Moving Again

We've stuck it out for almost three years here in this small 55+ community. I've complained before about my boredom since I retired, and thought it was because I retired. Not so. It's this community. Even though we have a good range of age groups, it seems to me that everyone acts the same age. I know they're not all in their nineties, but they sure as hell act it.

This community opened in the mid-1980's, and I don't think anything has changed since then. Gossip and eating are the only activities that wake these people from their slumber. I guess I can't blame them. The first residents established the daily activities and life-dulling routine, and no one has been brave enough or awake enough to attempt to make changes.

Bocce, polka, scrabble, hand and foot, whatever that is, quilting, knitting, crocheting and book club almost fill the monthly calendar. The rest of the time they have special activities centered around food. One of the younger women started teaching billiards in our clubhouse where a pool table, practically untouched, rests in all its splendor. I don't know if she has had many takers but I expect not. After all, it's a new activity and hasn't been approved by the original residents. Of course, maybe it's because almost all of them are dead.

I don't understand it. My husband and I have tried to volunteer for activities which require help, but we're very seldom called on. We're usually told they have enough volunteers, thank you anyway. Then, in the next newsletter, we see articles about how there aren't enough volunteers, with requests for more volunteers. Bizarre.

The community is arranged in a kind of rounded rectangle. We live on one of the corners, and consider it to be a neighborhood of the whole. Four corners (neighborhoods) and two side streets which comprise two more neighborhoods. Residents of one neighborhood seem to be in charge of the operations, which is fine with me, but they don't want to share their power with anyone else. That's also fine with me. However, other people seem to want a share of this power, but they're kept out. I guess it's the way the world works here.

Anyway, we've had enough, and have put our house up for sale. Hopefully, it won't take too long to sell. Then we'll move on to another community, but definitely, not another retirement community.