Tell me about Nebraskans (living, garden, move)

[Go Ne]

Originally Posted by alligatorboy

I don't like football at all, and I have never been to a Huskers game.

Shun! Shun!

[alligatorboy]

Originally Posted by Go Ne

Shun! Shun!

It's not that big of a deal! It's only ENTERTAINMENT! Life would go on if we didn't have football. I have a real horror story for you: Football is illegal in some countries because it's so dangerous. That probably sounds crazy to you, but I think the people who made that decision are very smart. What are you going to do, force me to leave the state?
Seriously, I really hope you are joking. I'm not trying to insult you, but I really think some people like football a little too much. I think it's weird that people have gone so far with it that they bet on who's going to win the game. It's okay as long as you don't get addicted, but I'm sure it happens to some people.

[tpabes]

He was joking, you have to read the too!

[alligatorboy]

Originally Posted by tpabes

He was joking, you have to read the too!

That's good.

[Radical347]

I grew up in Kearney & spent most of the first 18 years there. Here's what I think:

People are polite. They will smile back when you smile. Heck, they'll probably smile anyway without you smiling first. If you are visiting, they will be very curious and probably show some sort of hospitality that you never thought was possible. Unless you come with a preemptive condescending attitude.

It's amazing how the community comes together in times of need. This summer when Kearney got ravaged by 6 tornadoes, the town was back up and running in a day or two, most of the trees were cleaned up, and most of the buildings that got damaged had made significant progress.

This may surprise some people, but Nebraska is probably the least racist state I've been to. (Don't say "that's because there aren't any minorities!" Yes, most of NE is white, but there are also black/Asian/Hispanic/etc people and nobody would ever think of it being an issue, because it's not.) All that your skin color means is that that's your skin color. In fact, I went to a fancy Northeastern school for college and was surprised that racism still existed in this country. (As much as they'd like you to believe otherwise, the northeast is FAR more racist than the midwest.)

Nebraskans joke about how much their state sucks, but they really wouldn't live anywhere else. There are kids in H.S. who talk about how much they want to get out -- and then they go somewhere out of state for college (usually CO or KS or IA or MN, lol) and come running back to NE after they graduate.

The weather really is not that bad. People saying that it's frozen for 6 months out of the year are exaggerating. Summers are definitely summers, and the rest of the year it can be anything. It can be 30 in October and 70 in January.

Real estate is mad cheap.

Good beef.

However:

Drivers are NOT polite. They're the exact opposite. They're not really aggressive -- just inconsiderate and with a "me first" attitude. They will never switch lanes or slow down for you and will always force you out. I remember one time when we had to turn left onto our street and there were a bunch of cars moving slowly going the other way because they had just gotten out of some event -- we had our turn signal on and literally 5 minutes went by and NO ONE yielded for us. We had to start turning anyway and almost run into a car before they finally let us pass.

Aside from differences that they can actually see, they are kind of naive and seem to think everyone acts and thinks just like them and then. The idea of "sticking out as an individual" has a bad connotation. Maybe it's less so the case in Lincoln and Omaha, but the state is very homophobic too, even in Kearney, which is touted as one of the most progressive cities in western NE (and it probably is -- but this is western NE you're talking about.)

People are conservative in every way possible. Politically, yes, but they're also resistant to change or new ideas. Things I like simply don't exist in NE (outside Omaha and Lincoln). Whenever someone gets gutsy enough to open up a store that serves something western NE hasn't had before, it almost always goes belly up. No sushi bars at all in western NE. (The closest is King's Buffet in Kearney, which has godawful sushi on their buffet, but I have to give them credit for even having that.) The only ethnic restaurants are Chinese and Mexican. No Vietnamese/Korean/Indian/etc restaurants whatsover. Coffee shops don't fare very well either -- just about every one that's opened up in Kearney has gone belly-up.

[alligatorboy]

Originally Posted by Radical347

I grew up in Kearney & spent most of the first 18 years there. Here's what I think:

People are polite. They will smile back when you smile. Heck, they'll probably smile anyway without you smiling first. If you are visiting, they will be very curious and probably show some sort of hospitality that you never thought was possible. Unless you come with a preemptive condescending attitude.

It's amazing how the community comes together in times of need. This summer when Kearney got ravaged by 6 tornadoes, the town was back up and running in a day or two, most of the trees were cleaned up, and most of the buildings that got damaged had made significant progress.

This may surprise some people, but Nebraska is probably the least racist state I've been to. (Don't say "that's because there aren't any minorities!" Yes, most of NE is white, but there are also black/Asian/Hispanic/etc people and nobody would ever think of it being an issue, because it's not.) All that your skin color means is that that's your skin color. In fact, I went to a fancy Northeastern school for college and was surprised that racism still existed in this country. (As much as they'd like you to believe otherwise, the northeast is FAR more racist than the midwest.)

Nebraskans joke about how much their state sucks, but they really wouldn't live anywhere else. There are kids in H.S. who talk about how much they want to get out -- and then they go somewhere out of state for college (usually CO or KS or IA or MN, lol) and come running back to NE after they graduate.

The weather really is not that bad. People saying that it's frozen for 6 months out of the year are exaggerating. Summers are definitely summers, and the rest of the year it can be anything. It can be 30 in October and 70 in January.

Real estate is mad cheap.

Good beef.

However:

Drivers are NOT polite. They're the exact opposite. They're not really aggressive -- just inconsiderate and with a "me first" attitude. They will never switch lanes or slow down for you and will always force you out. I remember one time when we had to turn left onto our street and there were a bunch of cars moving slowly going the other way because they had just gotten out of some event -- we had our turn signal on and literally 5 minutes went by and NO ONE yielded for us. We had to start turning anyway and almost run into a car before they finally let us pass.

Aside from differences that they can actually see, they are kind of naive and seem to think everyone acts and thinks just like them and then. The idea of "sticking out as an individual" has a bad connotation. Maybe it's less so the case in Lincoln and Omaha, but the state is very homophobic too, even in Kearney, which is touted as one of the most progressive cities in western NE (and it probably is -- but this is western NE you're talking about.)

People are conservative in every way possible. Politically, yes, but they're also resistant to change or new ideas. Things I like simply don't exist in NE (outside Omaha and Lincoln). Whenever someone gets gutsy enough to open up a store that serves something western NE hasn't had before, it almost always goes belly up. No sushi bars at all in western NE. (The closest is King's Buffet in Kearney, which has godawful sushi on their buffet, but I have to give them credit for even having that.) The only ethnic restaurants are Chinese and Mexican. No Vietnamese/Korean/Indian/etc restaurants whatsover. Coffee shops don't fare very well either -- just about every one that's opened up in Kearney has gone belly-up.

No sushi!!! They don't know what they're missing. I love Tuna and Salmon raw. For those of you who are worried, fish and seafood to be eaten raw in sushi always goes through a process called flash-freezing. Fish that is flash-frozen is kept at an extremely low temperature to kill anything that could really make a person sick. This doesn't always guarantee that the fish is safe to eat. If you do eat sushi at a restaurant, I would always check to see what kind of grade they received from a health inspector.

[athousandlogins]

I only lived in Lincoln, and only for two years. So my experiences are only meant to fit within that narrow constraint.

Pros:

* People are extremely friendly. My husband and I are very shy so we didn't spend a ton of time socializing with our neighbors, but they still cleared out our driveway with their snow blower every time it snowed. We didn't even ask. Nowhere else I've lived (six states now) can I make this claim!

* People are mostly just people everywhere. There is nothing about Nebraskans that makes them particularly difficult or annoying or anything.

* They don't particularly want to talk politics. I hate talking politics, so I think that's a good thing, though your opinion may differ. I am sometimes liberal and sometimes conservative and sometimes neither (it depends on the issue and the politician) and in Lincoln, I never felt like I was different for that.

* They don't have an accent. Makes it easy to understand them!


Cons:

* Relatively low ethnic and religious diversity. That matters more to some people than others, but I personally think it is very important. (I'm Jewish, so I frequently felt kind of awkward. There are Jews in Lincoln and it's a GREAT little community, but, well, it's very very little.)

* Suspicion of outsiders. Lincoln is a small city, and the way people chat you up and get to know you is to try and figure out how you fit into the scheme of things. Where you went to school, who you know, to whom you are related. If you didn't grow up there, most Lincolnites aren't sure what to make of you. They're not unfriendly by any means...just a little more reserved. More so than any other place I've lived, I heard "not from here" or "out of state" used in a derogatory - or at least befuddled - way in Lincoln.

* It's true that not everyone cares about the Huskers. But most people do. I have the same last name as a former Husker, and every other person I met asked me if I was related to the guy. Even at job interviews, no lie. One time they asked me on the phone before I even went to the interview, and that was probably the only reason they even called me. The point is, if you don't care about the team, you are going to have less in common with many of the people you meet. This doesn't mean you can't be friends, it just means you'll feel very much like an outsider. But I should note that if you want to try and become a Husker fan, they'll take you on without any hesitation! Even if you come from somewhere else.



The bottom line is that I don't think Nebraskans are a bad lot. It ultimately wasn't where I wanted to spend the rest of my life, but I still count several Nebraskans among my friends and I don't regret my time there.

[pirate_lafitte]

Originally Posted by athousandlogins

I only lived in Lincoln, and only for two years. So my experiences are only meant to fit within that narrow constraint.

Pros:

* People are extremely friendly. My husband and I are very shy so we didn't spend a ton of time socializing with our neighbors, but they still cleared out our driveway with their snow blower every time it snowed. We didn't even ask. Nowhere else I've lived (six states now) can I make this claim!

* People are mostly just people everywhere. There is nothing about Nebraskans that makes them particularly difficult or annoying or anything.

* They don't particularly want to talk politics. I hate talking politics, so I think that's a good thing, though your opinion may differ. I am sometimes liberal and sometimes conservative and sometimes neither (it depends on the issue and the politician) and in Lincoln, I never felt like I was different for that.

* They don't have an accent. Makes it easy to understand them!


Cons:

* Relatively low ethnic and religious diversity. That matters more to some people than others, but I personally think it is very important. (I'm Jewish, so I frequently felt kind of awkward. There are Jews in Lincoln and it's a GREAT little community, but, well, it's very very little.)

* Suspicion of outsiders. Lincoln is a small city, and the way people chat you up and get to know you is to try and figure out how you fit into the scheme of things. Where you went to school, who you know, to whom you are related. If you didn't grow up there, most Lincolnites aren't sure what to make of you. They're not unfriendly by any means...just a little more reserved. More so than any other place I've lived, I heard "not from here" or "out of state" used in a derogatory - or at least befuddled - way in Lincoln.

* It's true that not everyone cares about the Huskers. But most people do. I have the same last name as a former Husker, and every other person I met asked me if I was related to the guy. Even at job interviews, no lie. One time they asked me on the phone before I even went to the interview, and that was probably the only reason they even called me. The point is, if you don't care about the team, you are going to have less in common with many of the people you meet. This doesn't mean you can't be friends, it just means you'll feel very much like an outsider. But I should note that if you want to try and become a Husker fan, they'll take you on without any hesitation! Even if you come from somewhere else.



The bottom line is that I don't think Nebraskans are a bad lot. It ultimately wasn't where I wanted to spend the rest of my life, but I still count several Nebraskans among my friends and I don't regret my time there.

Suspicion of outsiders is one thing I don't like. As for being a Huskers fan, I don't care for football, especially NCAA football.

[Chris19]

The talking of politics, and even religion, is problably due to the people considering those topics to be a private matter. I can understand why people may not talk politics. Some do not to avoid touchy subjects or avoid potential conflict.

Yes, Nebraskans love their Huskers. Not a bad thing. I dated a young later for several years in college and she was a big Huskers fan and was from Nebraska. I sometimes gave her a hard time but she gave it right back. She and I teased each other a lot during the Kansas and Nebraska games with me routing for the Jayhawks (I follow the Jayhawks more during basketball season) and her routing for the Huskers. She either watched or listened to Huskers games every Saturday during football season. I am not wild about the Huskers but do not despise them neither, but was happy for them when they won their titles in the mid 1990s.

Even though it seems strange to me, it is interesting how one state all rallies behind a single college team. In South Dakota, with most states, there are in-state rivalries. Traditionally, SDSU Jackrabbits and USD Coyotes (both were DII for quite some time but SDSU is a full fledged D-1 school and USD in the process of going D-1) have been rivals. When the two play, things can get rather interesting. I can remember a few USD people going up to SDSU and getting kicked out for throwing dead rabbits on the floor when I was at USD. To get on topic, Nebraska is unified and are fiercely loyal to the Huskers.


Overall, Nebraskans are decent people and I know quite a few of them.

[stan in san diego]

I grew up in Lincoln and the #1 thing I can say about Nebraskans is that by far the majority of them live somewhere else. The state has only recently begun to grow again. I'm not sure why but there seems to be a lack of intellectual, creative energy there. Omaha is trying to be progressive but the rest of the state seems to be locked back in time. While living in MN for 3 years and visiting frequently since, I noticed a greater zest for living than in NE. NE seems laid-back but not in a SoCal kind of way. I was just back there for 9 days in August and while I liked the green trees and the corn and soybean fields, it holds no special place in my heart. It just seems bland and uninteresting I regret to say. We left NE and MN in 1966 to move to Phx. We tried to return for a year in 1971 but couldn't wait to leave again I regret to say.