Please don't change Tennessee, love it the way it is.

[jguillot]

Originally Posted by LancasterNative

Thank you jguillot, for that awesome post! I'm of the exact same mindset...I love places like Tennessee, Kentucky and W. Virginia for exactly what they are! I love how the folks are so gracious, friendly and faith-filled. And conservative—like me

I look forward to moving South someday, hopefully sooner than later. And the last thing I'd want is to find it all changed into an uptight, fast-paced, liberal Yankee he**-hole! I wanna get away all from that crap...

Keep the South Southern!

Anyway...God bless you jguillot, and best wishes as you look forward to retirement.

Hi LancasterNative,

Thanks for your kind words. I currently live on the liberal "left" coast (California), so I definitely understand your feelings. My retirement and my move to Tennessee is at least 7 years away. I hope I can make it here that long. I'm already counting the days. I'm originally from the south, so I know I will love Tennessee. I will be retiring on my 4 acres of land in Monterey, TN.

[crossvibe]

there is such a thing as yankee conservatives ... and there once was a time when even northeners enjoyed a slower-paced life ...

[rlrm777]

We will be retiring to 12 acres we just bought in Benton County in about 3 years. My one sister moved there 20 years ago, and my other sister also just bought property there.
47 years ago we moved to Fl from Ohio, so I know 1st hand how a beautiful area can be ruined. People are leaving Fl in droves. The politicians are as much at fault as the greedy corporations. Always willing to look the other way for a larger tax base.
I think one positive thing regarding many areas of rural TN is that the land doesn't lend itself well to large intense development. In middle and west Tn even when the heirs sell off the large old family homesteads, they seem to be breaking them up into tracts of several acres.
Who knows for sure what the future will bring. But I'm leaving a county with a pop density of 3500 per sq mile for one with 42 per sq mile. Ya gotta love that.

[J&Em]

Gemthornton, change a few minor details and you have described us, too! We worked hard, thought we had made good plans for the future and believed those corporate promises. As a result we, too, are looking for a new place to live and stretch our much smaller than expected nest egg. Maybe 6 or 7 years ago we thought we would have a comfortable retirement, only to have it whittled away to about half of what was promised with the prospect of even less as the years go by. Too late for 401K and other investments to attempt to make up the shortfall and still facing paying college tuition we suddenly are not so "comfortable" as we had thought. We also are seeing our cost of living increasing exponentially (aka taxes and more taxes), so we know we cannot afford our current home for long either. We are not looking to take away from others but just to survive ourselves.

We, too, want to contribute to our "home" wherever it may turn out out be and don't expect to have everything we have in our current home town. We have focused on TN because of many factors, not only the cost of living, and have no interest in changing Tn or its current residents.

That feeling of being unwanted certainly describes everything we are experiencing, too, when we have done nothing but become 50 somethings. In spite of the fact that we have done everything asked of us and done it well, with plenty of accolades to show, we are becoming unwanted in so many ways. Our generations's moniker is becoming a pejorative, with all "baby boomers" lumped together as overly rich, gimme types out to take away everything from those who are younger. Suddenly we are old timers to be ignored at work ( or pushed out of the way to make room for the inexperienced but much cheaper younger worker) or "fat" retireees who make things worse anyplace we want to move to. We are neither but the stereotype has taken root, all of us of a 'certain age' are lumped in, and everyone bases their prejudices on it.


In the process of looking for our retirement home we have driven across much of the USA, looking for the ideal place to put down new roots. You cannot help but notice that the expansion everyone complains of is occuring everywhere. Lots of people are seeing formerly rural areas being built up. It is not any worse in Tn that we could see, in fact it appears to have less of the sprawl we noticed in many places.

In spite of a few of the rather churlish posts telling outsiders like us to go away we still think we can make a go of it and hope to prove them wrong. Best of luck Gemthornton!

Em

[gemkeeper]

I know that there are many retirees or soon-to-retires that can identify with my post of yesterday. Hopefully, many younger folks will look at our situation from less clouded eyes now.

My husband and I have chosen to look at this phase of our lives as a new adventure. With each corporate move we had to make over the years we told our 4 boys "What an adventure we are going to take! We are moving to ..." We always felt regret that they had to leave behind their friends and move on and that they never really got to know their cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles the way that we did when the country was made up of large extended families. But, fortunately, because our sons loved their adventures they have become fully engaged adults with families who fly or drive at least once a year to visit all of their families and have kept in touch with many of their old pals. What this corporate insensitivity to families - and perhaps our ignorance for going along with it - has robbed our families of is irreplacable.

As mentioned, once you and your accomplishments are no longer tucked into the shell of a 40 yr. old body, you are not considered the leader of choice. And, as each decade passes on, so do the perks, bonuses, recognition of jobs well-done, and good salaries. As my husband has been "in between jobs" 4 times in the last 10 years, he has had to take a salary hit with each new assignment. The financial toll is the easiest to contend with. It is his dignity and honor that have been bruised, but it isn't fatal, right? So, he has chosen to give in to early retirement (rather than "give up"), and say that he doesn't need the powers that be any longer either. Oh, happy day (and I am sincere about that).

We, too, are now in the process of using our nest-egg to live on much too early. But, hey, here goes another adventure. We started out our married life together with very little in a material way and were very happy. We both grew up in steel mill workers' families and didn't have a lot in a material way then either, but certainly didn't know it. We were happy then; we'll be happy in our new circumstances - as long as we can be a part of a good community who values what we have to offer.

If we wanted to change our area of choice to be just like what we left, we would already be too senile to make a move anyhow. We want to be fully invested and incorporated into our new home area and feel that we have always had that good TN soil under our fingernails, too, and want it to keep it there by being a part of the land, not a taker of it.

We are praying that our dear, new neighbors will look at us as another part of their family of friends and realize that we will take nothing, change nothing, but certainly want to be able to give our hearts, souls, and bodies to our new home. May we be looked at someday as an asset to our new community, and not an intruder. And, I wish the same for you, Em, and all of the other regular old folks just keeping it all together. I think that we have found that in the Knoxville area. Warm, welcoming friends who trust us to take care of their home right by their sides.