There is a peculiar sub-species of humans roaming the parking lots of The Villages. It’s easy to spot one of them: they are walking around or driving around with their eyes glued on parking spaces. They are not looking for an empty place to park their car or cart; they’re looking to see how you parked your car or cart.
What makes this behavior so bizarre is that it has absolutely nothing to do with them. If a vehicle isn’t creating a safety hazard, then why do they care? Why are they so intent on judging and inspecting a stranger’s parking job with the intensity of a forensic investigator? The answer is simple: they are nosy, busybody, petty, creepy people who think because they are obsessed about parking, and you aren’t, they are somehow better than you. This obsession is creepy and these people are creepy.
Reasonably sane, normal people don’t spend their retirement staking out parking lots. They have lives.
The Villages is supposed to be a place where people come to enjoy the best years of their lives. Yet some residents seem determined to spend those years acting as unpaid guerrilla parking monitors, forever searching for the next trivial offense that will let them feel superior to a complete stranger. It’s a remarkably sick and sad way to spend retirement.
If another person’s slightly crooked golf cart is the most important event in your day, the problem isn’t their parking — it’s you!
No wonder so many people say we Villagers are a bunch of spoiled, entitled crybabies. GET A LIFE! You are embarrassing us all.
James King is a resident of the Village of Gilchrist.