Why you should be careful before moving anywhere (St. Louis, California: disposal, living in)

[OA 5599]

Originally Posted by Inoxkeeper

I filled the bucket on my tractor with trash this weekend, plastic soda bottles, cups, beer bottles, tires, fast food sacks, you name it, that I picked up along the road by my place in the country. STOP IT!!

As far as newcomers, I agree with OB to a certain extent. Misery isn't for everyone and Missourians can be a clannish bunch. How about this, anyone moving to Missouri must buy a place that has a junky trailer and a trash pile to clean up and build on. No fair building in the middle of a pristine field!

I know EXACTLY what you are talking about. When my transplant parents bought the place I grew up on in the early 1980's, it was FULL of trash. They hauled pickup load after pickup load of beer cans, bottles, and just plain junk out of the place. Even the house was full of trash and junk! If that wasn't enough, the previous owners also had dumped dozens of old appliances and other scrap metal in a draw not too far from the house. There were also a couple old cars from the 40's in the woods, too. It took us until just recently to get all of the trash out of that place, and removing all of the old appliances and scrap metal was left to some scrap haulers who hauled it all away for free. So, you can count my family as one who moved to the Ozarks and proceeded to clean up an 80 acres of land that was purchased from a native Ozarker. Today, there is hardly a scrap of trash on it.

There was a trailer house just up the road from us where the owners had filled the yard with all sorts of old cars and other junk. This guy would just drag home anything he could get his hands on. He lived in pretty extreme poverty with his wife and kids (who I rode the schoolbus with). They had a satellite dish on their trailer (this was the early 90's when it was more expensive than today), but judging from the way their kids looked...not a whole lot else of anything. He ended up in jail for something, I think his kids went to live with some other family members, and someone else got a hold of their place and was kind enough to clean up all of the junk.

We'd occasionally clean up the gravel road too...my parents still pick up trash when they go on walks. It is littered with Natural Light cans, other beer bottles, and fast food bags. You could easily fill up a pickup bed with trash over the 4 mile length of the road. I've also helped clean up the Jack's Fork River a few times, and have drug several truck tires and hundreds of beer/soda cans out of there. The Ozarks are a beautiful area. It is a shame that some people have no regard for it and throw their trash anywhere for the rest of us to clean up.

[Silvermouse]

Originally Posted by OA 5599

I know EXACTLY what you are talking about. When my transplant parents bought the place I grew up on in the early 1980's...

Hey OA, what was your parent's impression of the locals after they moved? How long did it take for them to feel they fit in?

Hope that's not too personal.

[OA 5599]

Originally Posted by Silvermouse

Hey OA, what was your parent's impression of the locals after they moved? Do they feel like they fit in there now? Hope that's not too personal.

To be honest, I'm not sure of their impressions of the locals when they first moved...I wasn't old enough to remember anything of my first few years in Missouri. Currently, and for as long as I can remember, they really enjoy it, fit in well and have no plans to move. Most (but not all) of their close friends are also transplants who have also been living in the Ozarks for a few decades. They do interact with people native to the area on a daily basis, and have some gripes about things that any transplants would...trash along roadways and junk in lawns, the "Ozark timezone", and other things normal to living in a small town.

[ozarksboy]

Originally Posted by OA 5599

and have some gripes about things that any transplants would...trash along roadways and junk in lawns, the "Ozark timezone", and other things normal to living in a small town.

Are these things peculiar to Missouri, i.e. are the ditches all clean in rural New York, rural California, rural Illinois, rural Colorado. Are we Missourians the trashiest people in the U.S.? Are we Ozarkers the only rural residents who operate on a slower clock than fast-pasted city transplants?

[ozarksboy]

Originally Posted by OA 5599

There was a trailer house just up the road from us where the owners had filled the yard with all sorts of old cars and other junk. This guy would just drag home anything he could get his hands on. He lived in pretty extreme poverty with his wife and kids (who I rode the schoolbus with). They had a satellite dish on their trailer (this was the early 90's when it was more expensive than today), but judging from the way their kids looked...not a whole lot else of anything. He ended up in jail for something, I think his kids went to live with some other family members, and someone else got a hold of their place and was kind enough to clean up all of the junk.

In your comings and goings throughout the region and the rest of the U.S., have you found that these folks are typical Ozarkers? And are there no people like them in other states?

[ozarksboy]

Originally Posted by OA 5599

Most (but not all) of their close friends are also transplants who have also been living in the Ozarks for a few decades. They do interact with people native to the area on a daily basis, and have some gripes about things that any transplants would...trash along roadways and junk in lawns, the "Ozark timezone", and other things normal to living in a small town.

OA, this passage should be very encouraging to people wanting to move to Missouri and worrying about whether they will fit in with Missourians. They don't have to! They can do as your parents do, i.e., have a few friends who are Missourians, but build their close relationships with people who are not Missourians. That is an adaptation that works for everyone, and keeps everyone happy.

[ShadowCaver]

On this part of this wide topic, need to be careful that we ["we" being all of us that care for, live in, want to move to, etc. Missouri] do not get into a scenario where its perceived as an "us vs. them"... For a wide variety of reasons, we all share feelings about and for this state. Likewise, we all want what is best for ourselves too. All that is being done with different perspectives, histories, and desires.

As to the trash aspect of this conversation, I've seen 'natives', 'transplants', 'city folks', and 'country folks' all toss debris onto the ground... likewise, I've seen peoples from the same categories pick stuff up too. Part of why some may feel its more likely that the 'natives' were doing more of the trashing could be based on historical ways of people [which somewhat still continues, sadly] - in that there be a sinkhole, there be a gully,,, well, that is a perfect nature-made place to dispose of their trash [of course most times w/o thinking or realizing that what seeps into there, gets picked back up in a well].

Likewise, in my livings & workings in MO, AL, GA, TN, and IN, I've [again sadly] seen similar happenings... some very gorgeous lands and waters being soiled and trashed and poisoned - its not something specific to just the Ozarks, or even to MO. When first moved to the NE corner of IN, was amazed at how clean it was... for whatever reason, those same areas are now becoming more and more 'trashy', being as simple as a plastic shopping bag to more major items, along roads and in ditches... where years back it was nice looking, much cleaner.

Main point here [yea, hang on, its slowly developing...] is that stereotypes IMHO do more harm than good, esp. when it comes to how people feel about something quite important to 'em. We, 'we' here being EVERYONE, should all care for the land and water and air... once its trashed, it takes so much more resources to clean-up than what it could have been if done correctly to begin with. For one recent, fairly intense clean-up example within a very scenic area [one of my favourite haunts ] just west of Rolla:
MRPC Press Relase - December 10, 2007 - US Forest Service, MRPC Partner on Illegal Dump Clean Up
Conical sink cleanup completed - Rolla, MO - The Rolla Daily News (http://www.therolladailynews.com/archive/x347034451/Conical-sink-cleanup-completed - broken link)
While I was not able to help on this endeavor, can not say how many pounds within other sinks, creeks, caves, roadsides, etc. have helped clean-up. As one poster put it in the 2nd link: "Even a dog won't foul it's own bed." yet, what do too many people do?

On way back from Ozarks last night to IN, stopped at a fast-food joint to grab some chow, and while walking around in the parking lot, stretching legs from the drive, meandered over to the edge, and as there had been some very heavy rains just ahead of my travels, the nearby creek was quite full,,, of water, and of umpteen dozens of cups, bags, wrappers, cans, etc etc. Was quite disgusting, then ya think of where that goes, and then further downstream to other rivers and lands. As the bank was steep and quite muddy, wasn't able to pick anything up, so all could do at the time was shake head and make note of potential place stir some cleaning up in future. 'tis terribly sad what we humans do [knowingly and/or unknowingly] to this world.

[simplewife&mom]

Originally Posted by ozarksboy

Are these things peculiar to Missouri, i.e. are the ditches all clean in rural New York, rural California, rural Illinois, rural Colorado. Are we Missourians the trashiest people in the U.S.? Are we Ozarkers the only rural residents who operate on a slower clock than fast-pasted city transplants?

Well, here in rural CA, east of Sacramento, it seems pretty clean and neat in my opinion. (Maybe Lake Junkie & Curmudgeon can speak to this as well.) I am surprised at the amount of trash some are describing here. If we ever do end up moving to SW MO and there's that much trash around, then that will be a shock to me.

It's plain rude, and those lazy slobs need to pick it up! Not only that, it feeds the stereotype of hillybilly rednecks with big beer bellies and frazzled hair women swatting flies off dinner while the grimy kids run around outside naked. Just like the stereotype I wear - having been born in CA - of eating only granola and wheatgrass, refusing to shop anywhere but at a mall, frequenting art galleries and the "theatah", and living in a city or suburb. Oh, and where I live - it's sunny all the time with no bad weather, and we live right by the beach. HA!

I think most of us are considerably more complex than the stereotypes others pin on us, and other people do not usually fit into the stereotypes we try to squeeze them into.

[ozarksboy]

Originally Posted by simplewife&mom

Just like the stereotype I wear - having been born in CA - of eating only granola and wheatgrass, refusing to shop anywhere but at a mall, frequenting art galleries and the "theatah", and living in a city or suburb. Oh, and where I live - it's sunny all the time with no bad weather, and we live right by the beach. HA!

What I'm looking forward to is the day when we've got so many califoreigners living in Missouri that every small town has its own Gay Pride Parade. Then we trashy old beer-bellied hillbillies can line up on Main Street and watch the californians mince past us lightly in their loafers while we hoot and holler and guzzle beer.

[Silvermouse]

Originally Posted by ShadowCaver

We, 'we' here being EVERYONE, should all care for the land and water and air...

Excellent post, ShadowCaver. Our church and one of the clubs my kids are in both have adopted highways. We go out a couple times a year with each group to pick up trash.