By John Olesky (BJ 1969-96)
Paula and I just returned from a two-week visit to The Villages, Florida and retired BJ printer Hugh Downing and wife Sharon, who live in a place like no other I've seen in my travels to 52 countries and 43 states.
It's the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States, with more than 100,000 residents and a median age of 66. Every village within The Villages has a recreation center, swimming pool and golf courses (about 70). The amenities are built before the first home is constructed in each new village. The recreation centers are huge, with several rooms handling 300 to 400 people apiece. Shuffleboard is almost a religion. There's even a Polo Club.
Some 40,000 golf carts are a preferred method of transportation by Villagers. The carts have their own lanes on the streets and roads.
Paula and I rented in the Orange Blossom Village, where this amazing collection of homes for those 55 or older began in earnest in the 1980s by Michigan businessman Harold Schwartz after a 1970s attempt fizzled.
The Villages is northwest of Orlando and northeast of Tampa in Sumter, Marion and Lake counties.
There are several town squares, which have music and dancing outdoors every night of the year. There are hundreds of clubs for a multitude of interests. Villagers are big on charity work, including sending thousands of packages to the military overseas with an assembly line that would make Henry Ford proud.
When we watched the Christmas parade on the Polo Club grounds the belly dancers, cheerleaders and twirlers were in their 70s, give or take a decade.
Every resident of The Villages is part of a de facto Chamber of Commerce. They all enthusiastically tell you that it's a lifestyle, not just a place to live.
The photo montage with this article provides just a glimpse of life in The Villages.
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