I have only been here for a few years. I moved into an older neighborhood consisting of original owners, many of them frequently passing away or moving to assisted living or home to family. I had a great home in the woods up North, but love my wife enough to realize that she will thrive longer in a social environment. She is radiant and happy here, and that makes me happy in turn. I can live anywhere, as long I am with her. And she loves the Villages social life. Everyone likes my wife and she is very, very active. Me? I kind of stick to myself. I am one of the youngest in my neighborhood, at 66 years old out of a hundred unit community. I do not feel comfortable at neighborhood socials, even though I get along with all my neighbors. I just prefer to putter around the house, working on projects to improve the home. When I play a sport, I do not like the schedule of being in a league so I just wonder in and join the game, such as Pickle Ball. It's not that I don't like people, I just don't feel comfortable with close relationships with groups of people. I realize that this is not a Villages trait, but just a quirk in my personality. I do not mean to be anti-social, but it probably appears that way to my neighbors. I have always willingly assisted my neighbors when needed. I avoid neighborhood socials most of the time, because they seem to only have them when the Snow Birds are here. So, I am happy here and as long as my neighbors accept me as I am, regardless of my seemingly anti-social behavior I intend to spend my remaining years (at least 30 hopefully) quietly content in The Villages.

That said, I also complain a bit regarding traffic in The Villages. I also complain quietly about my cable being weak when all the Snow Birds are in town. I also complain about the long lines at the restaurants when the Snow Birds are here. But, I reserve that right as a "young" member of the senior community here in MY HOME in The Villages. These are things that I willingly endure for the happiness of the love of my life. After being here a year, my wife told me that I could get rid of our house up North because this IS her home.

This place is not for everyone. For some folks, they will never find that perfect place to settle down. This place is not perfect, but I do know that I will have a longer life with my love than I would probably have anywhere else that I can think of. My wife is more important than my neighbors. I have been blessed to have good neighbors though. They seem to accept me as I am and they make my wife happy and accepted.

I am a boomer that has been blessed to be able to live this life style. I am grateful for this and also glad that this place is not for everyone. Regardless of the seemingly rude or less than friendly nature of some folks, generally speaking I have found MOST Villagers to be kind, friendly and helpful.

God Bless You.

If the Boomers don't come, TV will not be able to sustain the lifestyle!!!

I assume any/some who talk about the "older" folks do understand it is a meaningless term. They surely must know they themselves are the elders to those coming from anywhere behind them in age.

It does not matter whether the person overheard was "older", white, black, yellow, right or left, blonde or bald, religious or not, etc, etc...........their comment(s) represented the thinking of ONE PERSON and not to be considered a general representation.

:beer3:

You sound like someone I know, and I totally understand where you're coming from. Very well put.:thumbup:

:ho:

My wife and I have lived here full time four years now. We are baby boomers in our 60s. We like our neighbors and would do anything for any of them, or anyone else for that matter. But we just didn't click entirely with some of them. They are all very nice, respectful people that we are happy to be neighbors with but we don't "socialize" with them. We have made close friends with other Villagers we have met, our closest friends are in their 70s. I don't think that makes us bad neighbors and if someone moves from the villages because they lack socialization, they are not trying very hard. If you really want to find friends to be social with, it isn't really very hard at all.

What I see is the ones that hit the headlines the most are under 70, drunken, arrested, and yes it puts "The Villages" as ugly place to live.

I must be doing something wrong because I do not judge people by their age or color or politics or religion.

In my humble opinion, what a person says and does is the more real measure.

:clap2:
aw, now we "Baby Boomers" are getting picked on.....that's all right, we have been waiting for retirement for a long time!

Age is not the problem....

.....intolerance is.

If Baby Boomers are not welcome in The Villages, who would they build all the new houses for ?

I'm a baby boomer. I live on the historic side (still laugh every time I say that!) and my neighbors on both sides are original owners (my father's age). I love it here. People of all ages are friendly and kind. We have lots in common and plenty to talk about when we meet at the pool, the dog park, the Rec center or the town square. Maybe it's just more friendly here, but I suspect most villages are filled with friendly folks! Oh yeah, we also recently bought here -a manufactured home that we have no plans of replacing with a site built home. Let the next owners address that!

In my opinion, one has to be a friend to make a friend. We live in a neighborhood consisting of 153 villas and we have a very active "Social Club." In fact we have an event coming up consisting of a catered dinner by Oakwood Smokehouse Grill and a Cornhole Tournament. We have 70 reservations for dinner and 42 signed-up for our tournament. We are all looking forward to a good meal and fun time with our neighbors. So living in The Villages is what one makes of it and love living here. - Sam E. Williams