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Actually, some of the coastal areas--where most Northerners tend to move to in SC, including retirees--are indeed slightly changing the character and political leanings of the region. It's not going to become another Florida anytime soon though.
I can understand political leanings being slightly changed, but when I was down in the Sea Islands/Beaufort/Port Royal/Fripp Isl, the Gullah Gullah low country Geechiness was rampant and the Klan annually had marches downtown. The only way peoples accents will change down there will be because they(natives) really want to change them, it wont be due to overexposure to northerners.
Northerners who move to the south rarely lose their northern accent. Now why is that? Their kids don't have any type of a definable southern accent. Their grand kids will likely not have one either, and if they do, it'll be extremely light.
I knew some 2nd and 3rd generation Asians in school with a Southern drawl. My sister in law's family is from Michigan...they don't have Southern accents, but they use Southern sayings, and have even said when they go home to visit family they get ragged on for their "new" accent. But they love it here. The kids/grandkids born here have Southern accents that are probably more pronounced than mine, and I'm a 7th generation native Tennessean.
I'm sorry, but what you say is complete bunk.
Not everyone's accent is going to change. But I don't see how you can say with authority that kids and grandkids won't have an accent.
I know this may be totally fruitless, but I am SO sick of Greenville SC and the lack of others here that are like myself. I was born and raised in the South by parents born and raised in the south, whose ancestors actually helped found upstate SC. So yes, I have a Southern accent (I am not going to change that) but I am educated (working on my master's in nursing) a hard worker, and just want to TRY desperately to find a southern town or city that is not so overwhelmingly northern now. I just can't stand it. Every where I go, there is not one person that talks like I do or remembers what places used to look like. Where I work, where I go to church (yes I am a Christian, baptist), where I shop, even the library! (I went to get a new library card, in Greenville, SC no less and the lady said "there arent many of you left down here are there?" I wanted to throw up.)
Don't get me wrong, I don't hate anybody, but it seems illogical to me that northerners want to get away from where they were living and what they were living with and then they turn where they move to into exactly what they left! Crime is up down here, traffic is bumper to bumper, especially in morning and evening commutes (a 15 mile drive takes 35 minutes) and taxes have skyrocketed and there is no where to get away from it, unless you have enough money to buy up a subdivision before it gets built (58 acres) and just fence it off like my husband's ex boss did when his company was bought from him for millions of dollars. And trust me we don't have that kind of money. I really am upset at the loss of the Southern culture and want to find somewhere my husband and I can move where this is not happening, but still be a Southern state.
Any help would be great! Sorry if I sound like I hate Northerners, I don't, but I do hate what they have done to the area that I grew up in. It has lost the very charm and appeal that probably brought them here in the first place.
I think places with less transplants....Birmingham Alabama and Jackson MS would be two. Also possibly some spots in KY like Louisville, although it is kind of Midwestern. Any state that is "hot" or discovered, (including TX, GA , carolinas, FL, even TN) will have a ton of transplants.
I know this may be totally fruitless, but I am SO sick of Greenville SC and the lack of others here that are like myself. I was born and raised in the South by parents born and raised in the south, whose ancestors actually helped found upstate SC. So yes, I have a Southern accent (I am not going to change that) but I am educated (working on my master's in nursing) a hard worker, and just want to TRY desperately to find a southern town or city that is not so overwhelmingly northern now. I just can't stand it. Every where I go, there is not one person that talks like I do or remembers what places used to look like. Where I work, where I go to church (yes I am a Christian, baptist), where I shop, even the library! (I went to get a new library card, in Greenville, SC no less and the lady said "there arent many of you left down here are there?" I wanted to throw up.)
Don't get me wrong, I don't hate anybody, but it seems illogical to me that northerners want to get away from where they were living and what they were living with and then they turn where they move to into exactly what they left! Crime is up down here, traffic is bumper to bumper, especially in morning and evening commutes (a 15 mile drive takes 35 minutes) and taxes have skyrocketed and there is no where to get away from it, unless you have enough money to buy up a subdivision before it gets built (58 acres) and just fence it off like my husband's ex boss did when his company was bought from him for millions of dollars. And trust me we don't have that kind of money. I really am upset at the loss of the Southern culture and want to find somewhere my husband and I can move where this is not happening, but still be a Southern state.
Any help would be great! Sorry if I sound like I hate Northerners, I don't, but I do hate what they have done to the area that I grew up in. It has lost the very charm and appeal that probably brought them here in the first place.
I think this same story happens everywhere. Only the details change. I grew up in a small, semi-rural town 30 miles northwest of New York City, fifth generation in my family from Holland. We never went to the city, had no connection whatsoever with New York except that we'd occasionally have a school field trip to the UN or something. I was 31 before I went to the Statue of Liberty.
When I was in my 20s, a huge swarm of people from the more urban areas along the Hudson River decided that they wanted the suburban lifestyle but still within commuting distance of the city, and the developers bought up the remaining small farms in the area and built huge subdivisions with big houses, and all those people moved in. Over a period of about five years, all the woods were gone and the flavor of the area changed completely. The blue-collar families were priced out, and the new people made demands--I remember our new neighbors in the new house across the street complaining to the town because my teenaged brothers worked on their cars in our driveway, and they didn't like looking at that.
I'm sure many people have different versions of these same stories.
Only our crappiest towns haven't been completely overrun. The cool southern cities might as well be new new york now. The northerners brought a lot of good things, but they did destroy our culture and bring lo
ts of bad things.
Imo, we really shouldn't be citizens of the same country. My preference would be that you southerners split off, but this time successfully. Trust me, no one up here will fight to keep you around this time.
I don't think we see eye to eye in anything, and your post reflects that exactly. If you were a different country, us horrible northerners wouldn't be able to move there with such ease. That being said, there really isn't a flood of people leaving the north for your beloved south. Far from it. The north still thrives. There is not, and never will be a NYC of the south. Atlanta, the capital of the south, is a pathetic example of a world class city. The Olympics they put on were the laughingstock of the world. Every city since has blown the Atlanta Olympics away.
I would love to be able to say good riddance to the south and their crazy right wing christian "values". Why don't you start the movement for the second coming of southern independence.
I can understand political leanings being slightly changed, but when I was down in the Sea Islands/Beaufort/Port Royal/Fripp Isl, the Gullah Gullah low country Geechiness was rampant and the Klan annually had marches downtown. The only way peoples accents will change down there will be because they(natives) really want to change them, it wont be due to overexposure to northerners.
The younger generation still has the accent, but in many ways they try to mask it certain settings. I went to undergrad with folks from the Lowcountry (mostly Charleston area) and in many cases, you couldn't tell they were Geechee until they became excited; that's when the accent came out full blast.
I get what you're saying, ja1myn. I'm just saying there are other small towns (in this case, in Mississippi) that would be better examples than those when including places Northerners would never look. Not to say those towns would ever become transplant hot spots...but aside from mid-to-large cities, college towns tend to have more out-of-towners and out-of-staters than non-college towns or even some small cities.
Just off the top of my head...in Mississippi, for somewhat similar midsized towns, I would say Greenville, Tupelo, and Meridian would be better examples than the aforementioned 3.
You're right, but I was thinking in terms of quality of life and still having a Southern vibe/feel.
The "North" is a big place. Please don't lump us all together.
I live in the midwest, and my small town probably has a slower pace than where you are, the crime is probably MUCH lower, and the traffic... well there is hardly any traffic. The people are really nice, too.
Basically... you are implying that crime, traffic, and high taxes are "Northern" things. Well, no. Those are "city" things. Those people aren't ruining your town because they are from the North. They are ruining it because they come from giant cities that happen to be (most likely) in the Northeast.
Believe it or not, you could find a lot of the things you are looking for in the big, bad North. Not the grits and the southern accents, of course. But a lot of the other stuff.
Actually, if she moved to Michigan, towns/communities like Baldwin, Covert, Cassopolis and Vandalia, among some others may have all of those things, including the grits given that they are small/rural towns with high African American percentages. Like this post mentioned, the North varies and even Upstate NY would have towns that the OP would/could be interested in.
It's perfectly possible for Northerners to appreciate Southern culture. I'm a native of Pennsylvania who moved to Georgia at 16, and I like to go to the local Southern buffet on Mondays because that's when they serve fried pork chops. I also like collard greens, stewed tomatoes and okra, and mashed potatoes and gravy. (Sorry, but I still don't like Brunswick stew, or cobbler of any kind.) I also bought a gallon of sweet tea at Chick-Fil-A the other day. It's good when I want a change from soft drinks. Unfortunately, I can't have too much tea at a time because I get acid reflux from it.
I just don't know if many Southerners appreciate Northern culture the same way.
Universities and corporate relocations bring transplants.
I would look for a town that has neither of those.
Of course, some will say that kind of growth is good, but it does bring change.
I hope this thread can stay civil because I have heard many express the same thoughts. It IS hard to see a place you grew up in change drastically, and I think it's an interesting topic for discussion, if people can try to keep personal attacks out of it.
I will throw in a story that I think illustrates this. One county south of here, GM opened the Saturn car factory two decades ago. A friend of mine who was born in this county (south of Nashville) in the 1920s said one day he was sitting at a traffic light on a 2 lane highway when the car behind him honked hard. My friend, who had been looking over into the nearby pasture, looked up and noticed that the light was now green so he accelerated.
The car behind him zoomed around him and went on by. My friend noticed Michigan plates And a UAW sticker on the rear window. He told me, "I know that guy thought I was some slow country bumpkin, but all I was doing was noticing that one of MR. Campbell's horses was missing."
The thing I think is funny here, where we have had a TON of transplants, is when people buy a house in a subdivision 40 miles from the city and say, "We love our new country lifestyle. I just wish we had a Target close by!"
I can tell you that has nothing to do with him being a northerner. I probably would have done the same thing, and you would have seen Texas plates on my car. Your eyes should be focused on the roadway and signals, while driving. I know we all like to sight-see, but we really shouldn't.
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