Why you should be careful before moving anywhere (Rolla, Ozark: appliances, house)

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by ozarksboy

Well, you said you were ...


... and you are, you really are.

You're good. You really are!

You and I need to get together and have coffee -- baseball caps firmly esconsed on pates! See ya in a couple of months!

[linicx]

Visitors rarely do mundane things scoping out a new area. They eat out, sleep in a motel and check out the tourist traps and shows. They don't read a local newspaper, pick up the phone book or browe the local stores. If they did they would learn a lot. When I first moved to Missouri I didn't know I could not buy Koop's mustard, Fanny May Candy or prime beef or that I had to ask for spaghetti sauce if I ordered Pasta when I went out to eat. I never ordered steak or spaghetti again. I didn't know what F4 beef was or that I could not find a park that was at least 600 acres, or a really big lake unless I went to Table Rock of Lake of the Ozarks.

A weekend is not enough. If you stay 10 days to first time, you come back and stay a lifetime. If you don't you'll be surprised at what you did not know. It's a hard lesson.

[ozarksboy]

Originally Posted by linicx

Visitors rarely do mundane things scoping out a new area. They eat out, sleep in a motel and check out the tourist traps and shows. They don't read a local newspaper, pick up the phone book or browe the local stores. If they did they would learn a lot. When I first moved to Missouri I didn't know I could not buy Koop's mustard, Fanny May Candy or prime beef or that I had to ask for spaghetti sauce if I ordered Pasta when I went out to eat. I never ordered steak or spaghetti again. I didn't know what F4 beef was or that I could not find a park that was at least 600 acres, or a really big lake unless I went to Table Rock of Lake of the Ozarks.

A weekend is not enough. If you stay 10 days to first time, you come back and stay a lifetime. If you don't you'll be surprised at what you did not know. It's a hard lesson.

You said what I've been saying. Of course, you said it diplomatically, prodding people gently with a feather, while I used a sledge hammer. Maybe they'll listen to you. OB

[linicx]

Originally Posted by ozarksboy

You said what I've been saying. Of course, you said it diplomatically, prodding people gently with a feather, while I used a sledge hammer. Maybe they'll listen to you. OB

I don't know about the feather but I know hwat happens when you think faster than you can tupe. I be good at it. I've lived in nine states.. I always looked at moving as an adventure and I was prepared to adjust to my circumstances. It is very diffiult for Yankees and peosons who live on the East coast, persons who live mega metro areas to understand the SW is not for folks who want instant gratification. Someone who oived in Noel or Southwest City and never traveled farther thann Joplin would have one h*ll of a hard time adjusting to Chicago or Vermont.

The first thing they would learn is winters in those areas is like living in a commercial freeaer for four months. They would learn a new language. "Not very far" is most likely 50 miles. Yankees have no idea a "fer peice" is not a ankle length fur coat, or that "over yonder" means two blocks; and not ten miles. Never mind learning how to drive with 8M people.

Chiccago's Outer Drove os 10 lanes downtown and the lanes are controlled by hydrolics that shape the traffic clow. It is 8 lanes into the city in the morning, and two lanes leaving the city. At night it is reversed. If you try entering any freeway or expressway at 80 mph and expect to cut across 8 lanes of traffic and exit at the next off ramp. You'll exit in the Coroner's wagon

It is just as difficult to move to the SW. Traffic is abpit 50% slower and neighbors do stop in the middle of the street to chat. Food is entirely different. If you want Gourmet, you go to St; Louis, Tulsa, or KC.. You might find Kosher but not always and maybe not at all. Albertsons got rid of all the Kosher foods when they took Smitty's in Joplin. The filled the store with Mexican food and lost all the customers. It doesn't leave much choice for the Juewish community in Joplin. The Smitty's store in Lebanon still carries Kosher. The four corner states don't light up and celebrate Christmas as do other parts of the US. New Mexico doestn't have Cristmas Trees. They grow cotton and peppers.. They decorate the large cactus with lights. It is ugly and should be a law against it. If you want gourmet you go to Albuquerque.

East tp West is an easier move because the familiar stores like TJ's and Coscto and Whole Foods, and Boney's are on both coasts. Trader Joe's was in MA for years before they came to St. Louis. They want TJs or Costco they are going to drive 200-225 miles one way to get it. I did it twice a year.. The best part of the trip was St. James Winery. It's the little things like the electrician who says he'll be over in a little bit. His "little bit" might be three days.

I am not knocking my old home state. I've lived in MO and OK for nearly 30 years.. There was a fellow on this list that was determeinged to move into the heart of tornado alley in Joplin. These stoms waltz right up Business I-71 North to Webb City before they angle off to the Lake. Maybe but not always. He will only have to live through one to undestand what the people here in the forum were saying. I missed the last one by thirty minutes by driving south to Anderston and then west. That storm took out Steak n Shake where I had been eating a few minutes earliers. It can also go right down 60 and clip Neosho on the way to Springfield. I did that too one night. The straight line wind that followed the tornado drove the hail so hard it sanded two sides of our barn. And drove a small tree through the bedroom wall. It hit South Springifledd down around the mall pretty hard that year. I was much luckier than my neighbors.

You can't tell people what they do not want to hear. Life is lessons. Some of them are not very pleasant.

[Inoxkeeper]

Thought I would chime in as it appears I am the only native born Missouri hillbilly in sight.

I too wish the locals would pick up the dang trash, Missouri is one of the most beautiful and diverse states in America, why anyone thinks it's OK to trash it is beyond me. Ditto for you smokers, keep your butts in your car!!! Don't toss them out your window!!!

I filled the bucket on my tractor with trash this weekend, plastic soda bottles, cups, beer bottles, tires, fast food sacks, you name it, that I picked up along the road by my place in the country. STOP IT!!

As far as newcomers, I agree with OB to a certain extent. Misery isn't for everyone and Missourians can be a clannish bunch. How about this, anyone moving to Missouri must buy a place that has a junky trailer and a trash pile to clean up and build on. No fair building in the middle of a pristine field!

That way you can earn your stripes and help beautify Missouri. Who knows, maybe your hard work will rub off on the locals.

[misplaced1]

Originally Posted by Inoxkeeper

Thought I would chime in as it appears I am the only native born Missouri hillbilly in sight.

I too wish the locals would pick up the dang trash, Missouri is one of the most beautiful and diverse states in America, why anyone thinks it's OK to trash it is beyond me. Ditto for you smokers, keep your butts in your car!!! Don't toss them out your window!!!

I filled the bucket on my tractor with trash this weekend, plastic soda bottles, cups, beer bottles, tires, fast food sacks, you name it, that I picked up along the road by my place in the country. STOP IT!!

As far as newcomers, I agree with OB to a certain extent. Misery isn't for everyone and Missourians can be a clannish bunch. How about this, anyone moving to Missouri must buy a place that has a junky trailer and a trash pile to clean up and build on. No fair building in the middle of a pristine field!

That way you can earn your stripes and help beautify Missouri. Who knows, maybe your hard work will rub off on the locals.

You know, the natives have left so many gorgeous buildings there to just rot in favor of new, I think there are plenty of places for a transplant to "clean up". Our house is a 1920's baby that's been seriously neglected and is going to take a lot of elbow grease to get back up and running again. I love to fix things so I can love one of these houses more than I ever could a cookie cutter house. You can't find the sort of architecture here where I've been living like you can there. The detail, the woodwork, the staircases, the beauty. I think of anything that is the one about Missouri that has always blown my mind, the buildings that were just left.

[Silvermouse]

Originally Posted by misplaced1

I think there are plenty of places for a transplant to "clean up".

How do you know it's not the transplants throwing out the trash?

[misplaced1]

Originally Posted by Silvermouse

How do you know it's not the transplants throwing out the trash?

Did you happen to read my post? Here's what I said

"You know, the natives have left so many gorgeous buildings there to just rot in favor of new, I think there are plenty of places for a transplant to "clean up"."

I'm pretty sure most of my post was in regard to run down, abondoned buildings.

As for who is throwing out trash, couldn't say. I didn't see it. I lived in a nice and tidy northern Missouri small town and it was pretty darn clean.

[Silvermouse]

Originally Posted by ozarksboy

That's hilarious. You showed them stupid rednecks for what they are. You have a right to be proud of yourself. You're better than them and you proved it.


No, I wasn't born in Missouri. I was born in Georgia; I am a native Southerner, a cracker, because my dad was in the Air Force at the time I was born. My mother, a native Missourian, took me home to her hillbilly parents when my dad left for Japan three months after my birth. My dad was born in Wisconsin, your state, but he moved here when he was high school.

Like you, we all have to live amongst these Missourians. And aren't they a sight?

Your post is interesting; no wonder you consider this home. You've got a nearly perfect situation for yourself. You got to buy the cheap Missouri land for your retirement. You're in a littler warmer climate than Wisconsin. You're surrounded by other non-Missourians so you don't have to socialize with Missourians, who you have found to be both stupid and lazy. You don't even have to trade with Missourians because you've found plenty of shopkeepers who are non-Missourians. No wonder it feels like home to you. You are in Missouri, but not of it. You don't have to worry about "being accepted by the locals" as so many newcomers do. You can go for weeks and never have to put up with a Missourian! What a great deal for you. Other newcomers are envious, I'm sure.

All you need for perfection is to get those trashy Missourians to clean up their yards and learn to get to work on time and do a good job. Keep working on them. Maybe you and your non-Missouri neighbors can come up with a plan over coffee while you're commiserating about how Missouri would be perfect if it weren't for the stupid and lazy Missourians!

You're priceless!

[Silvermouse]

Originally Posted by misplaced1

Did you happen to read my post?

Whoops - quoted wrong post!