what dissappointed me about moving to East TN (Cookeville: real estate, to rent)

[mjb62676]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

Ingle's is fine. Kroger's is good, too.

I don't like all of the Food Citys but some are good. The new one behind the Knoxville Center mall is GREAT. Go to the meat and seafood department and there are several butchers. One will come over to help you immediately. I stand by Mike the butcher. He always picks me out something great for supper!

This is great news since we're going to be living about 5 minutes or so from Knoxville Center.

Thank you!

[soldn2slavery]

This is probably beating a long-dead horse, but I think the originator of this thread was just suffering from a bit of culture shock.

Having been a military brat we moved every two or three years. I've lived everywhere from Arizona to Louisiana to Alaska. (Currently, I live in the Midwest and would love to leave, but my ma-in-law needs my wife and my kids don't want to leave their friends.)

I know how tough it can be to acclimate to a new place, even if it's a really good place, as Tennessee seems to be, and the old place that you left was not so good; otherwise, you wouldn't have left. You left familiarity. You knew about the good and knew about the bad. You moved to uncertainty and newness. You used to be able to drive to just about anyplace with your eyes closed and now you have to check directions to go anywhere and everywhere. You could walk into your favorite grocery store and locate anything in about two seconds. Now, you walk into the grocery store and spend 10 minutes looking for each thing you need to buy, with two kids in tow.

Maybe I'm the only who does this, but I research the good and the bad and sometimes ignore the bad because I want to move so much or I think the good can compensate for the bad. Then, you move and reality hits you in the face. It's similar to buyer's remorse. That new car is so cool until the first payment.

Anyway, I'll stop rambling and just say hang in there. It will get better, but it takes time. And, your kids are way more resilient than perhaps you give them credit for. They'll take a lot of their cues from you. If you love it, they'll love it. If you're unhappy, they'll be unhappy.

[sliverbox]

I think the comparison might also be a bit extreme mainly because Gatlinburg to me when I lived in E-TN was the holy-hell-hole of a tourist trap town. Even to the natives it was a place to avoid and full of hokey make-believe hillbilly stuff. Gatlinburg is not a good comparison to the majority of the state. It is not a place I would want to relocate to.

[hiknapster]

I think it needs to be said that the OP went back home to visit and was glad to get back to Tennessee. Just thought you all might want to know.

[soldn2slavery]

That is good to know. I was too lazy to read all 11 pages of the thread. :-)

I think it proves her initial research and decision was the correct one and it proves what many of us TN-wannabe's are coming to realize -- TN really is a nice place to live.

Moving to a new location is not easy, especially moving from one region of the country to another. One nation, but many different ways of doing and saying things.

[dreamofmonterey]

To be honest, I really dont see a big difference. The area reminds me of upstate NY smaller towns, slower paced. What is wrong with that? The people are polite, actually offer to help when you get a flat, I missed Publix at first, but Kroger is almost as good.

Now if you are from a big metro area like NYC or Chicago, you may need to do some research... Coming from Florida I am glad to be here; S. Florida proclaims itself to be a world-class, all it really is is real-estate development run rampant. At least we dont have that here.(in some areas-lol)

sunny

[hiknapster]

sold2slavery:

I don't think the OP said it in this thread, to be honest! I think she started another thread to tell us her new feelings and it got kind of lost!

I agree, Sunny!

Okay, unplugging until after the thunderstorm! Talk to y'all later!

[pah18]

I don't know about these Michigan, Florida, and all the other types, but nowhere exists anything close to the hills of Tennessee. Born in Cleveland Ohio, my parents made as many trips back to beautiful, but economically depressed Cocke County every chance my dad had down the treacherous roads and across Clinch Mountain in every season. I fell in love with the beauty, the wildness, and the work ethic of my family and others around - back then, if you didn't work, there wasn't anybody to feed you... The "foreigners" from the northern states and Florida need to realize that the type of people that settled this area (Scottish-Irish and some German), along with the unforgiving nature of the surrounding hills with scarce bottom land dictated a certain life perspective that people from elsewhere will never understand. As a certified nurse practitioner, I intend to move back to my roots and help the people I love and for whom I have the highest respect. I relish the opportunity to move back and make my home among the cedars that are overtaking the land. Most of my extended family is there. I even have my final resting place in Liberty Hill Cemetery next to my mother. My heart is and will always be there. I wish the new people could understand and not find it so convenient to complain about not having a Meijer's, or the high price of vegetables. I mean, that's what a quarter-acre garden is for. I think they need to invest in a tiller or a small tractor, if that's their thing. They miss the whole point - the beauty, the wildlife, the serenity, the solitude, the freedom from urban bondage, the independence life in this area affords, the treefrogs ahollerin', the rooster a crowin', the creeks, sittin' out on the porch of an evenin' enjoying a nice slice of watermelon, and all the other wonderful amenities that make life worth living.

[Shenandoah]

Beautifully stated pah!

Now, if people would realise and remember what life was like when this nation was being formed, know the sacrifice that others have made, and the back-breaking toil that our pioneer men and women did, then more people would take pride in their daily work.

A loaf of homemade bread. A small vegetable garden. A stitch in time saves nine. A place for everything, and everything in it's place.

Simple pleasures get forgotten or put aside for bigger and faster and more.

The wind blowing thru the trees.

Tadpoles singing in the pond. A cricket singing under your window.

A summer storm coming in, while you watch it on the front porch swing, feeling the cool wind blowing, the clouds coming in, just feeling the power.

My hand being held by my husbands while we're sitting in church, reciting the Lord's Prayer.

My granddaugther's smile and laughter when she sees me. My daughter happily saying 'Mummy!'

Admiring the deck that my son replaced that his dad had put in 20 years previously.

Right now, listening to my husband snoring at 2:13 am, knowing he's home with me on a Friday nite, and not out somewhere drinking in a bar.

blessings, Shen

[Shenandoah]

But, then again, I REALLY would miss Walmart, my sexy high heels, Lady Clairol, and alot of the conveniences that modern day has blessed us with.

blessings, Shen