A recent appointment at my dentist’s office turned into more than just a 30 minutes of judgmental teeth cleaning, followed by a polish and bill.
My twenty-something dental hygienist told me, while she had her hand and a some sort of terrible tooth scraper in my mouth, that she was new in town. She figured since I was one of the few clients she had seen under the age of 750 since arriving in town, she would ask me where and how to make friends in The Coachella Valley. I was stumped.
As anyone in The Greater Palm Springs area knows, this valley is not at all the ideal place for people in their 20s, 30s, or 40s. Pretty much everything in town is geared towards the geezer set, the locals are made to feel like second class citizens in their own cities (you will bow to the snowbirds!), and there really is not much to do (unless you like golf, hiking in 120 degrees, or getting high).
This leaves quite the predicament for someone who arrives in town friendless and who is looking to meet some people.
I moved to Palm Desert in my early 20s and, in the 456 years I have been in town (or so it feels), basically all of my friends (and even my wife) are people I met either at work or through work.
This works great if you are in the right field – lots of cool, younger people are in hospitality and nursing in The Coachella Valley, for example – but, if you do something such as fix old people’s dentures in a small dentist’s office all day, it could present a problem.
So, I put it to you: how and where does an adult (who is not in their 80s) make friends in The Coachella Valley?
Leave your advice in the comments below or as part of this Facebook thread.
