Pickleball is a great way to meet people. The game is fun. A lot of people a very serious about playing well. But what I like is the people part. Adults getting together to play a game. There’s a limit to how long people will wait to play. But with 6 courts 24 people play at a time. It’s not unheard of for there to be 50 people waiting. In Key West I met people from all over the world.

Church, singing group, my Franciscan Fraternity, Library Genealogy group, and TOL.

crewahl wrote: »

The “New England thing”, though, seems to be that you leave your neighbors alone unless they need you or you need them. 🤷🏻‍♂️

This is aka Minnesota Nice, sometimes explained as "They'll give you directions to anywhere you need to go, but not to their house."

My major social interaction: I play euchre online with three college friends once or twice a month. We meet in Teams and play cards on Trickster. We started doing this during the pandemic and have since made it a regular thing. I really enjoy it.

Beyond that, my wife and I enjoy concerts, shows, and dining out, but we have no real social interactions with others. We're not churchgoers, and I'm no longer active with my running club. I've done a bit of volunteer work since retiring, but nothing that would lead to forming friendships. I imagine, perhaps, that we'll do more significant volunteering together after she retires and that might lead to finding more of a social structure, but for now that's just sort of an idea.

I see the point of the various commentaries on the "epidemic of loneliness." I'm an introvert at heart, so reaching out and initiating new relationships is difficult. It's interesting to me that my father, who lives alone in a senior-living community, has much more of a social life than either of his children. His chief complaint though is loneliness.