog it's not gonna end well, for me or the dog. A golf cart would likely kill a dog.

If you are going let your dog run loose, at a minimum make sure you are far enough away from the cart paths where that won't happen.

However, a better idea is to use the fenced in dog park that is right there.

Let's see, who's in the wrong....dog running loose, or guy intentionally taking chip shots at the dog. Okay, I'm going with the chip shots.

I don't live in the northern area you speak of, but I'm familiar with the area from playing golf up there. I think there's enough room for a golfer hitting pitch shots and a dog walker that both could keep a distance that keeps both safe. Sounds like to me, & maybe I'm wrong but you wlked toward the area he was chipping or pitching and got close enough to get hit. I would not have hit balls once you arrived in the zone that my ball would reach, but lets get real. walk a different direction.

I would have stepped on his balls.