Villagers love to party. Almost any occasion serves as reason to gather friends and bring out a cake. However, this week, the holiday pace car finally pulled off the track, and we’re officially racing through the holidays. Despite record-setting high temperatures, Villagers wasted no time and have started partying in earnest.
Right now, of course, we’re still chasing ghosts from the yard and recovering from costume parties, haunted Halloween boat tours on Lake Sumter, and Halloween’s sugar crash. It’s amazing that even though a lot of Villager’s no longer have kids in the nest, how the Halloween cookies and candy still show up on the coffee table. However, the areas surrounding The Villages do have their share of younger residents and they got to fill their bags at Spanish Springs Town Square, courtesy of the shopping area’s merchants association.
And before Halloween? Oktoberfest! Being raised on sauerkraut and having a fondness for thick, dark beer, Oktoberfest is one of my favorite occasions to party. Villagers (some in lederhosen) turned out in Spanish Springs Town Square and Lake Sumter Landing this week to partake in this traditional Autumn event. Festivities included Rhineland music and dance, and of course, food and drink.
There was parade too. Members of the German American club escorted the official beer barrel and tended a giant “bier” stein float. The parade also featured baton twirlers and like anything in The Villages, golf carts.
How bowlers celebrate in The Villages (via @villager964)
Obviously the heat didn’t slow things down. Temperatures reach into the mid-90s this week, bringing along that famed-Florida humidity (giving us an average of 97 percent this month)! But don’t let these numbers scare you off. The online Weather Underground service assures us that normal averages for October are a comfortable 74.5 degrees, with humidity running at about 76 percent.
By now, you have “fallen back” and changed your clocks, but don’t forget to change the batteries in your smoke detectors too. There may be enough time at half time to get started – if you’re not too busy with a football party.
