We live in an over 55 retirement community. Sometimes people ask me what it is like. Well, it can be detailed. Everything you always wanted to do and couldn't, you can now do easily. We have a large clubhouse where you can go to monthly dances, potlucks, a billiard room, barber/beauty shop, a restaurant, a library, an exercise room, a bank, two swimming pools. One is heated and the other is not and is kindly referred to as "the Canadian pool." We have a lot of Canadian neighbors who come down for up to 6 months during the winter to get away from the cold. They don't mind the colder water. We also have a wonderful golf course, shuffle board, tennis courts, pickle ball courts (it's like playing tennis with ping pong paddles). You can also sign up for card games, Bridge, Pinochle, take yoga classes, exercise classes, play weekly Mah-Jongg and there is a crochet club and you can learn to paint.
We have about 800 homes where we live and the greatest part is that everyone is really very equal. No one talks about what they did while they were working. People are from all over the USA and it is so great making new friends.
When we first retired we moved into a neighborhood and it was a lot different. Most of the neighbors were working and it was hard to meet anyone. For us, this is great fun.
Today, the neighborhood is crazy. We are having an annual carport sale. What is it about sales like this that make people think they need what they really do not need? About the only bargains you can find sometimes are sets of barely used golf clubs and golf balls. Other than that, it's just someone else's junk. And that's what I think about that! I have decluttered my home too many times.
Susan, do you remember that "first decluttering" --- the one you do when the kids have left home for good. It took me 3 days to really clean my youngest daughter room. She had stuffed animals, birthday invitations from as far back as 1st grade and boxes of pictures and other correspondence. I thought I lose my mind before it was over. At any rate we got through it, laughing by the time it was all over. Boxed it all and mailed it to one very surprised young woman. I'm a minimalist!
ReplyDeleteAwww so nice to learn a little bit more about you Susan. Your home and community sounds wonderful. My Dad and Step Mother had a set up like yours only in Yuma AZ, they would stay for 8-9 months and then return to Washington State (Tri-Cities)for July and August. They had a ball in Yuma. They both golfed so that was the main attraction for them. They made so many good friends over the years.
ReplyDeleteSusan....While cleaning off some shelves in our basement, I just discovered a medium sized box on a shelf. One box inside said "memories." Inside the larger box were cards I received at the birth of our first child, brochures from when I ran for office eons ago, a box of our wedding invitations, sketch books from high school with sketches of the olympians of that time: Jean Claude Killey and Peggy Fleming. But the best part was the smaller box marked "memories." Inside I discovered the corsages and flowers my husband had given me when we were dating in high school, a program from proms, and a play he was in, plus assorted goofy things that I barely remember. The best was the calendar that I kept-- a school one-- where I wrote in if we saw each other, debate and forensic tournaments that I was involved in and how I faired in those. I even found the hand writing of my best friend (still is) from high school, Barb, on one of my calendars. It was as if I was re-living those times when meeting up with my boyfriend (now husband who went to the HS across town) was so memorable and obviously so important. Interestingly, I read something that I had written on my brochure as I ran for a small town political office and realized how little I had changed. The words sounded so mature and so me. Maybe it is just an illusion that we grow up and become better. Maybe I haven't been half bad after all. But you always think you are so much wiser.
ReplyDeleteSome people are born wise and some grow into it.
I am going to take this box and share the contents with our kids, so that they maybe know a little more about what and who their parents were when we were their age. Then I am going to toss most of it. I don't think I will be needing those wedding invitations anymore. Gratefully, I am a lifer with my high school sweetheart of 40 years (since the day we met-36 of them married).
Laurie
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