Eleanor L'Ecuyer has watched Sun City Center develop over the past three decades.
By ELEANOR C. L'ECUYER
Published February 27, 2004
What have I done? I asked myself that on my first day in the Palm Beach Biltmore Semper Paratus Always Ready Coast Guard barracks. Breakfast featured grits. That travesty, plus the July temperature, prompted my vow never to reside in Florida.
Sixty years later, I'm a Sun City Center resident; have been for more than 30 years. Things looked different in the '70s. County Road 674 was only two lanes, and Interstate 75 was years in the future. Traffic is now a problem. CR 674 was also a barrier between the Sun City Center envisioned by Del Webb in 1962 and Kings Point, a sister community built by a Delray Beach developer.
The volunteer spirit flourishes here. Emergency Squad ambulances are dispatched at all hours to assure medical help. Where would we be without our hospital, Hospice care, Samaritans and fire department?
The town has certainly ballooned. Only two of us who served on the advisory board to build Trinity Lakes (Lake Towers) are still in town. There are now eight similar retirement centers. And the area is blessed with 10 places of worship.
Veteran and service organizations, computer buffs, crafters, bridge players, lawn bowlers and, of course, golf addicts; you name it, there's a club - guaranteed.
We do miss a variety of shops and restaurants. Unfortunately, we are distant from the bright lights of airports of Tampa and Sarasota. But the cruise ships are close by, and there's fine entertainment on the various stages here. The vicinity participates wholeheartedly in patriotic ceremonies. Flags are proudly displayed. And our golf carts made it into the Guinness World Records.
I am now in my 12th year at Freedom Plaza. There are not enough hours in the day for all the meetings scheduled; no maintenance problems to attend to anymore, though. Of course, I am a minority here: a Democrat in Republican Sun City Center. But I no longer have to eat grits.
- L'Ecuyer, a retired Coast Guard captain, lives on American Eagle Boulevard.
