Well, since we came to The Villages about 14 years ago, I guess that it is time for some reminiscing about the “Good Old Days”. Things were tough then. There were only 16,000 of us (which at the time I thought was a lot of retired persons.) Apparently I was wrong, as one looks at the number of us now.
As I said things were tough then. If you wanted to go to a good restaurant you can had to drive to Ocala or possibly Leesburg. It was the same with shopping – Paddock Mall in Ocala or Lake Mall in Leesburg – unless you felt like driving to Orlando. Naturally, the latter is still done, but only when you want something special. There was one Publix’s and a Winn-Dixie so we did not starve.
Actually, there were some nice places to eat in The Villages. There were the four country clubs – Orange Blossom, Hacienda, Glenview and Tierra del Sol. You had to be careful which one you chose since if the womankind members of a group determined that they wanted to go to dinner at Hacienda it an was awful experience for the mankind members. The reason being that if you went to Hacienda the men had to wear a jacket. Yes, I really mean a suit or sports jacket! No compromise on the jackets! Hacienda did have a separate causal restaurant, but I do not think it was open for dinner.
There was also the added hazard of being trapped at whatever restaurant you chose. This was due to the fact that if you determined to take the golf cart, ate your dinner too leisurely and came out when it was dark, you were in deep trouble. The reason being that you were not allowed to drive your golf cart after dark. State law did not permit it unless the local governments passed an ordinance permitting it. That ultimately did occur, but only after much heated debate and wrangling.
There were three good restaurants in Spanish Springs. Sumter Landing and Brownwood were nowhere in sight. In fact you could not even get to their locations unless you wanted to walk several miles through farm land). One of the restaurants at Spanish Springs was Italian (long gone) that had a brewery attached to it. It made The Villages own beer. Alas, all the equipment was dismantled years ago!
Downtown Spanish Springs was different then too. There was a tent where Too Jay’s is now located from which farm products were sold. The big building on the east side of the square was nowhere to be seen. Instead there was an even bigger tent which was used for various activities. As I said, life was tough then. Although there were some good attributes as you could go for a Sunday morning buffet that was great at Chula Vista. It was a restaurant then, which had a space where a band played while you ate. Of course, it is now a recreation center.
If you wanted adventure, you could do as we did. The first restaurant that we ate at in The Villages was on the historic side at Silver Lake (now a recreation center). I’m not certain how we found it, as later a group of us went to play golf there and had a devil of a time locating it. In fact, we asked a resident who lived about three block from the building, and he had no idea where it was. Due to my superior navigation skills (validated by The Blond in the house) we ultimately found our way.
A big loss from the early days is the disappearance of the bison. There were several areas where The Villages kept bison. You could go up to the stout fences and look at them head on – or whatever. Some restaurants served bison burgers, but always with a sign that said “not our bison!” However, as often happens when you are dealing with people and not just bison, some people apparently thought they were big dogs and were not careful which resulted in complaints or suits. Consequently, the bison fields disappeared. Big loss!
All this reminiscing is wearing me out – and I haven’t even touched on softball. Perhaps, I’ll discuss that next time when I get over the concussion I suffered playing last Wednesday. As The Blond in the house says, “senior softball is not for sissies!”
Barry Evans writes about life in The Villages.