From California to Texas - (Dallas, El Paso: home, tornado, earthquake)

[Aradiel343]

I am a single 27yr old male. I live in California and I am going to a job interview in a few weeks that will give me the opportunity to move to Texas. In Texas, I have the possibility to move to Midland or Cleburne. I was wondering what is there to do there. What are the people like? What is it like to be single there? If you want to go out and make connections and friends, what's there to do? The company I might get to work for says they help with relocation, but if anyone has advice as to what parts to live in these two towns/cities, that would also be helpful. Grateful for any and all advice, but I would really like to find out what there is for meeting people and dating in Midland or Cleburne.

[padcrasher]

I'd pick Cleburne as it's closer to DFW. Those are both country towns you mentioned and not very cosmopolitan, so it will be even more of change from what your likely used to. On one hand country people are the nicest, most friendly, welcoming, but on the other hand they are closed minded to people different from them and ideas foreign to them. I'd look from Cleburne on North to be closer to the nightlife of Ft. Worth.

[Westerntraveler]

I live in Midland.The best part of Midland is the Northwest Side.My fellow Midlanders are generally friendly and welcoming.

[redfish1]

if you're not religious and you're single..................dating is going to be a living hell for you my friend!

sincerly a texas resident from seattle

[Aradiel343]

I cannot figure out how to add to my post, so I will ask a few more questions that I thought of.

First off I should have put that I live in a town of about 50,000. So I am comfortable with small towns and larger towns/cities. I am religious, and I respect evey person and their own choices to believe or not to believe. I read on here, some person was ranting about how bad he thought people in Midland were. Each unto their own experiance I guess. I cannot remember where he was from, but I think he was from a big city and moved to Midland. Maybe that was the reason. Midland is pretty big though, right? 100,000+ people. I would call that a good size city.

Cleburne is in the "Tornado Alley" right? I have never experianced anything like that, so what's that like to live there and worry about tornados?

I could see driving to DFW from Cleburne to find nightlife, that's like 30 and 50 miles away respectively. That's not bad. I also like animals, I have a little experiance being around horses. Just throwing that out there. Please keep the advice comming, Im a little nervous making a big move like this.

[h886]

Basically, nearly everywhere in Texas has the possibility of tornadoes. Midland is no safer than Cleburne in that respect. The thing about tornadoes is that you just have be sensible and watch the news or keep a radio on when there are storms coming. I mean, you live in California, right? You have no warning at all for earthquakes. At least you can see tornadoes coming and they show up on radar.

[TurtleCreek80]

Midland is waaaay better. There actually ARE a fair amount of young, educated people there because many oil companies basically require a stint in Midland at some point. I know several couples who met & married while assigned in Midland. It's a small town, but just embrace it.

You will not drive 40 miles to DFW for nightlife on any regular basis. Maybe once in a while for a concert or something, but are you really going to drive 1-2 hours, party your butt off, and drive home 1-2 hours afterwards every Friday and Saturday night? I think not. Heck, even people who live in the Dallas suburbs dont come into the city every weekend because it's 45-60 minutes round trip....not 3 hours!!

[QweffL]

Originally Posted by redfish1

if you're not religious and you're single..................dating is going to be a living hell for you my friend!

True. I lived in San Angelo for like 2 years. Just about every girl I ever attempted to ask out on a date, her first question was "What church do you go to?"

I've noticed that admitting you're an atheist doesn't sit well with the locals for some reason.

[bluescreen73]

You mentioned being used to smaller towns, but how do you feel about being isolated? Midland-Odessa is out in the middle of nowhere - roughly 300 miles west of DFW and 300 miles east of El Paso. In fact Midland got its name from being the halfway point on the Texas and Pacific Railroad between the 2 aforementioned locales. You're going to have to drive an appreciable distance to get to any major (500k+) metro areas.

If you like it dry and treeless you'll love Midland. I frequently complain about the lack of trees in DFW compared to places I've lived in the past, and Midland makes DFW look like Sherwood Forest. Get out of town and the only place you'll see a stand of trees is along a riverbank. It's technically not the desert, but damn close. The eastern border of the Chihuahuan Desert is a mere 100 miles to the west.

The tornado threat is vastly overblown. We've lived here 13 years and have yet to eyewitness a single one. You're far more likely to be killed by a lightning strike than a twister.

As much as I criticize DFW for its bland overall geography and horrible climate, when you throw in the fact that you're within 4-6 hours of 15 million people, it's a step above Midland.

[Canine*Castle]

I live about 30 miles from Cleburne and really don't like the town at all. I'm from Burbank, CA and live in a small town in Texas. To me, small is under 5,000 people but I know to some, it's much higher. Cleburne, I think, is right under 30,000 now. Coming from a big city to a small town didn't bother me at all. I love rural living and would never want to live in a city again.

Since 1950, Johnson County (Cleburne) has had 82 tornadoes of varying intensities, but no deaths and Midland County has had 31 with no deaths and tornadoes of lower intensities. Yes, Cleburne is in tornado alley according to maps found on the internet.

People who have never lived in earthquake country don't understand why it's just different than living in tornado country. In 32 years, I've never gotten used to the horrendous thunderstorms with horrible wind, hail, lightning, and the potential of tornadoes. Here even high winds can cause much damage and injury. Hate, hate, hate it. No, I've never been in a tornado, but the threat of them is way too often. I do have a storm cellar, but it's still pretty scary to me. Yes, I've been in an earthquake in CA and yes, it was scary. In a way with the "no warning", it isn't as nerve-wracking as the constant warnings most often in the Spring, but they can occur any time.

It's beastly hot and humid here too, but from November to late April, the weather is usually quite great unless a stupid thunderstorm decides to show its ugly face.

I don't think being single is a big deal. If you're not a church goer, trust me; you will find plenty of people who don't go to church.