Seniors at Leisure to Ignore the Reaper

Confession: I’ve never liked the name “Leisure World.” To my ear, it sounds galactic, like some faraway place that might be home to a group of androids. A group of androids, that is, on fixed incomes who spend an inordinate amount of time on putting greens and playing bingo.

Confession No. 2: I never gave the issue more than a passing thought. If those people wanted to say they lived in a place called Leisure World, it was no skin off my nose. All I knew was that, as a baby boomer, there was no way any member of my generation would live in a place like that. Not people who used Woodstock as a cultural touchstone and thought Jimi Hendrix, like Einstein, was a genius.

Woodstock. Leisure World. Those were two dots that’d never connect.

Well, lo and behold and bless my stars, my generation isn’t so young anymore, and some of us have crept into Leisure World as residents. So it didn’t come as a huge surprise to return to Orange County after a week away to read that some Leisure World residents in South County think it’s time to verify their hipness by renaming their village. The other group of Leisure World people in Seal Beach seem content with the name.

The Times story said some of the name-change impetus came from a financial consideration, but that what’s really going on is the residents’ desire to live in a place that better captures their essence.

And who doesn’t want their essence captured? I’d like to live in a place called Angstville but can’t find one anywhere in America.

But live in a place called Leisure World? Not this cookie.

But if they changed the name ...

The 73-year-old chairman of the name-change committee gave our reporter one of the quotes of the year: “The connotation is that we’re old doddering people in walkers and wheelchairs and that we’re basically warehousing bodies waiting for the Grim Reaper.”

Yikes. That sounds like a guy with identity issues.

The committee hasn’t begun collecting ideas for a new name, but that’s sure to be a hoot when it happens. My guess is they’ll go mainstream with any new name, after outsiders have exhausted the possibilities for age-related monikers.

In other words, I doubt that a new name would capture the residents’ sense of self any better than any other town. Does “Rancho Santa Margarita” say anything about its residents? “Mission Viejo?”

Now, if they named themselves Margaritaville, I’d have a whole new layer of respect for them.

Nope, this name-change idea smacks of midlife crisis. A senior moment, if you will.

Consider that “leisure” was once a valued commodity. A “life of leisure” was the Holy Grail for people who grew up running the rat race. If you could do something “at your leisure,” you felt lucky. A “leisurely stroll” was the best kind. If you owned a leisure suit -- uh, never mind.

But as with so many other words in America, “leisure” now sounds vaguely insulting. That’s what the Leisure World people pushing for change seem to be saying. They feel belittled living in a world that stresses leisure.

They see an outside world that thinks of them as playing canasta when they really want to play Texas hold-em. Their 78s have long ago been replaced by CDs, although I’m guessing gangsta rap has not infiltrated the sound system in the village.

My advice is two-fold and probably conflicting. Yes, “Leisure World” sounds somewhat polyester and dorky and, to my tastes, lacking the requisite amount of angst.

But does it really matter? Isn’t the great part about reaching the age of maturity that you really don’t care what the outside world thinks? As long as you know you’re hip and vital and not biding time until the Grim Reaper crashes the party, isn’t that what counts?

And perhaps more to the point: Are polyester and dorky really so bad?

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana.parsons@latimes.com. An archive of his recent columns is at www.latimes.com/parsons.