HOOboy. We drove in from San Diego about a week ago, but it feels like a month and a half because we’ve jammed so much activity into each day—unpacking, lining shelves, organizing, cleaning, shopping, researching... learning new TV and computer systems... figuring out how to change the heater filter, use the leaf blower, and dehumidify the basement... joining a church and a club... calendaring and reserving tickets ahead for cultural and community events... finding things like the car wash and the eye doctor...
and including some enjoyable and interesting activities in every single day to feed our minds and spirits! It’s been great fun. It really has. We feel richly blessed to be here!
We have also learned quite a bit, already, about the difference between envisioning living here and living here. Let me emphasize right up front that all communities have pros and cons and that none of our observations are intended to be negative or critical. They are merely observations that help direct
our thinking about which community
we ultimately want to
buy into. They may be helpful, however, to
anyone thinking about moving
anywhere. (We will post only in this forum, and our succeeding posts will be
much shorter!)
OBSERVATION: Hendersonville is a “senior” community. H'ville people are definitely older as a group than we expected them to be. At Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Ingles, H’ville Symphony, Little Theatre, Flat Rock Playhouse, Walmart, Sams, Patton Park, Jackson Park, driving the streets, walking downtown—anywhere, any day, any time—we see mostly people in their fifties, sixties, seventies, and up. We see older children playing ball in the parks but we don’t see their parents (who must be at work). Those on the walking paths are “older,” too. We knew this was a retirement
mecca, but we didn't expect it to
feel quite so much like a retirement
home. Note that the demographics charts suggest a mean age here of something like 47, but that is not what we have seen.
We had hoped for a wider age demographic because, while we are seniors ourselves, we enjoy a mix of age groups.
OBSERVATION: Hendersonville is a “transient” community. Last Sunday we learned from the choir director of Immaculate Conception—the
only Catholic church in H’ville—that the H'ville community is "transient." He meant, he explained, that it’s hard to get a committed choir or ensemble together because so many locals leave for the holidays to be with their families; they go to the coast for the weekend; they travel abroad; so his job is challenging, to say the least. I felt disappointed. I wanted to find a home for my instrument (hammered dulcimer) and to be part of a really good, well-rehearsed church ensemble with a strong sense of comraderie. I am welcome to solo at Immaculate Conception, I was told, and the church has a 23-member ensemble I am welcome to join—but the ensemble performs only four times a year and never for Christmas or Easter.
Oh my.
OBSERVATION: Hendersonville has the “usual” crime. We haven't had much time for local newspapers or TV news, but have heard conflicting reports on this board about H’ville crime, so thought we'd comment. We have seen a few wino-vagrants and “strange” people (like one sitting mutely with his knapsack in the middle of a walking path in Jackson Park, and one wearing a mattress-facade and flailing his arms madly beside a Highway 64 intersection, but without the usual advertising). We suspect local crime is mostly related to theft and burglary by vagrants (who come here because they can live outside under a bridge most of the year, as in San Diego), illegal immigrants (who, along with their families, are just plain hungry), and druggies and dealers (who are
everywhere, unfortunately, and dangerous, of course, but no more here than in Any Small Town USA). Because unseemly characters tend to operate under cover of darkness, we would not frequent parks at night probably anywhere in the USA. Bottom line, so far we feel
relatively safe here in H’ville.
Extremely safe, in fact.
CHANGING PERSPECTIVES:
* Maybe we should be in the north or east of Asheville near the largest Catholic church in WNC (Basilica of St. Lawrence) where there would be a much larger congregation
of all ages from which to form a regular, active church ensemble. We could also then draw more easily from UNCA (including the “College for Seniors”).
* Maybe we should live within a broader age demographic, since we enjoy the energies of all age groups. Hopefully our new community would include seniors like us whose priorities do
not preclude regular local commitments.
*
Wherever we buy, we need to be within about fifteen minutes of “the action.” The other night we went to a symphony performance at H'ville High School Auditorium (it was world-class!), and it was lovely to drive there in five minutes, park (free) right in front of the building, enjoy the evening, then drive five minutes back home. We imagine it could take us up to half an hour to drive to that symphony from a development like Pinnacle Falls (about 12 miles southeast of H’ville), depending on (1) traffic and traffic lights and (2) how far into the development we lived. It would take us
another half hour to drive from H’ville to the
Asheville symphony. (You will hear that it’s a 20-minute drive from H’ville to Asheville, but we have found that not to be the case.) We know for sure that we would not want to commute to northern Asheville every time we go to church, take in a UNCA activity, shop at Greenlife and Earthfare (which we sorely miss in H'ville), or do any other central Asheville thing.
So we're beginning to re-think H'ville as the place we’ll want to live and seeing it more as the place we’ll want to visit. And that’s after only one week of actually living here!
But we’re not sure! We still
like H'ville very much; it has a
lot to offer: It's slower-paced than Asheville (even its north end), it’s quieter, very clean and beautiful, friendly, full of fun and meaningful activities, has a really neat downtown (without seedy characters), and we sort of
fit its age demographic except that maybe we're more
active older folks than many others here are. Or maybe we're different because we don't have children/grandchildren to go visit and we've already done most of our traveling, so we're looking for more regular community involvement than many of the others here are. In any case, we could
not have anticipated our conflicted feelings about H'ville today!
So we’ve learned immediately that one’s vision of a new place to live will almost certainly not match the reality, no matter the amount of prior research or number of prior visits (in our case tons of both). The reality may be better; it may be worse; it may be some of both; but
it probably will be different from the long-held vision. We are grateful to those on this board who advised us to
rent before we buy because one can
really get to know an area
only by
living in it!
__________
Please let us know whether sharing our fresh newcomers’ experience has been/will be helpful to you. These are our impressions the first week we’re here. We know that they will continue to evolve. Over time we may well change our minds and correct some of our statements. We will often have new insights to share. Your questions will always be welcome. If you’d like us to keep you posted (heh heh), please give us a thumb’s up.
Jan
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Diary of a Transplant (San Diego to Asheville/Hendersonville/Brevard)
Thanks, mm34b! It's good to know there's one less demented person in the world! I think the fella should bear the name of the store he's advertising, but of course locals already know that (and now so do we).
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