Apparently, hanging with the geezers is the place to be. The Villages, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, tops the list of the fastest growing communities in the entire country. With more than 101,000 residents, the 55+ community grew by 5.2 percent from 2012 to 2013. Curious as to what was drawing so many people to the world’s largest retirement community, I took to the trusty Internet for some fact finding.
Did you know?
- At one point the Villages was consumed the most draft beer in the state of Florida? It probably helped that they had their own microbrewery on site that pumped beer under the streets to the restaurants in the community. Sadly, the brewery is no longer in operation.
- The community holds the Guinness World Record for the longest golf cart parade at 3,321 participants. And, their tricked-out golf carts are crazy awesome, yo.
- There are 85 miles of golf courses in the Villages. And they host shoot-your-age tournaments, when the ultimate goal is to finish 18 holes at par, which is whatever your current age is that day.
- The Villages has over 1900 social clubs. Anyone up for learning the beach shag?
- And oh, yeah, there’s that whole STD thing. In 2011, The Villages and other retirement communities had some of the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases in the country.
So, in a nutshell, the residents of the Villages are drinking, pimped-out golf carting, learning all kinds of new shit, actually golfing and having enough sex to put a dent in the STD statistics. Party on, old folks.
This article appears in Mar 26 – Apr 1, 2014.