NONFICTION
A Club Med for the older set
The author researches retiree life in The Villages of Central Florida.
Posted on Sun, May. 25, 2008
BY GIGI LEHMAN
I first heard of The Villages about four years ago, when my dental hygienist -- who was probably in her mid-50s -- told me, with Latex-gloved hands in my mouth, that she and her husband were moving to the mammoth, adults-only community in Central Florida's Sumter County.
Writer Andrew Blechman found out about The Villages in a similar way: His neighbors, Dave and Betsy Anderson (ages 55 and 62), abandoned their New England town for what they called ``sunny Florida.''
To discover what, besides the weather, could induce his neighbors to leave a place where Norman Rockwell once lived, Blechman installed himself in their new guest room to research Leisureville. The answer turns out to be that familiar triad of sex, children (or in this case, their absence) and money.
First, the sex. The rumor that The Villages' wine club is a front for other ''tastings'' leads Blechman into a sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignant excursion into the sexually active adult lifestyle, filled with four-letter words that don't include AARP.
Pregnancy isn't a concern, of course -- though the permanent presence of children (or anyone younger than 19) is. Blechman has real issues with ''age segregation,'' but the author of a book titled Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World's Most Revered and Reviled Birds should recognize the truth of the adage that ''birds of a feather flock together'' -- sometimes by necessity as well as by choice.
''Segregation'' seems an awfully loaded word to describe this phenomenon, since many older adults know they'd be as welcome in their adult children's lives as a preschool summer camp would be in The Villages, and Blechman isn't unaware of this issue. He writes: ``Given our transient population, one wonders just where retirees are supposed to live. . . . [T]he message many seniors are receiving is that they had better band together and take care of themselves, because nobody else will take care of them.''
Despite this acknowledgment, Leisureville occasionally comes off as a screed against selfish oldsters who won't host the grandchildren for more than 30 days a year. (Never mind that visiting grandkids are hardly being forced to go to Bushnell to drink from a water fountain.)
Blechman's argument gets a lot stronger when he looks into the Florida statute (called Chapter 190) that allows developments like The Villages to exist free of state, county and local ordinances and land-use laws -- but empowers them to float tax-free bonds. Here's where money comes into play.
In several well-researched chapters about The Villages and similar developments in other states, Blechman describes what happens when large, child-free developments get enough political clout to demand services like road maintenance while having the ability to block taxes for others, like schools.
But retirees' voting power could be seriously challenged by the Millennial generation now entering the workplace -- the biggest demographic cohort since the baby boom. And those boomers are another cloud on the horizon: Some market researchers say that Club Med-like developments like The Villages don't appeal to the upcoming generation of retirees.
For now, though, the DJ at The Villages' radio station keeps cycling The Candy Man and Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows through the playlist. And though Mick Jagger is plenty old enough to buy into the community, Mother's Little Helper (''what a drag it is getting old'') is unlikely to join the rotation anytime soon.
Gigi Lehman is a freelance writer and editor who, in the current economy, is probably 30 years shy of retirement, active or otherwise.
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