For us it boils down to quality of life. There are some things you can't put a price tag on. Like living where the closest town looks like it's taken straight from a Norman Rockwell sketch. Where the people on the street smile and greet you and strike up a conversation. Where nobody rushes to steal the parking space that you've been patiently waiting for with your blinker on.
Where people don't dump their grocery carts all over the parking lot and leave them for everyone else to navigate around.
Where someone donates cherry trees to the town and volunteers turn out to plant them and keep them watered --consistently.
Where the gas station still has the "ding -ding- ding" like the one from your childhood. When you pull in it's all full service - including cleaning your windows and checking the air in your tires at no extra charge.
Like getting up at 7:15 in the morning to be at work by 8:00, instead of getting up at 5:00 a.m and dreading the gridlock and hoping that an accident doesn't shut down the highway and that no one is killed. Having time to spend with your loved ones and friends instead of always meaning to but putting it off because you're too exhausted and stressed.
Where neighbors are neighborly and look after you and you do the same.
Where you have the best of both worlds. We have friends from California, Arizona, New York, along with friends who were born and raised here and have lived here all of their lives.
Where the local winery (courtesy of a former Napa Valley-ite and his wife who is originally from Georgia) hosts a pot luck and open mike get-together every month. You're lulled by the dulcimer and watch the woman sitting next to you get tears in her eyes as the plaintive dulcimer strains engulf the room.
Where you've learned to love Italian food courtesy of a nearby restaurant whose owners are two brothers from Italy.
Where the bloom of spring azealeas takes your breath away because you'd forgotten the depth and variety of colors.
Cons-
It isn't any cheaper for us to live here and we downsized. The pay isn't great.
We passed on areas of the state where the pay is better because those are already a rat race, are only going to get worse, and I see those commutes that are now 45 minutes to an hour turning into the same kind of gridlock we dreaded.
The gov'ment. Locally and on a state level.
NC was and is as ill prepared for this influx of growth as northern VA was.
The lack of foresight and sound thinking in economic development.
Lack of adequate law enforcement. There isn't enough money to pay the numbers of Police Officers or Deputy Sherrifs that are needed.
I miss living in the foothills of the mountains.
At times I still miss our beautiful VA county but I miss it the way it used to be not the way it is today.
I really don't like snakes
Cassie
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rwarky
In the past 5 to 10 years, I've notice a great number of people have moved to the U.S. South (particularly North Carolina) form other parts of the country and the world. I've wandered how people from these areas felt about there new area, and how it differs from where they are originally from.
Are you from another part of the country such as the Northeast, Midwest, or elsewhere in the U.S. or the world, and have relocated to the South? What area (e.g., city, town, or region) of the South do you live? Furthermore, how has life been for you here (again, in the South) compared to where you originally come from? Anything else?
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Just kidding Niki.
