Monongah/Florida small-world happening



Doris Lyon and John Olesky at West Virginia gathering in Florida



Paula and I attended the West Virginia Social on Saturday, March 25, the precursor to the Sunday, March 26 annual West Virginia Reunion in The Villlages, Florida that is limited to the first 500 tickets purchased. 

I ran into Doris Lyon of a Seattle, Washington suburb whose sister, Mary   Ann, lives in The Villages.

When Doris found out I was from Monongah she asked me if I knew her aunt and uncle, Roxie and Paul Sayre.

Well, yeah.

My parents – John W. Olesky, Sr. and Lena Futten Olesky – moved to Church Street in the early 1940s when they bought the Consolidation Coal Company house that Angelo and Mary Dudash Raymond had been renting and where their children, Bobby and Rosemary, were growing up.

That was the first house off U.S. 19 (Camden Avenue). The next home was occupied by Roxie and Paul and their daughter, Mary Margaret, now Mrs. Lewis.

The Sayre home was between the Olesky house and the one occupied by John and Sophie Lushinsky, whose children were Rosemary (now Tetrick) and Loraine.

The next buildings were Our Lady of Pompeii Church and Sts. Peter and Paul School.

I’ve extolled the virtues of The Villages many times.  There are 157,000 senior citizens (you have to be 55 to purchase a home), but no city, just a humungous housing development controlled by the Morse family since the 1970s.

It is the fastest growing seniors community in America, skyrocketing from the 8,333 population in 2000.

It has 48 golf courses, free to homeowners who pay about $150 a month for the amenities, which include 32 neighborhood centers, 17 village centers, 8 regional centers, 11 parks, free outdoor live music and dancing every night of the year at three town squares, 2,900 clubs for every activity imaginable, 11 softball fields, bocce courts, tennis and pickleball courts and exercise parks.

And restaurants, theaters, department stores and other businesses givw the Morse family a percentage of their revenue to be allowed into The Villages.

Paula owns a home in The Villages so we spend our winters there and use our Tallmadge home when Ohio’s snow and cold has gone away.

I have played golf more than 70 times this year. Despite 10,000 tee times A DAY, the courses are always crowded.

I have been to 55 countries and 44 states and I’ve never seen anything close to The Villages.