Friendly in-person groups you enjoy in retirement?

PoundNoteCollector

PoundNoteCollector

New Member
Hello all, I’m 70 and retired from teaching, living on my own these days. I’m quite content with my own company most of the time, but I know it does me good to get out of the house and see real faces as well as screen names.

For those of you who are retired, are there any local clubs, classes or meet-ups you go to and genuinely enjoy? Things like coffee mornings, church or community groups, U3A, gentle exercise, hobby or card groups – anything that feels welcoming rather than awkward.

I’d love to hear what kind of in-person activities have worked for you, and how you first found them. It might give me the nudge I need to try something new instead of just talking to the kettle.
 

Each and every Sunday morning a bunch of Greyhound adopters and our Greyhounds, ( but can also be any Dogs OR, even if you do not have a Dog ) meet at a park @ 9 AM for a walk. Young, old anyone at all, chat about our Dogs or any thing, meet new people or people we already know. A very friendly group, but we were started by Ex-Greyhound adopters, so there are quite a few of us. It also gives us an opportunity to show and maybe find some new potential adopters. It is a very inclusive body of people and Dogs. BTW all Dogs are on leashes and we carry Doggie Bags.
 

If I could still drive and my health were better, there's a local branch of The Silent Book Club I think I'd enjoy. The Silent Book Club is a worldwide club; members meet at coffee shops or restaurants, etc., bring whatever book they're currently reading or want to read, for the first 20 or 30 mins. every takes a turn talking for a few min. about that book and then for the rest of the meeting, everyone reads their own book in companiable silence. So you get an outing and a little socializing with other booklovers but aren't stuck having to read and discuss a book you don't like.
 
I enjoy impromptu afternoon gatherings that happen often at our Community Center - at my apartments. It’s a large complex with several buildings, and this is the central location for activity., sitting outside on their patio that wraps around the main office buildings.

People come to get their mail around the corner in the Mailroom from there.
A lot of interesting talk …. and I get to visit with the community dogs out on their walks too. .. nice vibe, and friendly atmosphere.
 
JustBonee said:
I enjoy impromptu afternoon gatherings that happen often at our Community Center - at my apartments. It’s a large complex with several buildings, and this is the central location for activity., sitting outside on their patio that wraps around the main office buildings.

People come to get their mail around the corner in the Mailroom from there.
A lot of interesting talk …. and I get to visit with the community dogs out on their walks too. .. nice vibe, and friendly atmosphere.
Click to expand...
I'd love so much to live somewhere like that, sounds wonderful.
 
Wife plays golf three times a week and I golf twice a week. We both golf in a couples Saturday group which also is followed by lunch. I run the men's Tuesday golf group which usually averages four foursomes and is followed by a group lunch. Wife plays mah Jong 2 to 3 times a week with friends. We play cards with 3 other couples ever other Saturday. That also involves a lot of food. We occasionally host a Trivial Pursuit night with 2 other couples.

We have several couples that we routinely take a day trip to visit some place in a range of 25 to 75 miles from home and that also involves lunch. Then there are the car clubs, where we participate in cruise nights and car shows. We also have birthday and holiday parties with friends, Kentucky Derby parties, Superbowl parties, on and on. I also go to the shooting range on Friday with a group of friends. We usually shoot for about 45 minutes and then sit around and socialize for a couple hours.

There are over 3000 clubs in our community, probably 100 pools and pickle ball courts. Probably 15 country clubs and probably 50 recreation centers that we can use. There are probably about 800 holes worth of golf courses in our community. We have a fairly large circle of friends but we do occasionally look forward to a quiet Sunday
 
officerripley said:
If I could still drive and my health were better, there's a local branch of The Silent Book Club I think I'd enjoy. The Silent Book Club is a worldwide club; members meet at coffee shops or restaurants, etc., bring whatever book they're currently reading or want to read, for the first 20 or 30 mins. every takes a turn talking for a few min. about that book and then for the rest of the meeting, everyone reads their own book in companianble silence. So you get an outing and a little socializing with other booklovers but aren't stuck having to read and discuss a book you don't like.
Click to expand...
My library has a group like that called the Bring Your Own Book Club and they have a regular book club that I've belonged to since I moved to this town 20 years ago. I just love everything about my library, including the children's section which is always seasonally decorated and full of kids having fun.
 
PoundNoteCollector said:
I’d love to hear what kind of in-person activities have worked for you, and how you first found them.
Click to expand...
I joined a senior hiking club that hikes every Friday. The club I joined is part of the 55+ community I moved to after I retired, but the county parks org here also sponsors a 55+ hiking club, and I think there is a national organization of local clubs too (I'm not very familiar with them, but a few times when the weather on Friday was bad, our group would go to one of the other group's hikes on a different day that week).

I also joined a birding club, but it turns out they mostly meet at early morning hours and I'm not a morning person, so I've only gone a couple times when they met to watch birds coming to roost in the evening.

I've tried going to MahJong and Scrabble game days (this community has a lot of those type of clubs), but I am not quite interested enough in that (though I think I might be in a few years).

Lately, even tho I'm completely inept at art, I've signed up for drawing class, and now I've also added Pastel class. I'm actually having a lot of fun with those.

The high-rise building my condo is in has an activity room and a bunch of volunteer activity committee people, and I try to go to a lot of the activities they have even if I'm not too interested, so that I get to know other people in the building (it would help if I could ever remember the people I meet), there was a $20 Italian dinner this week and one of the people at my table was so familiar but it wasn't until she mentioned her dog that I realized I know her (sort of) because I like to stop and pet her dog when I cross paths with them outside.
 
PoundNoteCollector said:
I’d love to hear what kind of in-person activities have worked for you, and how you first found them. It might give me the nudge I need to try something new instead of just talking to the kettle.
Click to expand...
When we moved to our present address almost 30 years ago, a distance of some 130 miles, we left behind a wonderful social circle. My wife insisted that we would make new friends. Our passion is for Big Band music and what became known as The Swingtime Era. Our first weekend at our new address and I found the kind of era related show, come dance, that we so enjoy.
Sitting together at the venue, we were approached by another couple who introduced themselves. They were dressed like us, in a style of the era. Their two friends then joined us, from there we were given a number of similiar era related functions, where we met many more like minded new friends.
Nowadays it takes quite a while to write up Christmas cards for those that we have been fortunate and priviledged to call, friends. On Friday, (December 12th) we will probably exchange a good few of those Christmas cards when we go to "Five Star's" concert.
FIVE-STAR-SWING.jpg

The following Friday we will meet up with yet more at Christchurch where Swing Unlimited will be playing.


SUBB1.jpg

There's also two dance functions, one on the 13th, the other on the 20th, but my wife is still recovering from surgery so we will give them a miss, well maybe we might go to the one on the 20th.

simon Lane11.jpg

Simon is a must, he's in the diary for the 30th.
Click on this link and you will see a crowd of us posing for the camera.
All our friends will gather for a New Year's party. Having an interest has helped us make friends and getting out and meeting that first couple was the catalyst to what is a wonderful social circle.
Good luck finding your new friends.
 
Tom52 said:
Wife plays golf three times a week and I golf twice a week. We both golf in a couples Saturday group which also is followed by lunch.
There are over 3000 clubs in our community, probably 100 pools and pickle ball courts. Probably 15 country clubs and probably 50 recreation centers that we can use. There are probably about 800 holes worth of golf courses in our community. We have a fairly large circle of friends but we do occasionally look forward to a quiet Sunday
Click to expand...
Tom, I almost needed a lie-down after reading your post – in a good way. It sounds like you and your wife have built a brilliant social life around golf and clubs. We don’t have anything like that scale where I am, but you’ve nudged me to take another look at what the local community centre and church hall are offering. I like the idea of small game nights with the same faces turning up each week.
 
Thank you @HoneyNut, this was really helpful to read. I like how you’ve treated it as a bit of an experiment – trying hiking, birding, games and now the art classes until something sticks. The idea of joining a class in my own building or nearby really appeals; it feels less intimidating than turning up somewhere completely new. Your pastel and drawing classes sound fun, even for someone like me whose “art” is usually stick figures on a whiteboard.
 
Tom52 said:
Wife plays golf three times a week and I golf twice a week. We both golf in a couples Saturday group which also is followed by lunch. I run the men's Tuesday golf group which usually averages four foursomes and is followed by a group lunch. Wife plays mah Jong 2 to 3 times a week with friends. We play cards with 3 other couples ever other Saturday. That also involves a lot of food. We occasionally host a Trivial Pursuit night with 2 other couples.

We have several couples that we routinely take a day trip to visit some place in a range of 25 to 75 miles from home and that also involves lunch. Then there are the car clubs, where we participate in cruise nights and car shows. We also have birthday and holiday parties with friends, Kentucky Derby parties, Superbowl parties, on and on. I also go to the shooting range on Friday with a group of friends. We usually shoot for about 45 minutes and then sit around and socialize for a couple hours.

There are over 3000 clubs in our community, probably 100 pools and pickle ball courts. Probably 15 country clubs and probably 50 recreation centers that we can use. There are probably about 800 holes worth of golf courses in our community. We have a fairly large circle of friends but we do occasionally look forward to a quiet Sunday
Click to expand...
That sounds great! We don't have any kind of structure like that. My wife plays Mah Jong and is in a couple of book clubs. I like playing golf with my friends and walking dogs with my daughter.
 
Wow! I avoid crowds and most people like the plague. The few times I ventured out in the past few years did not turn out well. There is a domino game that I enjoy playing and a small group of people would get together once a week, "just for fun, winning wasn't important". I decided to try that. The "leader" of the group played in tournaments and talked me into going to one. I made it clear I did not want to play, just watch.

I went; there were hundreds of people there, one of which whose partner did not show up. He begged me to play as his partner. I warned him I was not a tournament player and that I wasn't that good of a player. I let him talk me into it, though. Disaster! Part way through, he chastised me for not bidding aggressively enough, so I did. And every time I bid, he over bid me. We lost big time and boy, did I hear about it afterwards. I never went back to the local group and haven't played since.
 
GoodEnuff said:
Wow! I avoid crowds and most people like the plague. The few times I ventured out in the past few years did not turn out well. There is a domino game that I enjoy playing and a small group of people would get together once a week, "just for fun, winning wasn't important". I decided to try that. The "leader" of the group played in tournaments and talked me into going to one. I made it clear I did not want to play, just watch.

I went; there were hundreds of people there, one of which whose partner did not show up. He begged me to play as his partner. I warned him I was not a tournament player and that I wasn't that good of a player. I let him talk me into it, though. Disaster! Part way through, he chastised me for not bidding aggressively enough, so I did. And every time I bid, he over bid me. We lost big time and boy, did I hear about it afterwards. I never went back to the local group and haven't played since.
Click to expand...
That happened to me. Against my better judgement, I was persuaded to join a pinochle group. I warned them that I was a beginning player and not very competitive at all, but the gal begged me to join. with the exception of the gal who persuaded me to join, they were these humorless, cut-throat players who'd frown if you said a word that wasn't related to the game. Since I had a feeling it was going to be like that, that's why I was so reluctant to join. But I never went back.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top