For my grandparents generation, the concept of retirement was that of security, if not conformity. To move to warmer places almost seemed as a right of passage- one that as a contemporary news bite may become a part of American nostalgia, not unlike most of my grandmother’s various collections of memorabilia, porcelain or encyclopedias.

By happenstance or cultural practice, both my maternal and fraternal grandparents reside within 10 miles of each other; moving from the Northeast to Boyton Beach. Though they raised their families in different socio-economic brackets, religions, and have vastly different opinions about the American Dream- both households sought a summation to a lifetime of work, and found it. They pursued the idea of reconstructing a home as a final destination. A destination for so many retiree’s looking for paradise: the retirement communities and supporting infrastructure of Florida.