Moving to Missouri or Indiana (St. Louis, Liberty: time, fair)

[christina0001]

lol @ Gunner - the local grocery store was out of Red Diamond Sweet Tea when I stopped by Monday. My husband almost died of thirst because of it. Fortunately he remembered that he also likes to drink milk.
My dad lives in southern VA and I have a good friend who lives in Atlanta - now THOSE places are southern. I have yet to see any place in the Ozarks even close to the culture there. But I do think it is more diverse here than most people would imagine. I have met a lot of people here from Texas, California, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Kansas, Illinois... and plenty of folks from the Kansas City area that got tired of "city life" and migrated to the Ozarks area.

[imbored198824]

Originally Posted by christina0001

lol @ Gunner - the local grocery store was out of Red Diamond Sweet Tea when I stopped by Monday. My husband almost died of thirst because of it. Fortunately he remembered that he also likes to drink milk.
My dad lives in southern VA and I have a good friend who lives in Atlanta - now THOSE places are southern. I have yet to see any place in the Ozarks even close to the culture there. But I do think it is more diverse here than most people would imagine. I have met a lot of people here from Texas, California, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Kansas, Illinois... and plenty of folks from the Kansas City area that got tired of "city life" and migrated to the Ozarks area.

I lived in Atlanta for a year, and now I am back home. I live in Branson. The culture hear is much more southern than Atlanta. Also the Ozarks are a large region are you JUST referring to the part you live in...are you completely forgetting the Ozarks stretch almost as far south as Little Rock?

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by imbored198824

I lived in Atlanta for a year, and now I am back home. I live in Branson. The culture hear is much more southern than Atlanta. Also the Ozarks are a large region are you JUST referring to the part you live in...are you completely forgetting the Ozarks stretch almost as far south as Little Rock?

Of course Atlanta is less southern culturally now as it acutally has a diverse economy that pulls in people from all over the US and world. The Ozarks have few jobs and very little in-migration of outsiders, but that should come as no surprise.

[GunnerTHB]

Originally Posted by christina0001

lol @ Gunner - the local grocery store was out of Red Diamond Sweet Tea when I stopped by Monday. My husband almost died of thirst because of it. Fortunately he remembered that he also likes to drink milk.
My dad lives in southern VA and I have a good friend who lives in Atlanta - now THOSE places are southern. I have yet to see any place in the Ozarks even close to the culture there. But I do think it is more diverse here than most people would imagine. I have met a lot of people here from Texas, California, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Kansas, Illinois... and plenty of folks from the Kansas City area that got tired of "city life" and migrated to the Ozarks area.

My experience in the Ozarks is somewhat limited since it covers such a huge area and I've really only spent time here in Rolla. I can tell you that much of the bootheel is solidly part of the south, especially when you get below U.S. 60 South of a line from Charleston to Sikeston to Dexter to Poplar Bluff. All four of those towns are completely southern and everything south of it would be virtually unrecognizable to Missourians not from that part of the state.

[BioMechanical]

I love all people from Missouri. Best I can calculate my great great great grandparents came to Southern Missouri around 1812. My great great grandparents were born in Missouri in the 1830's. I have posted pictures of them on these boards in the past. My great grandparents lived and worked their whole lives in rural Missouri. And my grandparents were the first of my family to come to St. Louis in the 1940's after my grandfather was wounded on Okinawa and decorated as an army soldier in WW2.

I have as much right to live in Missouri as anyone else, and some of the posts on these forums and the disrespect you show other Americans looking to live here makes me sick

[BioMechanical]

Originally Posted by Desert Fox

Wow. What was it like for them growing up in rural, southern MO and then moving to Stl in the 1940s? Did they view them as a bunch of rednecks or hillbillies? Not meaning that in a bad way, just wonder what people thought. I doubt they were as prejudice towards hillbillies as people are today in large urban cities.

Today Hollywood promotes urban people to look down on rural america as a bunch of rednecks, racist and uneducated people.

I don't think it was terrible for them. They weren't alone. Many southerners were moving to the big city for work at that time. My grandfather opened a glass business, and he replaced or repaired glass in anything from house windows to automobiles. About a decade later he opened a tavern that he ran on the side from the glass business. My grandmother built light bulbs for General Electric for 40 years. We still have cases of light bulbs in our basement. They worked hard, had 2 kids, and lived the typical life. Grandpa passed 6 or 7 years ago, grandma is still alive and well.

[Liberty Bound]

It seems that I have stirred up some controversy with my post. It was certainly not my intention. I do appreciate all of the advice and commentary the other posters have provided. It is all very helpful to me and my family when trying to decide where to move. Thank you.

I would like to acknowledge and sympathize with some the concerns certain posters have voiced about transplants to Missouri from states like California. I certainly understand the concerns of Ozarksboy and some of the others about outsiders flooding the state and instead of assimilating wanting to profoundly change the existing culture to be just like the one from which they came. Wanting to preserve both tradition and the existing culture is certainly understandable and commendable. Concerns that things will change when sizable numbers of new people move into a new area are both natural and legitimate.

Apprehensions that over time and through increasing numbers of immigrants to a specific town, county, or state, the culture can begin to radically change diminishing or replacing the native or traditional culture to one that is profoundly different, is no stranger to me. In fact, it is one of the reasons that I have chosen to move my family out of California. I have witnessed profound change to my home state partly due to a refusal by many new immigrants to assimilate into their new culture. The culture that I was raised in and the values that I was raised with are quickly evaporating from California. As a result, I am looking to move my family to a place that I believe still maintains the values that I was raised with. This is why I have chosen Missouri or Indiana to be our next home. I recognize many of the “lost” values and culture that I am seeking in both states. I have met many friendly, compassionate, and giving people who care about family, God, a safe community, and treating others with respect in cities in both states. My intentions are to move to one of these two great states and settling in long-term while learning more about the local culture and embracing it. I am hoping that I will find the new culture, wherever I move, to be as familiar to me as the one that I have been missing for some time.

Rest assured Ozarksboy (and everyone else with concerns about California transplants), there are still plenty of good people in California who are looking to move to a new home in order to become a part of the community with no intentions to change the place into a smaller California. I hope that you will believe my sincerity about my intentions. Thank you, and keep up the good postings!

[stlouisan]

Originally Posted by imbored198824

I lived in Atlanta for a year, and now I am back home. I live in Branson. The culture hear is much more southern than Atlanta. Also the Ozarks are a large region are you JUST referring to the part you live in...are you completely forgetting the Ozarks stretch almost as far south as Little Rock?

Branson is at the bottom of the state, so of course it's going to be culturally southern. As far as more culturally southern than Atlanta, I'd have to disagree there. Atlanta may be far more urban than Branson, which makes it southern features less apparant to the naked eye, but believe me, Atlanta would be very out of place in just about every other part of Missouri except at southern 1/3 of the state, where you now reside.

[christina0001]

gunner and imbored - fair enough point, I have not been to the bootheel at all nor have I spent much time in northern Arkansas. My time has been spent primarily on the western half of the state, and St. Louis.

LibertyBound, sorry for digressing from your OP!