[tutufay]

Check out Mena, Arkansas. Best place to retire in the USA!!

[hotair2]

Originally Posted by 20yrsinBranson

Go for retirement communities like Mountain Home, Bella Vista or Hot Springs. Don't fool yourself. If you choose a small rural town you are going to be trading racial tension for socio-economic tension. There are a lot of negative feelings by the "locals" towards high-falutin' lawyers with book learnin' and such. It's very hard to break through the clannish mentality and the concept that who you are (and who your daddy was, and grand daddy, etc.,) and who you know is the most important thing.

Yeah, I am generalizing, but I live in the rural Missouri Ozarks. 'nuf said.

20yrsinBranson

Crap. I agree with Branson on this one. What is the world coming to.

[CVer72529]

martin9499, from the way you sound, you're describing Cherokee Village. It has the lakes, the dock, the rural character, the slower pace, and it's only 2 1/2 hours to Memphis for those time you get the urge to go back and visit your old stomping grounds.

As to fitting in, that's not going to be a problem as most everyone in the village is from somewhere else. Yes, you've got your old school throwbacks set in their ways about outsiders, but those people are getting fewer and farther between and becoming more and more irrelevant as the years go by, as is definitely not the case in very rural, out in the country parts of the state.

The future of the village is looking for fresh, new faces. I know this, and there is plenty of room for bright people who want to settle in the village and raise a family, and come with fresh ideas to help grow and better the village for the next generations. I would think the type of law you would want to practice has room for you in the Quad Cities area.

Cherokee Village is a diamond in the rough, and my family and I will be there full time sometime in the next 2 or 3 years. I have met so many wonderful people in the years we have been coming to the village and know it is the place for us. PM if you have any other questions or people I can put you in touch with. Good luck to you.

[sbernard]

Martin, thanks for joining in! I'm from Harrison...nice place, so is Mountain Home and they're not dry, but they're both on or along Bull Shoals Lake, a great place to be. Property/homes are very reasonable especially compared to what you're probably used to. Then there's the mountains, the Buffalo River, etc. Pretty hard to beat if you want to get out of the big city.

A probate/real estate attorney could do well here as most of the existing ones seem awfully busy. Not sure about Mountain Home, but Harrison is starved for attorney services in that vein.

Good luck to you, and welcome home.

[big grin]

I would strongly suggest Paragould. It is about 20 minutes north of Jonesboro, AR with a population of about 25,000. The cost of living is reasonable and schools are very good. No racial tension at all. I relocated here about 8 years ago and love the community.

[JoycMarr]

I would look into the Northwest corner of the state--Rogers, Fayetteville, etc.

[nmnita]

wonder if Martin ever decided, last time he posted was over a year ago..

Nita

[tiashamoon]

Many people in Memphis and W. Memphis have vacation homes in Heber. My neighbor is a Memphis vacationer. He bought some land and set up a small two bed mobile home. I just moved here last year from crime infested southwest AR and love it here. Quiet, mostly retirees, and the school system is one of the best. My daughter is 9 and loves the school. You are only 40mins away from Conway, Searcy, and Batesville and only 1 hour from Little Rock. You never get bored. Lots of nature trails, huge lake that spands two counties, camping fishing, a fish hatchery, museums. My husband is a wildlife officer, so this was the perfect place for us to be. Population says around 7,000, but that's really only during the summer months b/c of the second homes of Memphis folks. Really it's more like 5,000. We have a single movie theater, bowling alley, and we're getting a multi-million dollar community center with indoor recreation, aquatic arena, and it's suppose to be the best that the state has ever seen. It will open late spring 2010. We have so much stuff, but it's still a quiet rural community. Hope this helped!!!