To the Editor:
Someone recently wrote a letter to the editor, objecting to being referred to as a “snowbird.” I don’t blame him. I would object as well.
I prefer to refer to him as “our seasonal friend a neighbor.” He is the type that lives “up north” when it’s hot in The Villages and comes back down here every fall when the weather starts getting cold “up north.”
Our seasonal friend and neighbor helps provide so much of the wonderful things that we enjoy in The Villages. Our seasonal friend and neighbor, through his amenity fees, helps keep The Villages looking lovely with the beautiful landscaping and immaculate upkeep. Our seasonal friend and neighbor also helps boost the economy though the vast amounts of money he spends, playing golf, going to restaurants, shopping in the grocery stores and any number of mercantile establishments.
Unfortunately, our seasonal friend and neighbor’s arrival back to The Villages coincides, coincidentally, with the arrival of what are truly snowbirds. The snowbirds, let’s refer to them as SBs, contribute to our economy and keeping our environment looking great; however, their contributions come at a price.
The SBs, for some odd reason, seemingly lock their brains at the gate when they arrive in The Villages. You can readily identify them, even though quite a few of them have Florida license plates on their vehicles.
You can spot them driving on The Villages’ streets, they don’t understand how to navigate roundabouts. They sometime, even stop in the middle of the roundabouts. They drive on the inside lane of the roundabout and never use their turn signals when they cut across the outside land and exit.
They drive on the highway’s passing lane and always below the speed limit.
Quite often, they will just sit when the traffic light in front of them has turned green or they won’t turn right at a red light, even when there is no on-coming traffic.
And when they attempt to park their automobiles, look out. You must remember that they can park anyway they please, taking up two parking spaces, park on the wrong side of the road, park in the “no parking” space, park in handicap parking spaces even though they have no handicap, they also get handicap stickers for the golf courses so they can ride right up to the greens.
When shopping at the grocery, they stop and have conversations with other SBs and block the entire aisle and won’t budge to let other shoppers through.
If they are sampling one of the edible promotions, they block the entire table and linger while digesting the food.
At the checkout counter, the SB has a complete lapse of memory and has no idea how to checkout and pay for their groceries….and they want to count off each bill and every coin so that they can pay with the exact change.
The SBs are the ones you can pick out in the “Express 10 items or less” cash register with a shopping cart filled with groceries.
They don’t have “excuse me,” “thank you,” “please” in their vocabulary.
And don’t get me started about how their drive their golf carts.
Can you blame our seasonal friend and neighbor for getting upset for being referred to as a SB, snowbird? I can’t blame him one little bit.
I’d be mad as hell.
Gene Murray
Village of Pennecamp
