Senior.

And others not yet living here or spending a lot of time here. This whole issue is overblown. There is a police station at Brownwood. The square is not that big.

How in the world did we leap to all of these fears? How did guns come up or a reference to Trayvon Martin?


The sky is NOT falling. The sky is NOT falling.

EXCELLENT POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When some people read various other posters' thoughts, they totally misconstrue what that person is trying to say.

It's a common thing on TOTV to blame someone for simply expressing their personal opinion. A sense of fear is a personal reality.

How you would see the situation is exactly how we would see the situation.
It would be intimidating to us, at our age, to experience things like that.

We LOVE CHILDREN. We have enjoyed our own teenaged grand daughter's vitality and energy......ditto for our own teens, many moons ago. We love the little ones too. Our grandson is now turning 12 and will be a teen before you know it.......we love all five of our grandchildren and know they would love to visit us in The Villages.......but also know they would NOT be running wild in the town square..........disrespecting people's personal property.

The ones who were mentioned at the beginning of this thread did seem to be up to no good......

P.S. Does anyone seem to sense a "damned if you do and damned if you don't" type atmosphere???
If you LOVE children.......then there are the disgruntled meanies who do not like children in TV.
If you don't like certain "actions" of "children", then you are the meanie....and you are profiling them.
It doesn't matter if they are green (Martians), blue (colloidial silver) , white, black, red, or any other color.......it's their ACTIONS that speak the loudest.

That a girl Gracie!!!!!!!

I believe you.

As someone else said, go with your intuition and gut feelings.

DENIAL is not just a river in Egypt
 

Great list !!!!!!!

Add to that "disappearing advertisement on TOTV" which listed a nice retreat including photos of a motel room with a pole dancing set up across from the bed. Very nice lawn chairs outside on a pebbled area.
No place I'd want to stay. But apparently, that advertiser thought he could generate some business.

This was a paid ad on TOTV where you log on. After a few folks saw it, it was taken down. Just a bit of "levity" here..........

But you can see what type of folks might hang out at TV, whether they actually live there or not........whether they actually have teens or not and whether they actually cook meth or not......

For many who have been contemplating relocation to TV, all of the DENIAL only makes them wonder if there is some truth to all of this stuff.

DENIAL is not just a river in Egypt.

What we saw on the surface was absolutely beautiful. We felt safe.

However............there is apparently another lifestyle going on, than the one that is advertised so well by the marketing department.

Also, TV is surrounded by other towns that may have questionable type people......like all towns in America have.
There, I had to put a little disclaimer. Do not the residents of TV live in "the real world".....

I'm going to order a subscription myself.......

I certainly did not bring up Trayvon Martin. Or guns.

I also clarified that I personally felt safe when we were there.
That doesn't change what other things have occurred while I was not there.

Having my Ethers clogged with negativity
You said it, Patty...some people drag everybody down.

It think my point is to read every post and every thing before we respond to a part of a post that is really off topic.

When you live in a place, 24/7 you have a much better feel for the climate and the happenings and you have trusted people who tell you things. You also learn not to trust forums such as this with isolated posts by people that you have not gotten a "feel" for.

People bring with them to this place the level of fear and preparedness that they needed in the place from which they moved. People who do not live here do not know by driving the distances all of the time what is near and what is not so near. NO one is completely safe ever and should use common sense but this place is as safe as it gets...at this time. It may change.

It is very hard to realize just what this place is really like until you live here, day after day, year after year and do not see odd or scary people walking or driving down your street. The odd ones would immediately stand out. AND are immediately reported, because they are few and far between.

You know about where you live, and we know about where we live. Do not trust anonymous people until you get a "feel" for them.

:BigApplause::BigApplause:

Good advice.....but believe it or not.........I was told by many, early on, via private messages........who to trust and who not to trust.

I choose to go with my own intuition......

And again, you are correct that "no one is safe ever" and "should use common sense"......totally agree with that.

With society changing so much since we were all young.......in more ways than one.........I just don't understand the denial so prevalent and against newspapers printing what is really going on in Florida and in towns just outside "The Bubble". Denial isn't going to make it go away.

I don't really know ANYONE , myself included, who lives in FEAR, as another poster mentioned.

Can't build a "DOME" around The Villages, like Stephen King's thriller.

It's not gated; anyone can get in whenever they choose. If the local youth are so rambunctious, we...the elders....couldn't defend ourselves against them "if" they ever chose to really sow their oats. It happens.

With drugs rampant and so many addicted, not in their "right minds", home invasions all over ...are on the increase. They need money to fund their habits. Times have changed. Society has changed.

I also can understand the posts of those saying they thought they'd be moving to a retirement community of like minded souls. Not quite.

Standards of behavior
 

I was a high school teacher for over 30 years and have dealt with many different kinds of teenagers. I found that they needed to know what they could get away with and what they couldn't I think this very relevant in our town squares. If the police feel they can only enforce laws, then there needs to be personnel in the town squares that will enforce standards of behavior. We have a right to say that running around the town is not appropriate behavior. The same is true about touching something, such as the sales office door, that doesn't belong to you is not appropriate behavior. People who can not follow basic standards of behavior are not welcome in our town squares.

I think it is essential that we deal with this situation because my experience is that it doesn't go away unless you do something.

Excellent post. There's no doubt that TV is a wonderful place to live. However, it's good to be realistic.

Now, I could be wrong, but I thought Kitty's initial list was generated by SARCASM (and maybe a touch of disgust).

What is the other lifestyle you keep bringing up? Something about pole dancing, never saw it, but just so you know, a lot of those ads are automatically placed based upon your browser history. If you find sexually suggestive material offensive all you have to do is stop googling sexual material.

Reality? Back in the 60-70's my friends and I would ponder that question for hours. What is reality? Why does an attorney make more money than a garbage man? (Who is really more essential). Yep, back in the day we treated our minds like amusement parks and the best we came up with... THERE IS NO REALITY, ONLY PERCEPTION.