Amarillo, Lubbock, Abilene? (Dallas, El Paso, San Angelo: mattress, new house, neighborhood)

[Ready in 3]

eddie gein: I just took a quick peek at Canyon, TX vital stats. That might be a VERY good fit for me. Thanks!

[eddie gein]

Originally Posted by Ready in 3

eddie gein: I just took a quick peek at Canyon, TX vital stats. That might be a VERY good fit for me. Thanks!

Great, I absolutely LOVE that little town.

Just as an aside. I helped a woman get a Welsh Corgi. She was divorced and decided that she couldn't keep him, so she gave him away to someone I didn't know. I had put a collar on him when I first got him licensed and put my phone number on there because I didn't know her phone number at the time when I got the tag.

A while later I got a call from some folks in Canyon, Tx who had found him abandoned in a park there. They picked him up and called me that they found him. I have no idea how he got to Canyon from OKC but he did. I am forever grateful that the fine people of Canyon took the time and effort to save him. He is now sitting next to me and I'm keeping him.

I live part time in Alpine, Tx and it is a lovely place as well but very small and 2.5 hours from the rest of civilization. The weather is the best in Texas though and striking scenery.

[Ready in 3]

Eep! Glad he found a good home with you. I'm biased, obviously, but I find corgis to be curiously addictive. Ridiculous looking little critters though they are.

[TT Dave]

Originally Posted by Ready in 3

Oh, gosh! And one other important thing I forgot: basements. Houses in these areas have basements, right? I've never even heard of a house in the Denver metro that doesn't have one, but I know other places sometimes don't have them as standard course. I'm alright with tornadoes so long as I have a basement.

You're not going to find many houses (if any at all) in any of the areas you've mentioned in Texas that have a basement. It is a very challenging in this state to build a basement. There's usually too much rock that has to be dug up so it is cost prohibitive to build basements in most areas in Texas, especially in West Texas. If you're concerned about tornadoes you can always install a less expensive small storm cellar. A lot of people in Texas have have those installed, at least in the more tornado-prone areas.

Back to your original question, I live in Abilene and I lived in Lubbock for a few years. Abilene is a very conservative, Christian oriented town. I don't anyone here in Abilene who would overtly make you feel uncomfortable here but you'll probably feel left out. I've lived here for a long time and I have never met a single person here who is Jewish. That may just be my personal experience but I've never even heard of anyone here even talk about Jewish people living here. Also, Abilene is a very family-oriented town. Finding a place to live where there aren't any children around might be challenging to say the least. There seems to be a lot of young families in this city. Also, depending on where you live in town, Dyess Air Force base here in Abilene can generate extra noise. Dyess has B-1 bombers stationed there and they make a lot of noise when taking off. As a result of all those things, I really don't think Abilene would be a good choice.

Lubbock is about twice the size of Abilene. I lived there when I was a college student at Texas Tech University but that's been a long time ago. I really wouldn't know what it's like to live in Lubbock now.

Someone in a previous post mentioned San Angelo. You might consider that one. I lived in San Angelo for about a year and there are a lot of retirees there. Good luck to you!

[Ready in 3]

TT Dave:

Thank you for your very informative reply! Based on what you've said, it does sound as if Abilene might not be a good choice for me. I will certainly check out San Angelo, though, as retirees are very much more my speed. And I sure don't like the sound of those planes...

Yep, this is exactly why I asked about the Judaism. If you've never even heard of one of us being out there, that would probably be a little weird for me.

That's disappointing about the basements, too. I wondered why I'd only seen a few of them, but now I'll know to definitely ask before viewing a home.

Thanks!

[Westerntraveler]

It may be a tough to find a house in San Angelo due to the Cline boom.Also, housing and the cost of living is going up there so just keep that in mind.

[High_Plains_Retired]

There must be a few houses on the South Plains around Lubbock with basements because we ran into a couple of repos when we were looking for this farm five years ago. We are located northeast of Lubbock. One of the repoed properties we found was a very nice home on a small amount of acreage near Littlefield with a spiral staircase going down into a large basement and with a stone fireplace that extended from one side of the basement to the other side.

I doubt you'll go wrong with Abilene, Lubbock or Amarillo. Each town is large enough such that most folks are too busy to worry about their neighbor's religion. Even out here in the "toolies", I have no clue, or interest, in my only neighbor's belief systems. I do know they are the nicest and most helpful neighbors I've ever had.

Regarding dogs, we have two Great Pyrenees that will likely grow to be Republicans since I named them after Teddy Roosevelt and his 2nd wife.

If you decide on the Lubbock area, welcome.

[Ready in 3]

High Plains:

Definitely good things to hear!

I know I've seen at least a few places that have basements, and since I'm not in any kind of rush with this move, I'm ok with shopping around for a place that definitely has one. I've also noticed that a lot of houses out that direction are brick or masonry, which I strongly prefer, so that's been a nice little surprise. I sure won't miss having the house painted!

Also nice to hear that the religion thing doesn't strike you as being a big deal out there. It's probably just a stereotype, but everyone I know has been most insistent that I look into whether it will be a problem in that part of the country. Personally, I've never known Texans to really care one way or another (the ones I've met have been pretty casual-type folks), but it's one of the first things all my friends bring up when I tell them about the move.

HAHAHA, Roosevelt dogs! Great big Roosevelt dogs! That's cute.

[Westerntraveler]

I checked out the Abilene newspaper and it said as of 07 there were 60 jews in Abilene and 10 in San Angelo.Lubbock had like 230

[TT Dave]

Originally Posted by Westerntraveler

I checked out the Abilene newspaper and it said as of 07 there were 60 jews in Abilene and 10 in San Angelo.Lubbock had like 230

Needless to say, very low numbers for both Abilene and San Angelo. Frankly, I'm a little surprised there were even 60 Jews in Abilene in 2007. Of course, there's like 100,000 Christians here in Abilene. I'm probably being a little facetious...lol.