We live near a Masonic retirement community that looks like a college campus on break (with no one out). The one and only time we rode our bikes over there we were asked to leave. Several times since then we've walked around there, even though a Masonic security guard's car hit our friend Emily when she was walking there. Finally, we were also asked to leave, as pedestrians (the guard cited unstated safety concerns, but he's probably the one who hit Emily). I also suspected the main reason was psychological security for the elderly residents whom we never see outside their buildings.
Ironically, as Frisco and we were walking to leave, we did run into, first, a woman and her dog on the porch of one of the residences, and then a second woman, and then later a woman being pushed in her wheelchair across campus. We talked with Cecilianna and dog Bonny for several times, then Ruth joined in (all three of them pictured) partly to talk about her cat Houdini. (We commiserated about the price of gas and they cheered on Tiger Woods at the U.S. Open and his daughter.) After we left a third resident - in the wheel chair - stopped to pet Frisco.
We're not sure if we're going to go back and cite our friendship with Ceclianna in Morris Hall, or if we'll now stay away (we'll still use the little post office on campus). Still, it seems ironic and sad that if the main reason to shoo us away is so that the residents feel more secure - with non-residents kept away - that on the same day we were evicted we struck up - for the first time - and interesting conversations with residents.
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