Features

Several weeks ago, I wrote an article featuring the upcoming Father’s Day gathering at Fairfield Village’s Clubhouse the Saturday before Father’s Day.  I missed the fun because I was visiting in Virginia, but I promised our residents that I would follow up with photos from that evening.

Learning of an opportunity to see Austria, Joe Riley took it.

The year was 1947 and Riley was in the U.S. Army serving as a member of the 796 Military Police Battalion.

He was in Germany when the offer came his way and since he had never been to Austria, he figured, “why not?’

Austria was occupied by troops from Britain, Germany, France and the United States.

Patrol of the area was completed by a representative of each country on patrol with Riley. 

Long time Ocala resident Barbara Jaggers is always proud of her children but she is especially proud this week.

Her son Robert “Bob” Morrissette delivered 30 wheelchairs to Iraqi children earlier this month. Up until now the delivery those children getting the wheelchairs had been carried around by family members.

In 2005 the program was started and since then 850 pediatric wheelchairs have gone to the Iraqi children.

If you have the opportunity to attend your 60th class reunion “go” encourages an Ocala Palms woman.

Margaret Morlan did and she’s happy that she went despite coming home exhausted.

Morlan was a member of the Class of 1950 at Brazil High School, in Brazil, Ind., and earlier this month she, along with husband, Don attended her high school reunion.

Her school days started in a two-room school house, four grades per room in Center Point before she had to transfer to a high school, a much bigger school.

Wanting to make more money, Charles “Chuck” Crawford went to work underground.

After 10 years underground he went to work above ground until he retired at 55 years old.

Crawford was young, only 20 years old, when he went into the Peabody Company Coal Mine #10 in Illinois. He started with Peabody when he was 19, he had already served four years with the Navy.

Not wanting to move one more time, he had been in seven different schools in six years – he convinced his parents he should join the service.

One of the BIG advantages of living in central Florida is the proximity to so many really fun places and great activities. When one is a resident of the Fairfield Village community, there is always the prospect of something interesting to do and/or be a part of around the clubhouse. However, one always wants to be as active and involved in other activities as he/she can be considering all kinds of individual factors.

How do you measure the pulse or spirit of a community?  I believe if you polled the majority of residents of Stone Creek they would tell you it is the people of Stone Creek that make Stone Creek so special.  Neighbors helping neighbors in times of sadness or celebration, clubs h

Should we hope for an early spring? Obviously, one of the many different groundhogs’ predictions on the traditional Groundhog’s Day, Tuesday, Feb. 2, will be shown to be correct. Since there is not just one “prognosticator” of the springtime, I suppose we can choose which cute little critter to believe until the results are obvious.

Punxsutawney Phil is probably the groundhog that many of us have heard about most often over the years. His appearance

New homeowner’s board is installed

Wednesday, February 17, saw the installation of new officers for the Fairfield Village Homeowners' Association Board. Barbara Skalka and Mike Riley were elected as trustees. Both Carol Kulah, who was re-elected Treasurer, and Philip Geissal, who was elected President, were unopposed.

When I asked Geissal why he thought that he and Carol Kulah were unopposed, he grinned and said, "Perhaps Carol and I should have asked that question ourselves earlier!"