The Meadows / Monarch Homes Brochure (1992)

My mom did not golf. Dad was a golfer. My mom played bridge in the old Dickens Center. She was also the president of Meadows University

for two or three years in the 90’s. She was a former teacher. She arranged lectures and concerts for people in the community at The Dickens.

My dad's name was Lou Schulze. He passed five years after they retired. Thank goodness he retired early. He played golf every day. He was happy here.

JE: 

Same thing with my husband. We retired early. We weren't even 60 when we bought our house here.

SK:

My dad retired at 62. They bought the villa when he was 63. They drove back and forth from the Boston area for two years, then moved here permanently.

JE: 

When did you retire? Did you ever think of living anywhere else or did you just know you wanted to come back to The Meadows?

SK:

I retired two weeks ago. In 2018-19, I moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, bought a house, and went to work for Blue Cross / Blue Shield. A doctor I worked for in a prior life, who also knew my husband, Gary, became president / CEO. He called me and asked me to come down and work for him. I had been working in Seattle. I came down and started the job. Six months later, my husband passed away; nine months later, COVID hit.

I did not like living in Louisiana. I loved my company and the people. I did not like the weather; it is so different than Florida. I ended up going back to Seattle. I still have a house there.

Arborfield B ( Everwood Run) Floor Plan

After we re-opened the office, we continued to let people work remotely; but Washington wasn't an approved state for the company and Florida was. I had been thinking about returning to Florida. Two of my dearest friends for over 45 years both retired to Sarasota. During COVID, one of my brothers was living at the family house. He bought a condo in Somerset villas.

My late husband and I always wanted to buy the house, but we didn't like the layout. It had a lot of small, enclosed rooms— separate dining and living rooms.  An engineer looked at it, found there was only one load bearing wall, and said he could take out all the inner walls.

We completely gutted it. Now when you walk into the house, other than the three bedrooms, it's wide open. You can see the pool from the front door.

TB: 

So, just to recap— Your parents came down here in 1985 on a vacation, discovered The Meadows, liked it so much they bought a condo, traveled back and forth for a few years as snowbirds, decided to stay fulltime, and bought a house.

SK:

Yes. I remember my dad calling his four children to tell us, “We're moving to Florida.” He was not the type to make decisions on the spot. He would research and study it, so we were surprised. The first thing he told us is The Meadows has three golf courses. My mom was a teacher for 30 years. She loved art, opera, and ballet. She was excited about the local cultural attractions. She served as a docent at The Ringling for over 22 years.

My dad passed away 5 years after moving here. She had children scattered across the country. We all said, “Come live with us.” She said, “No way. I have a life. I’m busy.” She loved working at the museum. She used to call me and say, “I’ve got to go to work today.” She retired from the museum work when she was 88 years old.

TB: 

What are your early memories of The Meadows?

SK:

I remember when my parents moved here, my dad said. “There are more cows in Sarasota than people.” I remember the dairy farms on the outskirts of town. Fruitville Road and University Parkway were just two-lane roads. Honoré did not connect to University Parkway. When my father took me to the Sarasota airport (SRQ), we would come out 17th street, take a right on Prudence Drive, and go some convoluted way along local streets until we came out by the old dog racetrack.

The was no University Town Center (UTC). Lakewood Ranch didn’t exist. It was just cattle, dairy farms, and orange groves. There was no hospital, mall, nothing. Now there are eight lanes on University Parkway.

TB: 

Do you remember the sales office at the 17th Street entrance?

SK:

I remember when there was just a trailer there. I remember the traffic circle at the country club where you pulled in to drop people off at the restaurant. The island had the date displayed in the grass. They changed it every day. If it was July 29th, they have a 2 and 9 cut into the greenery. It was real grass.

JE: 

They kept the grass in pots. It was a nice touch. I wish we had a photo.

SK:

In those days, the golf courses were immaculate. We didn’t have as many competing clubs as we do now. Bobby Jones was the public course. University Park had just started building houses.

Now there are golf courses everywhere you go. County club membership has gone down over the years. I understand the need to make two courses public.

I'm trying to think of some Meadows stories. When I was going through my mom’s photos, she had pictures from many years of block parties they used to have on Everwood Run with all the neighbors getting together. They all knew each other.  That doesn’t happen anymore. I guess with all the turnover it’s something that has been lost. I think it was something that people really enjoyed.

JE: 

Yes. There were parties all the time. That’s changed quite a bit.

SK:

My dad just loved the community. He knew all the golf rangers, caddies, and people working at the cart barn. He played right and left-handed. He carried two sets of clubs in his golf bag— 28 clubs. He and his golf partner, John Turner, played so much they named the alligators on the course.

I love the wildlife in The Meadows. When I was still working, I used to go out at 6 AM to walk. I would count as many as 20 birds each day. I joined The Audubon Society. I have an app now that will tell me what bird I see based on its sound. The sandhill cranes are my favorite. I’ve seen their mating dance. It’s so special. On one hole on the Highlands course, I’ve seen spoonbill or ibis. It’s unusual to see them here.

The sandhill cranes are beautiful. They’re noisy. I see a lot of them over the Highlands course. There’s a nest on the 13th hole. It’s a par 3 hole. Every year when the birds mate, they nest behind the green. The club moves the green up the fairway to protect them. I know the neighbors who live there. They got to watch the chicks being born.

TB: 

Tell us some more of your earliest memories of The Meadows. You and you siblings were all grown by the time your parents moved here. You were all out of college.

SK:

I remember our first Christmas seeing lights in palm trees was a surprise. It seemed very incongruous. I remember my dad, who was a very conservative guy, put two plastic pink flamingos in the front yard as a joke to shock us. I did the same thing with my daughter.

TB:

Did you come here mostly on holidays?

SK:

Yes. A couple of times a year. After my dad passed, I was down here a lot. I was very close to my mom. My dad passed in 1990.

My husband and I came down here at least four or five times a year. He was a practicing attorney. He decided to go back into a family business that pretty much shut down in winter. He would come down here and spend 4 or 5 months with my mom and me.

He and my mom were very close. I remember his friends ask him, “You're going to go live with your mother-in-law for 5 months?” The two of them would have a wonderful time.

She used to worry about him playing golf until dark and he could hardly see the ball. One Christmas as a joke, she got him one of those miner’s lights.

My mother passed in March of this year. She was 96. She had been living in assisted living since 2017. One of us visited every month when she was still at the house. We kept the house and car after she went into assisted living, so when we visited, we wouldn’t have to stay in hotels. We figured one of us would eventually take it over.

That’s how my brother got stuck here during COVID. He was visiting while I was away in India. I got stuck in India when COVID hit. Did you ever see the movie, Planes, Trains. and Automobiles? That's what it was like getting home from India. I was working in healthcare IT. I didn't want to get stuck in India with their healthcare system. We had masks, gloves, Clorox— all the stuff coming back.

The Meadows is an oasis. With all the growth around us, it’s amazing we’ve been able to maintain the quality of life here. 85 lakes and ponds, walking trails, golf, tennis… We went through some difficult financial times to preserve this community. I feel very safe here. I love the security patrol— just love knowing it's there.

It's been lovely to meet both of you.

TB:

Thanks for talking with us and sharing your memories of the early days in The Meadows.

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Gary Kozik with Sue’s mother