The median age in Punta Gorda is 64 years--that means over half the population is older than 64. Just up the road in Venice, the median age is 69. What's curious, and somewhat of a mystery is that in both of these towns, only about 2 percent of the population is between 18 and 24 years of age. What happens to them?
In Punta Gorda things move in a consistent rhythm. Every morning, before it gets too hot, people take walks. Along the walks, you see the morning tennis players. And from time to time, someone on an older bike with thick black tires rolls by while listening to the radio with a single earphone.
The pharmacies are busy and slow. So unless you have an hour, avoid them. I had to pick up three things. I couldn't find what I was looking for, so I went to get some help. No one was around. So I went to the registers for assistance. The lady in front of me had two items to pay for, one item to return, and it took 10 minutes. First, she needed to understand the difference between the toothbrush she had picked out and the others that were hanging in the tooth-care aisle 30 feet from the register. Her choice was apparently fancier. Why? Well it had a tongue cleaner. How to use that? Well, you pull it along your tongue. Why do they put it on the toothbrush? Don't know. It continued. And, then she paid. But, she needed to understand how the taxes were calculated on the item she returned. Did she get back that part of the tax that was owed her? The computer takes care of that. How? Well, it recalculates the tax and calculates what you should be refunded. How? Here, I'll show you on the receipt. Show me. You see here. This is what I get back in tax? Yes. But how does the computer calculate it?
Finally the other register was free. I asked for help, and the nice cashier, an elderly women, walked me over to where I could find my items. But they weren't there. We looked together. By now, though the line was 25 people deep. We found my items. But the line was long and I'd already been in the store for 15 minutes. So I went to the back of the store where the pharmacy was located. Fewer people would be there, I thought naively. I was right, but the line moved even slower. And there again was an older woman in front of me in the line. "I was told that my prescriptions would be ready this afternoon." They will, but its only 1:00 PM. The pharmacist reviews them at 2:00 PM. "But I have 3 items in my prescription and only one was a special order..."
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