Yesterday, I reported on the challenges age-restricted retirement communities are facing. It reminded me of a funny, sad and true story I heard about life in a retirement community. A few years ago, while on a business trip, my wife and I stopped in West Palm Beach, Florida's Century Village to visit old friends of my parents. Century Village is one of those humongous developments, home to about 10,000 retirees.
Our friends, Herbie (in his ‘80s) and Hortie (‘70s), told us they could only spend a couple of hours chatting because they were attending a concert that night in the 1,000-seat community amphitheater. I asked who was appearing, and they said Lainie Kazan, a singer who is probably better known as an actress (e.g. the mother in My Big Fat Greek Wedding).
"Wow, how much do tickets go for?" I wondered out loud. Hortie replied, "Oh just $2," and then added that she and Herbie did not actually have tickets to the sold-out show.
"So how can you be sure you will get in," I asked. "Because," Hortie said, "the old folks are always out there scalping tickets." And how much, I asked, will you have to pay for a ticket?
"We'll probably be able to get them for $2.50 apiece."
I laughed then but, given the current state of the economy, I am not laughing now. Four bits could come in handy one of these days.