We are getting ready to leave Sun City, so it's time for a critique about what life has been like here. Sun City has been somewhat different than what I anticipated when I moved in.
Now I know from personal experience that most people settle into a routine that they endlessly repeat. We eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at the same time each day (usually). That's probably the most common routine we fall into because work tends to dictate a lot of our routines including our eating habits. When I came here, I expected people to be pretty freewheeling since they don't' go to a job at the same time each day. If anything, the Sun City people are even MORE regimented than the rest of us. We've visited with more people who have their every day minutely planned. If it's Tuesday at 2:48, most people we've met know exactly where they will be and what they will be doing. Most people here don't practice time flexibility. I think they are missing one of the best things about not having to go to work, and that's spontaneity. Not very much 'seat of your pants' here.
I'm also discovered that Sun City is the ultimate small town. There seems to be endless gossip here. I'm certain we have been discussed thoroughly. Everyone knows everyone. If I lived here 5 years, I'd see people I knew everywhere I went. That, of course, is both good and bad. I've also surmised that Sun City (or 'Sin City', the tongue in cheek nickname) is also a hotbed of sexual intrigue. This fuels quite a bit of the gossip. The women here seem to fall into two categories: a) still interested in sex and b) not interested. ALL the men are interested.
This is also the male generation that expects to be taken care of: meals prepared, house cleaned, laundry done, etc. They don't seem to understand that they don't have that much to trade for the above mentioned services any longer. I think the real fuel for the gossips are the women who fall into the (a) group, but have no intention of ever taking care of anyone besides themselves again. One woman I've met summed it up this way: People (meaning men) are looking for a nurse, a purse, a floozy, and someone who can drive at night. This creates a bit of tension as you can imagine. I met one woman who recently remarried. When I asked her why? Her reply was, "WELL, I certainly couldn't just live with him!" (All my close friends would have been so proud of me; I didn't say, "Why not?" or "You could just sleep with him and send him home." ) I guess Sun City just proves that you're never too old to have sex be part of your life, or to be hung up about it. It's sort of heartening.
Another feature of Sun City which I so appreciate after our housing situation in Washington is that it is so quiet here. All movement pretty much stops here when the sun goes down. (See above: Hardly anybody drives at night.) The major drug stores (CVS, Walgreen's) only stay open until 8 pm! I think the grocery store stays open until 9. All the restaurants are closed by 9 pm. Some of the businesses close by 4 pm. In the summer - the season which is approaching - and boy, can you start to feel it - life goes on the early schedule. I've been amused to see advertisements for garage sales in Craigslist that start at 6am and close at noon. Everyone cheerfully admits that no one goes out after 10 am from mid June thru August. Sun City just becomes empty. People have already started leaving for the summer. First to leave are the people who 'go home to do their taxes'. They are gone. I guess no one has told them they can 'do their taxes anywhere'. Instead they are headed back to the Dakotas, Wisconsin and Minnesota to enjoy the last part of the snow season.
Then, there's the second group of people who leave. The ones who live here permanently but who escape during the summer. These people leave in June. One whole crowd goes to Logan, Utah to Utah State University. Someone at the University had a brainstorm and decided, why let all that student housing sit empty in the summer? They rent out their student apartments to seniors for peanuts during the summer and have a whole program called "Summer Citizen" they have designed for the seniors. I've investigated it, and it looks like fun. It's summer camp for the elderly. They have hikes, field trips to attractions, fitness centers, swimming, and you can even sit in on summer classes at the University for $10 a class. I want to go.
People here socialize based on what they like to do. Bridge players hang with bridge players, pickle ball players with pickle ball players, lawn bowlers, pinochle players, tap dancers, jewelry makers, sewers, quilters, weavers, potters, golfers, bowlers, even theater people - the list of what you can do here is endless. You could be busier here than if you had a full time job with 20 hours of overtime attached to it. I think that's one of the reasons people are so regimented - they have to be to squeeze in all their activities. To top it all off, everything is within 15 minutes of where we live, and we live at the far southern boundary of Sun City. You could literally be 5 minutes away from everything if you live closer to the geographic center. 
The landscaping here has surprised me. It's really very beautiful. Because Sun City is 50 years old, the landscaping is full blown desert with touches of citrus. The cactus study I did earlier this year was really fun. Drake is constantly amused when we drive around and I call out - there's an Engleman's Prickly Pear or a Senilis! Another surprise is they actually have spring here. All the cactus and wanna be cactus are blooming, but you'd better be fast because these plants don't put out a lot of effort maintaining blooms. Some blooms appear and vanish with a day or so.
Another vegetation surprise are the roses. They have a rose garden here which was dry sticks in March and by mid April was awash with blooms of all varieties. That's another 
club: The Rose Club which maintains common area roses like the Rose Garden, and you can actually have them plant specific roses and dedicate them as memorials. I've seen people at the Rose Garden with friends pointing out specific bushes and saying things like, "I had this one planted in memo
ry of my mother." By far the planting of choice in Sun City is citrus. The trees fall into two groups: ornamental (the fruit is all rind), and actual fruit trees. All the trunks are painted stark white. This is not just decoration - it's a special plant paint that allows the trunk to breathe, but at the same time reflects the summer heat, so the trunks won't crack when it's 115 degrees.
club: The Rose Club which maintains common area roses like the Rose Garden, and you can actually have them plant specific roses and dedicate them as memorials. I've seen people at the Rose Garden with friends pointing out specific bushes and saying things like, "I had this one planted in memo
ry of my mother." By far the planting of choice in Sun City is citrus. The trees fall into two groups: ornamental (the fruit is all rind), and actual fruit trees. All the trunks are painted stark white. This is not just decoration - it's a special plant paint that allows the trunk to breathe, but at the same time reflects the summer heat, so the trunks won't crack when it's 115 degrees.The unregulated hobby in Sun City is garage saling. Some people like to run them and they run a garage sale every day for weeks. A few of these people run their own business of "Estate Sales" - lots of those as you can imagine. Some people just like to shop. Garage sales generally start Wednesday (a few early birds), but prime time is Thursday and Friday. Saturday is an also ran in Sun City. I get the feeling that stuff just endlessly floats around in a big circle here. It's casual recycling at its best. The signs are funny. Mostly they are cardboard boxes - low to the ground, held in place by bricks or stones.
One of the things I haven't liked about living here is that everyone is the same age. You have to be 55 or older to live here, but just by looking, I'd say the average age is probably 75. These people are done with the RV life, done with looking after grandchildren, done with flying on airplanes, done with traveling, and done with driving more than 5 miles at a time. You can almost feel some of them detaching from this earthly life. Some of them have little or no interest in learning anything new, seeing anything new or doing anything new. I can't tell you the number of rants I've heard about 'that computer stuff' or 'that texting nonsense'. Sometimes just to devil these crotchedy people, I pull out my iPhone and tap away.
I'd say the Sun City experience has overall been positive because of two elements - we get to play bridge all the time (yes, we are addicted), and we get to use out of these clean fabulous exercise facilities. I also like having an individual house (more personal privacy), at a ridiculously reasonable rate. We have also enjoyed being around Drake's mom on a regular basis as well as being able to easily see the rest of the family. For instance, we are going to a giant Easter Party/Birthday Party/Anniversary Party blow-out today.
I know my blogs have been few and far between during this sojourn, but take my word for it - there's been nothing to write about. The next six months will be more 'writable', so get ready to have your inbox tickled with blogs.
