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My fiancee's family has some of the most materialistic and shallow people I've met anywhere, and they're North Carolina-bred.
She tells me the kids in her high school who shopped at Wal-Mart rather than Gap were casted out - it happens everywhere - and she graduated 10 years ago from a Johnston County school before the area started growing and the out-of-state people started coming in. I can imagine it's nothing like in California, if their transplants who live in Texas are any indication.
I am a California native, lived in this state for 45 years now. I am raising my children in the house I grew up in and they are going to the same schools I went to. While this all sounds so great and fine, let me tell you why I am leaving this state and moving to NC. I have done a lot of research and NC has so much to offer for so much less money. I am a single mom with 2 children. I can hardly afford to pay my gas/electric bill every month because they have raised the rates so much, especially in the last 2 years. Its been over 100 degrees the last 5 days and my A/C has stayed OFF. We find places to go to and have a community pool, thank goodness! I hate not being able to save money. I own a 1500 square foot townhome that I owe about $100K on and can sell for about $500K, probably a bit more. My homeowners dues are $270 a month and go up every year. I make a decent living but its not cutting it for me any more. I want to be comfortable after I pay my bills and I want to be able to put some money away. And I want to slow the pace down as I get older. I just cannot do that in California. So I have made this grand and, yes, bold decision to move to NC and pretty much start over. It is scary and exciting and scary and I cannot wait until my house is sold and I am on my way! I am going to NC on my vacation in February and look forward to it.
Thanks for all the great information here and keep it coming...I am counting on it!
Oh my. Kids in NC are just as materialistic as anywhere else in the country. Maybe even worse because it *seems* like many of the transplants who move here from areas with a much higher standard of living come here with major bucks to burn, many living in "fancy" houses, compared to our meager ranch in the heart of Cary. My daughter was in one of the "poorer" middle schools in Cary this year and I was astounded at the attitude towards clothing by some girls and electronics by boys. My daughter was teased relentlessly this year for not wearing the "right" clothes. It made her life a living hell last year and I'm just so glad that we've been accepted to Exploris Charter Middle school.
ALso, we live in downtown/older Cary and my daughter was told several times that her friend's parents wouldn't let them sleep over here because it was "the ghetto". Does a lot for the self confidence of a child whose parents have to live within their means and don't have an 800K house to sell. Hopefully we've taught her better than that.
I think it would be tough to find a group of teenagers anywhere on the planet that did not, at one time or another, feel awkward or make someone feel awkward about their clothing or possessions. I remember it when I was in high school and my mom remembers it when she was in high school. It may be a different brand name from a different area, but it's all the same teenage jealousies. Shoot, even adults behave that way sometimes. I don't think CA has the market cornered on materialistic humans, teenage or otherwise.
Oh my. Kids in NC are just as materialistic as anywhere else in the country. Maybe even worse because it *seems* like many of the transplants who move here from areas with a much higher standard of living come here with major bucks to burn, many living in "fancy" houses, compared to our meager ranch in the heart of Cary. My daughter was in one of the "poorer" middle schools in Cary this year and I was astounded at the attitude towards clothing by some girls and electronics by boys. My daughter was teased relentlessly this year for not wearing the "right" clothes. It made her life a living hell last year and I'm just so glad that we've been accepted to Exploris Charter Middle school.
ALso, we live in downtown/older Cary and my daughter was told several times that her friend's parents wouldn't let them sleep over here because it was "the ghetto". Does a lot for the self confidence of a child whose parents have to live within their means and don't have an 800K house to sell. Hopefully we've taught her better than that.
Lamishra... this breaks my heart to hear. I cannot believe parents would be so small-minded, and so ready to pass along the dark seed of bigotry and prejudice to the next generation. Believe me, it sounds like you're teaching her the lessons that will really count in life.
Thanks BCR. It's a hard thing to teach these days in a country of excess. Honestly, if someone plopped $500K in my lap, I'm not sure I would move from the Cary "ghetto". Our neighborhood in Cary is so much fun and the people are so down to earth, I'd miss it too much. No drama, no politics, and no excess. Tomorrow our whole street is caravanning to the Duke Primate Center for a private tour being given by one of the neighbors who works there and then out to lunch. It's things like that that would make it soooo hard to leave.
Thanks BCR. It's a hard thing to teach these days in a country of excess. Honestly, if someone plopped $500K in my lap, I'm not sure I would move from the Cary "ghetto". Our neighborhood in Cary is so much fun and the people are so down to earth, I'd miss it too much. No drama, no politics, and no excess. Tomorrow our whole street is caravanning to the Duke Primate Center for a private tour being given by one of the neighbors who works there and then out to lunch. It's things like that that would make it soooo hard to leave.
This is exactly what we are looking for. A community where people are not judged by what they wear or look like but everyone gets along well without all the drama. That is what I am so sick of here in California. I am such a simple person that I feel awkward a lot just because Im not one to keep up with the "Joneses". I cant wait to get out of here!
This is exactly what we are looking for. A community where people are not judged by what they wear or look like but everyone gets along well without all the drama. That is what I am so sick of here in California. I am such a simple person that I feel awkward a lot just because Im not one to keep up with the "Joneses". I cant wait to get out of here!
Can you escape that without living in any place people call a "suburb?"
The Joneses live on every street in every suburb, and you will never keep up. They will always have a shinier SUV than yours, parked outside the same Wal-Mart Supercenter with the Chili's in front of it and the Subway inside of it. If you are looking to relocate from one suburb to another surrounding another large city, you better be making more or saving more on cost of living because culture-wise you are making a lateral move.
eh...you can find it if you look. This IS suburbia, and there is no getting around that, but in my neighbrohood, we all support local businesses, get our prescriptions at Ashworth's (small family owned drugstore with an old fashioned soda fountain), shop the farmer's market, don't shop walmart, no one here even has an SUV, none of the kids have Wii's and my daughter is the only teenager on the whole STREET with a cell phone.
It is out there.
One amendment - large, gas-guzzling pickup trucks bought by people who rarely haul any actual loads but just need to have a bigger truck than everyone else is equivalent to an SUV in Southern suburbs (including Texas).
@lamishra: How far out from the city(or cities) are you? I lived in the rapidly suburbanizing northwest edge of Johnston County that sounds like it used to be how you described. My fiancee is from the area and she says there was not really anything there until around the mid-90s. Now there's Lowe's and Ruby Tuesday and a bunch of subdivisions that look like maybe two or three distinct designs can be picked out from all the rows of houses. You pretty much have to go down to McGee's Crossroads or Benson to get anything like where you live, and those aren't really suburbs - yet.
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