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I live in Southern California--but last summer I was in Dallas for four weeks. Terrible heat/humidity. It rained while I was there and it definitely needed it-but I loved it--we never see rain here and when you see wet streets--it's like it happened while you were sleeping. Dallas to me is all concrete though. New construction going on constantly--much like here. But--housing is better priced for sure--and you can actually have a yard-- The people are so friendly--the Highland Park area was really nice. For now I'll be in Cali but I have friends that live out in Dallas and swear it's the best place to live. The heat--gosh the heat is so bad--living close to the water in Florida is nice because of the breeze--helps with the heat. Can't beat the people in Texas though--nicest people I have ever met. And it does give you a "being home" kind of feeling. Good luck with your journey.
After visiting Dallas from CA, Dallas seemed so humid. Then we went on to San Antonio and Houston which made Dallas actually feel dry. Guess it's all relative. And anything feels humid after living in CA. When we first moved to Oregon from CA, Oregon felt humid. What I'm curious about is how Texas will feel compared to Florida.
I'm not sure there's any place more humid than FL in the US (except maybe Houston) and being near the ocean in FL doesn't help - not in the summer. The water is way too hot, too. The beaches here aren't like they are in CA with nice ocean breezes - not in the summer. The water just makes it more humid - like Houston. It rains every day in June in Florida and almost every day for the rest of the summer. The best way to survive a summer in Florida is to stay inside or in your own backyard pool in-between t-storms. Probably the same for Texas. Guess the problem with Dallas is that it gets into the triple digits AND has humidity. A double whammy. Hmmm ... thinking about hot, dry, and humid Dallas, maybe we'll go to Seattle instead. Except that Dallas is a lot more affordable now. Therein lies our dilemma.
I have lived in this area for 20+ years, the DFW area that is.
The humidity and bugs are not a problem, especially compared to parts of Florida!
We don't have any hurricanes here, but we do get the threat of a tornado a few times during the summer months.
Hope your move is safe.
Take care.
It's been a couple of weeks since I have had time (or opportunity) to stop in to the forum. I see our thread sort of fizzled out Kat but tons of others have sprung up and that's a great thing!
At any rate, I just wanted to stop and tell Kat.... HOWDY!! ... From Texas
DH and I are now happy residents of the Dallas area and are currently getting settled in to our new place in the northern side of the metroplex.
You all make me feel so excited about wanting to move to Texas. It can't be that bad huh? We want to move because we live in California and hate it here.
So much crime and people killing each other and neighbors throwing bottles at you. For us being in our 60's. We don't need it. We are tired of looking over our backs all the time. So hopefully Texas will be good for us.
We just want some peace and quiet and some nice friends to grow old with.
Bound... Not sure what area of CA you live in (sort of sounds like southern or else Oakland) so might not be able to compare where you are to where you want to be (I noticed in one of your posts that you are looking at east Texas around the Longview area) but I can tell you that the hospitality here is something I have not seen in a looong time (I used to live in the Dallas area 15 years ago and that was the last time I have seen "attitude" like this.)
Clerks in stores speak to you in such a way that makes you feel they honestly mean what they say... "How're y'all doin'?" They are friendly and considerate... ie; 'Excuse me' when they pass in front of you, etc. Of course, there are those who seem to have their noses stuck up in the air but I figure they are transplants into TX and haven't learned yet. Even our neighbors (whom we have yet to meet) wave and speak. People are just plain friendlier here... and they do not seem to be afraid to be friendly either. I am sure a smaller town like Longview or there abouts will be even better.
There are a couple of things that I have noticed though that are going to take some getting used to. Some people here in the Dallas area have some peculiar driving habits. Example: When they switch lanes they tend to switch them in multiples... not just one lane but two or even three. And the other things... they run red lights. Instead of clearing the intersection when the light turns yellow, they just keep right on going then the guy behind them goes too thus, going through on the red. It's no wonder that Plano and other cities here are bringing in the red light cameras they have been installing in California. Heavens! They need them! I've gotten into the habit of counting to 5 before I go after my light turns green. That has saved me from being involved in more than one accident so far.
Some veggies and meats seem to be a little higher but soda is way cheaper... got a 24 12-ounce can pack yesterday for $4.99 and that was Pepsi products (at Albertsons). No way could I have matched that price in the SF bay area, not even on special.
I think you will really enjoy TX and the weather but expect some occasional thunderstorms... a great change from the sometimes boring California weather.
Hi I can't read everything, have a little one I am sitting with. We just moved back to the DFW area from Orlando. We were in Orlando for almost 3 years and wanted to tell you that we did not like it.... We found people to be very rude in general and many of them were my neighbors. The only way I could find friends was by joining the local moms club and there I met women who were just like me, moved in from other parts of the country experiencing the same thing we did. If I did not have that group, I don't know how I would have survived. Now I did meet some great people living down there but in general we weren't used to how people acted towards us. My husband hated his job because of how unprofessional it was and we had to put up with alot of antics that I never had experienced before with the area we were in. There tended to be a hedonistic attitude there, many people not wanting to take responsiblity for their actions and their words too and sometimes the things that were said to me, I often thought were unreal and sounded like something in a movie or something you would hear about but nothing that you would ever think would happen in real life. Dallas is a tea society by day as I say, meaning we don't curse and swear in general and we don't drink till after 5 and that is if your not Baptist or Pentecostal. LOL There it was nothing to have pta parties with alcohol drinks being paid for by the school. This was OK.
I felt such a sense of lawlessness there with people and that is another thing, the police weren't very nice. They actually scared me in general. There is a hardened shell it seems on many Floridans and in general they don't like outsiders. They tend to be suspcious of them and it was something I was not accustomed too. It bothered me to no end. People in Texas are very friendly in general, courteous and don't tend to have a suspiciousness about who moves into the neighborhood. Not to say that can't happen anywhere, it can but there tended to be a unhealthy amount of that going on there.
Oh too one thing that was not mentioned that I read about DFW that is much better than Florida, that would be healthcare. There was such a crisis there and you would think they would be tops there. Not so.
One more thing, I decided to look over in the Florida section of this forum and found my old town Orlando listed. I read it and it brought back alot of unpleasant memories. All true, one person living in the burb I was in. I think if you even see the style of how they write, it shows you the unhappiness there. I would say there was a vicious cycle that ran through the heart of every matter with people wanting to know who you were and many established people would go to every legal means to find out if you were an ok person, I experienced this personally.
We couldn't even watch the regular news anymore because of the load of crime that was on and it just wasn't appropriate for my young daughter to see, the news here in DFW is a bit tamer to watch. Where we live now, it is nothing like this. Too crime can happen anywhere but there seemed to be such a paranoia about it all there that I don't see prevelant here like I did there. It just is different in attitude. I never realized how much I missed Texas and the culture I grew up in until I moved out of state. I will never take for granted that again.
You all make me feel so excited about wanting to move to Texas. It can't be that bad huh? We want to move because we live in California and hate it here.
So much crime and people killing each other and neighbors throwing bottles at you. For us being in our 60's. We don't need it. We are tired of looking over our backs all the time. So hopefully Texas will be good for us.
We just want some peace and quiet and some nice friends to grow old with.
I HAVE LIVED HERE IN TEXAS FOR 16 YEARS FROM NEW JERSEY BUT WHEREVER YOU GO IT DEPENDS ON THE AREA WHERE YOU LIVE BECAUSE SOMETIMES YOU WILL MET THE MEANEST PERSON YOU CAN EVER IMAGINE. NOW, IF YOU LIVE IN A LOW INCOME AREA, THEN CRIMINALS MOST LIKELY LIVES NEXT DOOR TO YOU. SO BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU PICK THE PLACE YOU WANT TO LIVE AND TEXAS HAS SOME BAAADDD NEIGHBORHOOD TOO BECAUSE I MOVED 3 TIMES ALREADY.
Bound... Not sure what area of CA you live in (sort of sounds like southern or else Oakland) so might not be able to compare where you are to where you want to be (I noticed in one of your posts that you are looking at east Texas around the Longview area) but I can tell you that the hospitality here is something I have not seen in a looong time (I used to live in the Dallas area 15 years ago and that was the last time I have seen "attitude" like this.)
Clerks in stores speak to you in such a way that makes you feel they honestly mean what they say... "How're y'all doin'?" They are friendly and considerate... ie; 'Excuse me' when they pass in front of you, etc. Of course, there are those who seem to have their noses stuck up in the air but I figure they are transplants into TX and haven't learned yet. Even our neighbors (whom we have yet to meet) wave and speak. People are just plain friendlier here... and they do not seem to be afraid to be friendly either. I am sure a smaller town like Longview or there abouts will be even better.
There are a couple of things that I have noticed though that are going to take some getting used to. Some people here in the Dallas area have some peculiar driving habits. Example: When they switch lanes they tend to switch them in multiples... not just one lane but two or even three. And the other things... they run red lights. Instead of clearing the intersection when the light turns yellow, they just keep right on going then the guy behind them goes too thus, going through on the red. It's no wonder that Plano and other cities here are bringing in the red light cameras they have been installing in California. Heavens! They need them! I've gotten into the habit of counting to 5 before I go after my light turns green. That has saved me from being involved in more than one accident so far.
Some veggies and meats seem to be a little higher but soda is way cheaper... got a 24 12-ounce can pack yesterday for $4.99 and that was Pepsi products (at Albertsons). No way could I have matched that price in the SF bay area, not even on special.
I think you will really enjoy TX and the weather but expect some occasional thunderstorms... a great change from the sometimes boring California weather.
Lany
I LIVED HERE IN TEXAS FOR 16 YEARS(HOUSTON). YES, PEOPLE ARE NICER WITH HOWDY AND ARE U OK? MOST OF THE TIME IT IS THE PEOPLE THAT MIGRATED HERE AND GOT SCHOCKED THAT ARE MEAN. THEY WANT TO BE CATERED FIRST AND WITH SOME NASTY BODY LANGUAGE. THE DRIVERS ARE ALMOST ALL CRAZY. YOU ARE RIGHT THEY CHANGE LANES IN MULTIPLES AND LIKES TO RUN RED LIGHTS! I HAVE TO COUNT 5 TOO JUST TO AVOID A RED LIGHT RUNNER. WE HAVE A LOT OF ROAD RAGE ON THE HIGHWAY. EVEN IF YOU ARE ON THE FARTHEST RIGHT LANE BECAUSE YOU DONT WANT TO SPEED MORE THAN THE REQUIRED SPEED, DRIVERS WILL TAILGATE YOU AND USES THEIR FINGER IF YOU DONT MOVE FASTER. AND CELL PHONES! DRIVERS HERE NOT KNOWING THEY OCCUPY TWO LANES BECAUSE THEY WERE BUSY TALKING OVER THE PHONE. i CAME FROM NEW JERSEY THEY DRIVE A BIT MODEST THERE. I THINK BECAUSE TALKING ON THE CELL PHONES IS ILLEGAL IN NJ.
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Dallas to me is all concrete though. New construction going on constantly--much like here. But--housing is better priced for sure--and you can actually have a yard-- The people are so friendly--the Highland Park area was really nice. For now I'll be in Cali but I have friends that live out in Dallas and swear it's the best place to live. The heat--gosh the heat is so bad--living close to the water in Florida is nice because of the breeze--helps with the heat. Can't beat the people in Texas though--nicest people I have ever met. And it does give you a "being home" kind of feeling. Good luck with your journey.
Bugs and Dirt???
... From Texas
Even our neighbors (whom we have yet to meet) wave and speak. People are just plain friendlier here... and they do not seem to be afraid to be friendly either. I am sure a smaller town like Longview or there abouts will be even better.
I've gotten into the habit of counting to 5 before I go after my light turns green. That has saved me from being involved in more than one accident so far. 
texas
