The town described in the book,"Leisureville" by Andrew D. Blechman sounds eerily like the movie, Pleasantville. When my husband and I moved to Phoenix in 1972, we lived about 20 minutes away from Youngtown and Sun City. Our first visit to these senior enclaves was to pick out carpet for our new home at Toliver's in Youngtown.
After surveying the rock landscaped front yards of the immaculately groomed small houses, all alike, sitting in neat row after neat row , like so many grave stones, we vowed never to live in such a sterile enviornment, especially one with no children around. We just couldn't imagine it! Now at ages 59 and 61 we still can't.
We are blessed to have both of our grown children and their families living within 10 minutes of us. Our granddaughters (4 and 13) are such a big part of our lives, that to have them only able to visit us 30 days in a year sounds like sheer torture and would deprive us of life's most precious treasures!!
I plan to read the book, but I'm pretty sure it will be depressing and only fortify my resolve to always live in a homogeneous community, near family.
I can't imagine trading our lifestyle for one where the only people we'd interact with would be other seniors! There are several community centers around us with a full calender of events. The country club is right across the street from us, should we want to join, church activites abound, and together we can enjoy the vibrant jazz community in Phoenix as we are both musicians and have several musician friends who regularly perform around town. We are fortunate to live in a central Phoenix location, with a myriad of things to do and places to go just a few minutes away. I realize not everyone would enjoy our lifestyle, and that is what is beautiful about getting older. We finally know ourselves and what makes us happy (or not) in life.
After surveying the rock landscaped front yards of the immaculately groomed small houses, all alike, sitting in neat row after neat row , like so many grave stones, we vowed never to live in such a sterile enviornment, especially one with no children around. We just couldn't imagine it! Now at ages 59 and 61 we still can't.
We are blessed to have both of our grown children and their families living within 10 minutes of us. Our granddaughters (4 and 13) are such a big part of our lives, that to have them only able to visit us 30 days in a year sounds like sheer torture and would deprive us of life's most precious treasures!!
I plan to read the book, but I'm pretty sure it will be depressing and only fortify my resolve to always live in a homogeneous community, near family.
I can't imagine trading our lifestyle for one where the only people we'd interact with would be other seniors! There are several community centers around us with a full calender of events. The country club is right across the street from us, should we want to join, church activites abound, and together we can enjoy the vibrant jazz community in Phoenix as we are both musicians and have several musician friends who regularly perform around town. We are fortunate to live in a central Phoenix location, with a myriad of things to do and places to go just a few minutes away. I realize not everyone would enjoy our lifestyle, and that is what is beautiful about getting older. We finally know ourselves and what makes us happy (or not) in life.
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