The people I golf and curl with relate to me just fine. My husband belongs to the Rotary Club (in both the city and lake community) and we also socialize with people he knows from there. Plus we hang out with our neighbours at the lake throughout the summer (impromptu barbeques and visits to everyone’s fire pits or docks for drinks and gossip). It’s a very small community and those who visit in the summer are on holiday, so that probably makes a difference.
I turned 60 two months ago. I fit precisely into romansperson’s scenario of being laid off and after three or four years of looking for long term career-oriented work, gave up. In 2010 I decided it was time to “retire” and give up job searches. A great decision. Since then, to finally answer the OP, I enjoy where I live and will never run out of things I enjoy doing. Hobbies, gardening, weekly social events, cocktail hour.
From college graduation on I prepared for my eventual cessation of employment and am reaping the rewards. I have to be frugal; no cruises or five week excursions to Europe. No new cars. And no stupid activities that might get me hurt badly.
There are dangers if I get injured badly or live to be 90, but I’d much rather enjoy life now and take those lumps later, if they happen at all.
Quit working as soon as you can. And enjoy life. How many of us have heard those stories of Joe Career who retired at 65 and died two years later from a heart attack. It won’t be me. I’m already into year four – at age 60.
This, and it seems to make all the difference. I’ve known quite a few people who quit their careers and almost all of them start a business related to something they love, or started volunteering with some organization they’re interested in. Hardly anyone just kicks back for more than a year. A cousin of mine retired at 42 - he’s started two business since, and last time we talked, he said he wants to open a nightclub.
I retired aged 55.
I continue to pay chess and bridge at local clubs.
I also teach chess and bridge.
It’s not for the money, but for the enjoyment. One group of elderly ladies paid me in home-baked sausage rolls and cakes 
I run a weekend school roleplaying club. The pupils are volunteers (so keen and interested) and the parents relish a little ‘free time’.
I travel to local pubs for lunch with a couple of friends.
I play Lord of the Rings Online and also watch whole series of quality TV (after I finish ‘Law and Order’, ‘Game of Thrones’ is next.)
We have friends who were able to retire in their early 40s. He invented two devices. The first he sold for $2.6m, kept tinkering and sold another for over $100m. At that point they decided to retire. She was a schoolteacher, who was never really happy with the bureaucracy of public schools.
They bought a large property with a couple of outbuildings. He started repairing motorcycles in one and put a recording studio in the other for use by his amateur folk rock band. Pretty soon he had a thriving recording studio business and a thriving motorcycle repair shop.
His wife started her own Montessori preschool with a capacity of 20 students. It’s now a K-5 school with 125 students.
It just seems like they can’t help themselves.
Most military retirees that do their 20 (or 25; can’t remember) tend to get other jobs after retirement, and basically draw two incomes.