Don't move to a small town without this (Beverly Hills: renting, lawyers)

[LDDiamondGirl]

If you are NOT from a rural area and you are romanticizing living in one because of that movie you saw where Diane Keaton moves from the big city to the lovely upstate rural area, buys a dilapidated house which in a matter of days becomes an adorable cottage with Ralph Lauren furniture, meets the handsome veterinarian and starts making her own baby food from the luscious apple orchard in her back yard......think again. Beware. The reality of leaving a metro area where the people who pass by you everyday, and own (and take care of) the stores where you shop, are clean, neat, well groomed, smell like expensive perfume from Nordstroms and not like vodka, have nice teeth, take care of their houses, clean their windows and don't hoard crap in their yards in piles or inside their houses, smashed up against their windows may be all things you take very much for granted. They also may be things you will miss greatly when you move to a small town. Not to mention the intelligence quotient. Do your homework ! When in Rome........

[phree_spirit]

Are you kidding me? You make it sound as though everybody in the rural areas are nothing more than stupid country bumpkins! I have lived in suburban New Jersey, and Rural northeast Connecticut. I love CT! The weather sucks, but I think that if your values lie in perfect cookie cutter homes and expensive perfume from Nordstroms, perhaps you should consider some introspection yourself. We call those people yuppies out here in the sticks!

[LDDiamondGirl]

Thank you. I think that's not a bad word. This is not a place for debates, so I won't stoop to name calling. It is a place for intelligent people to leave their views for others to read so they can choose for themselves. One man's trash is another's neighborhood.

[fairweathergolfer]

I made a non-look before you leap mistake once too. Thank God I was renting and it only had to last 6 months. I guess I did look a little and of course on the surface I saw paradise, but paradise is not all it is cracked up to be--I found out. B-O-R-I-N-G. For a high energy mental, emotional, physical and spiritual person, the slowness combined with the slog of traffic and lack of challenge and stimulation was deadening. I would add to your adage: one man's paradise is another man's hell.

Your point of caution is a good point to bring up in these threads as a reminder to all who are thinking about moving. It reminds us each to put our priorities and what we truly value into perspective before we leap and also to realize even if it may sound silly to others or even superficial--what we value is very individual and personal. Sometimes moving around a bit does teach each of us a lot about the subtle edges that deaden us and the ones that enliven our souls.

[phree_spirit]

I'm sorry about that, as I meant no offense. I was merely trying to illustrate the fact that you might be misrepresenting the "country folk". We don't all have bad teeth and a half dozen beat up cars in our front yards. If I were to make a similar analysis of suburbia, which I took the liberty of making in my earilier post, I might make the mistake of thinking suburbanites were yuppies. I should not have done that.

[Steve97415]

If you are NOT from a metro area and you are romanticizing living in one because of that old television series you saw where Buddy Ebsen moves his mother "granny" and his kids Jethro and Ellie-Mae from rural Appalachia to the tony Beverly Hills area, buys a mansion which in a matter of days becomes an oversized homestead with a "cement pond" and a lye-soap kettle, buys a movie studio, finds movie-star dates for Ellie, and has Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs over to eat 'possum stew on a regular basis......think again. Beware. The reality of leaving a small-town area where down-to-earth people greet you as you pass by, and own (and take care of) the independently-owned stores where you shop, are clean, neat, well groomed but not surgically-altered, smell like regular people and not like expensive perfume from Nordstroms, have teeth that aren't made of porcelain, live in subdivisions without gated entries, and in houses that don't have to be double dead-bolted against unlawful entry, dwell in neighborhoods without gang graffitti sprayed on every inch of public property, live in affordable houses with lot sizes bigger than .0002 acres, clean their windows and don't hoard money in Swiss bank accounts may be all things you take very much for granted. They also may be things you will miss greatly when you move to a large city. Not to mention the intelligence quotient. Do your homework ! When in Rome........wait a minute! What does that dictum have to do with anything mentioned here?

[fairweathergolfer]

Steve97415 posted:
have teeth that aren't made of porcelain

THE TEETH!!!! Oh I forgot, we, all of us, on these LA threads have failed to mention this very disturbing and annoying feature of some in our population. People do not get veneers here (many of them) because they have teeth issues that truly may call for a nice new set or one of two teeth replaced. They do it for the most grotesque, meaningless, vain reasons--making an already superficial and plastic looking person, further into a caricature and when this is the case they ARE HORRID looking. For these people it doesn't enhance their look, but denigrates the few nice natural features left. Oh, if I never see another set of them I will be so happy . But I digress . . .

(By the way this judgment is not aimed at those who truly are enhanced and helped with such a replacement. For them I say hear, hear, it is nice to see this technology available.)

[Dan6200alt]

the score:

DiamondGirl 7
Steve97415 14


You're both right. This reminds me a bit of the movie Funny Farm w/ Chevy Chase. Y'know, New Yorker moves to Redbud in the country. Funny. "cue the deer"

[greatbasinguide]

I might add, I live near a small town,, not in it, a small ranch, we have no idea where our house keys are, if we leave for a week or two, we leave the house unlocked, we leave the keys in the car even in town. If daughter has a problem, within a few minutes someone she knows passes by and stops to help. The auto mechanic has a kid that plays soccer with our kids, so does the pediatrician a couple of lawyers and the wood cutter down the road, oh, the dentist coaches a team.

[checar]

That was too good not to say so.

Greatbasinguide, are you from there or moved there?