Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I was born and raised in Detroit, but finally got out. although I loved my family and wished to be near them, I just got sick and tired of always being afraid. The crime was terrible. I got sick of timing my activities around "crime time". I got sick of being afraid to sit on my porch, take the trash out, go to my car, without someone watching out for me. I got sick of that knot in the pit of my stomach that grew by the day.
I moved to a safe area of the country, where if I need a loaf of bread at 9 pm I'm not terrified to get in my car and go to get it.
Personal safety was what pushed me over the edge, and I never regretted it.!
There's an old story about if you throw a frog in boiling water it will jump out, but if you put it in nice comfortable warm water and slowly raise the heat the frog will relax and get cooked. (Probably not a true story.) I used to like Los Angeles, was planning on living here forever. Several years ago I noticed that traffic was horribly worse and had been getting there for years, I'm up to my arm pits in illegals, the city government and state government are going psycho, doing practically anything that involves leaving my house is a hassle. I would have never moved to a place like Los Angeles has become today. Did I get my frog cooked?
So I've been nearing retirement, can't find a job, declared early Social Security (it's not much) and decided to sell the house and take my pick-up truck and 5th wheel camping trailer and start visiting different cities and see if I can find one I want to move to, and do a lot of camping in national parks etc. along the way. It appears I'm on schedule to have my house listed for sale in February, mere weeks from the present.
So it looks like maybe this frog is going to jump out of the pot before he's cooked!
There's an old story about if you throw a frog in boiling water it will jump out, but if you put it in nice comfortable warm water and slowly raise the heat the frog will relax and get cooked. (Probably not a true story.) I used to like Los Angeles, was planning on living here forever. Several years ago I noticed that traffic was horribly worse and had been getting there for years, I'm up to my arm pits in illegals, the city government and state government are going psycho, doing practically anything that involves leaving my house is a hassle. I would have never moved to a place like Los Angeles has become today. Did I get my frog cooked?
So I've been nearing retirement, can't find a job, declared early Social Security (it's not much) and decided to sell the house and take my pick-up truck and 5th wheel camping trailer and start visiting different cities and see if I can find one I want to move to, and do a lot of camping in national parks etc. along the way. It appears I'm on schedule to have my house listed for sale in February, mere weeks from the present.
So it looks like maybe this frog is going to jump out of the pot before he's cooked!
Oh that story about the frog in the pot hits so close to home! I saw that happen to my parents. They were just comfortable enough not to really have to move. It was somewhat uncomfortable, but not enough to force them out. Finally the pot was turned up from uncomfortably warm to boing over and they had to literally flee their home. They lived in Detroit, long story short, they fled one day from crime,etc, to an apt they managed to get. The next day they came back, their home was vandalized, later burned. They got out just in the nick of time.
I realized the situation and ditched, to #ell with that!
There's an old story about if you throw a frog in boiling water it will jump out, but if you put it in nice comfortable warm water and slowly raise the heat the frog will relax and get cooked. (Probably not a true story.) I used to like Los Angeles, was planning on living here forever. Several years ago I noticed that traffic was horribly worse and had been getting there for years, I'm up to my arm pits in illegals, the city government and state government are going psycho, doing practically anything that involves leaving my house is a hassle. I would have never moved to a place like Los Angeles has become today. Did I get my frog cooked?
So I've been nearing retirement, can't find a job, declared early Social Security (it's not much) and decided to sell the house and take my pick-up truck and 5th wheel camping trailer and start visiting different cities and see if I can find one I want to move to, and do a lot of camping in national parks etc. along the way. It appears I'm on schedule to have my house listed for sale in February, mere weeks from the present.
So it looks like maybe this frog is going to jump out of the pot before he's cooked!
Good for you, Lovehound! I hope you find a wonderful new home. This country has so many amazing and different communities, so enjoy the search.
My wife and I had a long distance marriage for 6 years. When I retired I moved to her place instead of her moving to my place. We talked about it and we wanted to be close to one family or the other. The reason for me staying where I was was my two sons living with their mother. Her point with not staying there was the oldest was married and not living at home and the youngest was about to go off to college. Why stay in the same town with my ex wife? She already got enough of my retirement to keep her Alpo supply going for years. Down here we were close to her son and family and, when her daughters and their families came to visit, they wouldn't have to travel all over to see us.
I wanted out of the big city to a much more rural area long before I was able to go.
What made it finally happen was:
1. I reached minimum age to start collecting my pension and was no longer tied to the place by a need to work.
2. I knew that the real estate bubble couldn't expand forever and I wanted to get out before it ruptured. Sold about a year before the market peaked in my neighborhood, recently saw my old place on the market as a short sale for about 56% of what the buyers had paid in Jan 2006.
3. When the Hayward Fault has a significant quake I didn't want to be living about a mile from it.
4. I'd promised the dogs a place with a pond or a stream of their own so they could head out the back door and have a dip any time they wanted. They've got both now. Although the three great dogs that I made that promise to have all crossed over the rainbow bridge there are currently 3 other fine dogs, all labs, who enjoy the waters.
I too wanted OUT of socal for a long time before I got to do it. I got tons of blank icredulas looks when I said I was moving to Oklahlama. I didn't add the town has a whole 9k population. Thats a street or two in socal. But I didn't like what it had become. and after three generations of California natives I moved. I moved alone, to a town with a friend in who got me to come and visit and look. A couple of months later I went out there to visit and the only word I could use to describe Oklahoma was *home*.
It takes nerve to just pull up and go but I think more would benefit from it in the end. Reset the way you see the world and the things your used to and your fears and find a freedom you don't know is there until you taste it.
Funny thing is two of the smaller families in family live or may move here. My friend who got me to check it out passed on the night before Thanksgiving but she must have been here in part so she could get me to come too. (And about four other of our mutual friends too lol)
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
