Talk of The Villages Florida - Controversial Question

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- - Controversial Question - Class differences or hatred? (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/villages-florida-general-discussion-73/controversial-question-class-differences-hatred-136035/)

When we moved into our first home here we met a lot of people, ordinary people, folks like we used to know. One day while chatting with a charming woman neighbor, very like the folks I had always known... I found out that she had been one of the first women navigators with the Air Force and her husband was a retired Air Force pilot. They both retired with the rank of Colonel.

I asked her to tell me one thing that was the most different between her life before and after serving in the Air Force. ( She had never brought it up)

She thought about it for awhile and told me that before she retired, that if there was a national crisis, she was on the team who would take the president aloft and that she had access to what we used to call "the red phone".

After she retired, she joined a church here in The Villages and waited while a committee discussed whether she should be on the cookies committee for Sunday School.

This amazing and very humble woman had raised two lovely children and kept a beautiful marriage going while serving our country doing something truly amazing.

You never know what people have done who live here... and most of them are too humble to tell you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Winston O Boogie jr (Post 983899)

Wellll.... yes it sort of is.

The country club green fees are fairly expensive and people who cannot afford to play on them play on the par three courses for free. I was told when I came here that there were 30 odd "Executive Courses". These are actually nine hole par three courses. The definition of executive course that I learned was simply a shorter course with par threes, fours and fives. What they call executive courses here are actually nine hole par threes with in some cases one or two very short par fours. This is the free golf for life that is advertised.

The "championship" courses, (another term that is often misused) have a green fee of somewhere around $50.00. Not bad in today's world, but if someone wants to play full sized golf every day, that $350 a week or over $18,000 per year. That's dues for some of the finest most expensive private country clubs in the world and a lot of money to play public golf courses. Albeit very good public golf courses.

I no longer play golf because of physical issues, but I have friends who play down here and go outside The Villages when they want to play full size courses. I find that kind of sad.

What surprises me down here is that there are no full size golf courses that offer golf for an annual dues like back home. What they call country clubs here, (another misused and deceptive term) are actually just restaurants located near the "championship" golf courses. Again, these restaurants are open to the general public. You don't even have to be a Villages resident to eat in them.

Where I come from, championship golf courses are 7,000 yards long and have usually had some kind of national championship or PGA tour event played on them. A country club is usually a private, member's only club where one pays an annual dues and possibly an initiation fee for the privilege of playing unlimited golf. None of that seems to exist around here.

Now, please don't get me wrong. I love The Villages and if I played golf, I'd be happy playing the free golf courses and maybe one of the championship courses once or twice a month. But, to me this is one of the few things that is not as advertised.

Getting back to the post that I quoted; there are a lot of people that cannot afford to play the championship courses and play the executive courses all the time. It's not a case where everyone has equal golf opportunities. If you don;t have a lot of money, you are not going to play with the wealthy people on the championship courses. If you are, it might be once is a while.

Where do you come from?

With all due respect Dr. boogie, you make it seem that TV is all about golf. I cannot imagine anyone playing country club courses every day. The first year I retired I belonged to a local cc and played 180 rounds, and can't imagine playing more than that. I have not approached that amount of play since, and I love to play. When we are in TV we (my friend and I, our wives don't play) play the execs about five times a week on average, a CC course once a month, and off campus once a week. I never have thought of it as sad that we play so often off campus - we like several of the nearby courses, they're easy to get on, affordable, and we meet some nice folks from TV and other nearby retirement communities. The execs in TV are mostly well designed and maintained, and challenging tracks that satisfy our golfing needs on a regular basis, and we usually play only the hardest rated tracks. For most people here golf is probably a part, but a small part, of the attraction, and I still say that people at all ends of the affluence spectrum meld together more seamlessly in TV than anywhere else I have lived - and I have lived a lot of places.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rubicon (Post 983113)

I agree with the sentiment that folks are folks and most folks are humble or at least act humble. However I do not agree that one can't see the difference between the have and have nots that live here because you can, by where the live, what they drive, where they eat, where they travel to, what they wear and the fact that they do this on a continuum. Many will play down their wealth

I also don't buy into this we are all one big happy family, money draws money
power draws power

exactly.......sometimes the difference is apparent, sometimes not......dressed to the nines and live in a manufactured home spending money on the fun instead of there home and then the dressed like there one step from the poor house and live in a premier spending every dime on the mortgage......you just never know...

there most definatly is a class structure, otherwise why would everyone I meet ask me where I live and what model home I have.....

Quote:

Originally Posted by kstew43 (Post 983966)

EVERYONE you meet asks you that? Apparently, we've never met because I have never asked anyone that, or been asked that for that matter.

Quote:

Originally Posted by graciegirl (Post 983934)

///

Curious, does that comment have a meaning?

Quote:

Originally Posted by eweissenbach (Post 983975)

Curious, does that comment have a meaning?

When my wife and I are asked where we live and what type of home we have, we'll say, "We live in The Village of St. James and it's a home that's just the right size for us". :lipsrsealed:

I was trying to say what I felt in my heart and it sounded like preaching.

The people I love most don't care how much money people have.

I believe that every person on this earth has some redeeming quality that maybe only God can see. I believe it is my work to try to see what God can see.

I fail all of the time.

I think that this place was fashioned pretty fairly with all kinds of big and small houses to choose. There are all kinds of people with all kinds of money levels living in all kinds of houses. There is a fair share of hatred and bitterness here, but much more acceptance and tolerance and kindness and patience coming from a lot of life experience. .

Quote:

Originally Posted by kstew43 (Post 983966)

exactly.......sometimes the difference is apparent, sometimes not......dressed to the nines and live in a manufactured home spending money on the fun instead of there home and then the dressed like there one step from the poor house and live in a premier spending every dime on the mortgage......you just never know...

there most definatly is a class structure, otherwise why would everyone I meet ask me where I live and what model home I have.....

Everyone, really? really?

Quote:

Originally Posted by kstew43 (Post 983966)

Everyone asks you that ?? I know some people ask that, but I think it's more to get a conversation going than thinking about how much money they spent on a house. I ask almost everyone where they live just because I wonder where they live. It has nothing to do with money. The conversation usually leads to things such as you live around the corner from me or I find out one of my friends live near them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bonny (Post 984128)

I agree. It's never been the first question asked and is usually during a conversation about house plans and how you deal with your particular model/yard/garage/lanai, etc. I have to say we have never even been asked what we did for a living when meeting new people. I don't usually find out much about people's backgrounds until we're sitting around on the pickle ball court waiting for our next game, and people start chatting.

People are people, most realize what we are what we did are more important than what we own,what what we earned is not a measure of what of who we are.my guess is if you move here,you will be like my wife and I best decision ever.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bogie Shooter (Post 984053)

Everyone, really? really?

I named the title "controversial issue". I knew it would bring the best out of people. :jester:

Gracie. Can't wait to get there and I would enjoy meeting you both.

I know this is the place for me to be, and I knew my mom felt it to when she lived there. We were also coastal people, and even though your inland Florida, it's not as bad as being in TN. I like TN, but just don't feel like it's home and I've been here for 27 years.

As far as Sony hiring. That's a big LOL. Their people are obvious slackers, because it really doesn't take that much to protect yourselves. It's always more of trying to convince the unknowns to tie down the system. Most exec's always think "it will never happen to us" and don't want to drop the dime or follow proper procedures.