Where the old go to mark time and be patronized
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12/24/2019
My husband and I visited Mesquite around Christmas as it had been suggested to us as a place to retire, but the impression we had was that retirees are a very large part of the population and we prefer a mix of age groups and a downtown with more personality.
If a beautiful golf course and clubhouse, lovely gated subdivisions of upscale houses, convenient hospital and senior center, and little else is what you're looking for this is the place. But to me it feels sterile and the attitude of many of the service people condescending.
Example: My husband and I had lunch in the Eureka Casino, which was nominally decorated for the holidays but playing obnoxious, ratcheting, hip-hop type music. The waitress repeatedly addressed me as "Hon" and at one point put her hand on the small of my back as though I were an inmate at a nursing home and she was preparing to wipe my chin. It totally creeped me out. (Please note that although I have gray hair I was taller, thinner, and in better shape than she was.)
For dinner we went to Peggy Sue's Diner hoping to get a younger vibe, only to find at each table a selection of joke books with titles like (I'm not kidding) "How to Get Along without your Memory: Tips for People Who Are Really Old But Somehow Still Alive," "The Joy of Being Broke: The Book for People who Would be Rich if they just had More Money," and So You Think You Can Geezer: Instructions for Becoming the Old Coot You Always Dreamed Of." Someone may have thought those were funny; we did not.
The town wasn't decorated for Christmas (which is becoming more and more a criterion for me), and - to be frank - gated subdivisions feel not "secure" or "exclusive" but off-putting and an indication that crime is a problem.
The whole town has a planned, no there there feel. Not our kind of place.
Candace | Laughlin, NV