First, Second, third impressions (activity, weather, compared)

[chani29f]

I've said this before. When we were out there this past June, everyone was so nice. The rude people were the one's with out of state license plates. We met a wonderful woman named Niki at a Jiffy Lube where we were having our oil changed before heading to North Dakota. We talked for a really long time...even after the guys at JL said our cars were done! She kept asking if we really had to leave that day because she so wanted to show us "her city". Another woman in the same JL shared tips with us on how to keep our plants from freezing in the winter. Some people in one restaurant, upon hearing it was our first day in the cities, apologized for eavesdropping and interrupting but they wanted to give us some tips on certain "must see" sites in the cities. Like I said, didn't hit much in the way of rudeness or standoffishness.

My only complaint was it was 85 with humidity at 65%. Although, I really can't complain too much as my normally flat hair was acutally curly! Best three hair days I have ever had! lol

[Auntie Bob]

Originally Posted by Li'lBeaver

We will simply take our retirement pensions, Social Security checks and retirement investments and leave. We simply can not tolerate friends (?) who lie to our face and stab us in the back. We are too old to have to have to fight and put up with the snobbish in-bred intellectually challanged up here in MinneSOTa. These comments could be equally applied to the politicians in MinneSOTa also.

Yeah, it hurts to have people that you thought were your friends turn out not to be. I don't know what that has to do with the state of Minnesota though. I suspect that kind of thing happens everywhere.
Somehow, I just don't think Minnesota is going to miss your money all that much. I wish you success in finding a place that suits you better. Be well.

[JenLee]

Originally Posted by Li'lBeaver

We moved here several years ago when we retired only to have our friends of over twenty years crap on us, lie about it, and shun us as well as causing many others in the area to do so also. With friends (?) and neighbors like these nobody needs any enemies!

We have learned to say to H*ll with most of the people up here and can not wait to get the chance to sell our moderate "Dream Home" on a small quiet good fishing lake, and let the in-bred rednecks have their "Great State of MinneSOTa" all back to themselves. We will simply take our retirement pensions, Social Security checks and retirement investments and leave. We simply can not tolerate friends (?) who lie to our face and stab us in the back. We are too old to have to have to fight and put up with the snobbish in-bred intellectually challanged up here in MinneSOTa. These comments could be equally applied to the politicians in MinneSOTa also.

With "friends" like that, who needs enemies? It sounds like whatever happened to set this off was very wrong and hurtful to you.

However, I don't think you should judge the whole state by what these "friends" did to you. I'm sure there are people like this the world over.

And I don't understand the whole politician part of this post either.

[Auntie Bob]

Originally Posted by JenLee

With "friends" like that, who needs enemies? It sounds like whatever happened to set this off was very wrong and hurtful to you.

However, I don't think you should judge the whole state by what these "friends" did to you. I'm sure there are people like this the world over.

And I don't understand the whole politician part of this post either.

Well, if you read the whole story, it doesn't have anything to do with Minnesota except that's where it happened.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/902110-post60.html

[JenLee]

Originally Posted by Auntie Bob

Well, if you read the whole story, it doesn't have anything to do with Minnesota except that's where it happened.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/902110-post60.html

As I said, I'm sure there are people like that the world over.

It is rather unfair to condemn a whole state because of some sort of neighborhood rift, isn't it? Li'lBeaver sounds genuinely hurt by whatever happened; but I do believe that because of this experience he figures everyone here in MN is like that. And that isn't true at all.

Should I judge the whole state of California as bad because someone keyed my car in a restaurant parking lot there? Or should I condemn the whole state of Montana because when I needed help one night a guy pointed a rifle at me (until he understood what was going on)? Or should I say the whole state of Pennsylvania is bad because I was robbed there? *I* don't think so at all.

Maybe I tend to see the world with rose-colored glasses; but I'd rather think that the world is full of mostly good people and just a few bad apples rather than the other way around.

[Auntie Bob]

Well, I think it's understandable that a parent would probably stand up for their child, right or wrong. Family usually takes precedence over friendship. I don't think that's unique to Minnesota.
Granted, it's not always the right thing to do but, I do think it happens more often than not.... everywhere.

[Jeanie Hoholik]

Just checking in. It's been a year. Do you still feel the same?

[Li'lBeaver]

Originally Posted by Jeanie Hoholik

Just checking in. It's been a year. Do you still feel the same?

Jeanie Hoholik if your comment was directed my way, then the answer is yes.

With the housing bust we continue to await the opportunity to leave your so called great state.

[Li'lBeaver]

Originally Posted by JenLee

With "friends" like that, who needs enemies? It sounds like whatever happened to set this off was very wrong and hurtful to you.

However, I don't think you should judge the whole state by what these "friends" did to you. I'm sure there are people like this the world over.

And I don't understand the whole politician part of this post either.

JenLee, you are correct that there are people like this everywhere, it's just that we came from an area where the people in the whole area did not take sides in most cases they would continue to associate with both parties and leave it up to them to settle their disputes.

The political aspect comes from the fact that the dispute could have been settled had the DNR and the SWCD enforced their laws and regulations as they are written. We always felt that they did not perform their leagal duties due to the fact that the other party called their releative who worked in the DNR about it. Therefore their comment was that they let the parties involved fight it out as they can not afford to enforce all their regulations. Resulting in several thousand dollars of damages for us and others on the lake to suck up.

We were referred to the "Great Envirionmentalist Senator" from Northern Minnesota ( I will not mention his name ) who would not even reply to our inquiries. Apparently he was too busy with his Canadian resort operations.

In all fairness I will say that our state Representative Mr. Anderson did not only quickly reply to our letter, but called to schedule a visit and look the situation over for himself. His accessment following his vist was that what had transpired was wrong and a violation of the DNR Rules, but with the current DNR administration there was very little he could do to help with the problem other than trying to put some legislative pressure on the DNR in St. Paul. This we understood due to the fact that one voice in the wilderness can not achieve a whole lot by himself.

While we were truly sorry to see Mr. Anderson retire we realized that with his age and health and years of service in St. Paul he most assuredly deserved his retirement. In forty five years of active involvement in politics I can honestly say I have only known six truly great politicians.

[Li'lBeaver]

Originally Posted by pirate_lafitte

Longhorn Paul, you mention standoffishness. I am getting on a bit of a tangent, but that standoffishness you speak of that is in MN, that isn't just Minnesota. I live in GA and sometimes I can find alot of people to be standoffish and cliqueish. I have also found many friendly people. As for MN nice, I hope it doesn't mean rude and standoffish. As for your living in MN, I hope you do well. Actually, I often think about living in MN myself. I wonder what it is like to make friends in MN because my impressions of MN being a wonderful state came from geography books I read, but nothing beats actually living in a place.

Remember the old saying believe none of what you read and only half of what you hear or see. When you are on the outside everybody seems nicer than they are. When you move here only then will you see the dark side of
" MinneSOTa nice ".