Man....meth and pot and rednecks???? (Knoxville, Murfreesboro: low income, apartment, house) - Tennessee (TN) - City-Data Forum

Mrs.Bewitched · 11-16-2006, 02:30 PM

I have recently read a couple of posts about all of that in my title. Now, I live in FL and I know if I go to a certain area...sure, I might find some of that. But, the people posting this about Tn, almost make it sound like it is running rampant (maybe that's an exgerration, but I hope you understand).

I am sure there are pockets...there are pockets in EVERY city in America, I am willing to wager on. But, it's not rampant, and I just don't know it...is it?

I want either Greeneville (preferably!!) or Knox County, or Blount County (for specific reasons). I know to look for the good schools. I know to make sure to have a hospital near enough. I know not to live in a run down part, like any city, but not all my neighbors will be meth growers/dealers, right! Not everyone has to be a confederate flag wearer with no teeth, sitting around in their big old truck collecting disability! Right???

homes4uintn · 11-16-2006, 09:31 PM

With an attuide like that, you might have trouble in TN. If you think of all Tennesseans as Red Neck drug addicted, racist, lazy pigs, maybe Tn might not be for you.
That being said, we moved here from Detroit MI 11 years ago. The only things that get held against us is that we are not U of T football fans and we don't go to church.

insanesmooch · 11-16-2006, 10:49 PM

It's not that bad. Mostly it is limited to pockets of places. The biggest rednecks I know actually moved here from Michigan about 10 years ago. Really, the moved from MI to FL then TN. Of course, there are rednecks born and raised here, I just think it's funny that aside from any I may have known in school, the only others I have associated aren't from the South at all. And rednecks aren't really a totally southern thing, we just get stuck with that notion.
If I know any pot smokers, then I don't know they smoke pot. I've only ever smelled the stuff twice. Once was my neighbors in an apartment in Murfreesboro and once was at a concert in Nashville. Yuck, you sure know it when you get a whiff of it, even when you've never smelled it before. I hear about some busts, but it's not rampant.
And meth. Well, I wouldn't say it is a huge problem that you will be hit with in TN. But since it is made with cold medicine, there is probably more out there than I'd like to think. Sometimes you hear about it being in places you wouldn't really think of as a drug machine. Like there was a bust at a home just behind Middle TN State U about a year or two ago. From what I have seen of the homes they were built around the '60s and would have been the hot middle class (at least) type of home. They still are nice and many look to be kept up. Mostly I would see middle age people or older. So I was kind of surprised by that one. There were two busts this year in Knoxville that involved people I kind of knew (went to school with one, the other was a distant relative that I wouldn't know if she walked up to me - I don't think I've actually even met her), but these people were more in line with those you would think would be doing that sort of thing. There is a meth bust site listed on the state page, but I'm not sure what it goes by or how up to date it is. Those two I mentioned in Knoxville are not on it, but last I looked it was too early for them to be tried and convicted. I guess they would have to wait for them to be convicted, but that could take awhile to get through the system so that would never really be up to date.

SunKrist · 11-16-2006, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by homes4uintn

With an attuide like that, you might have trouble in TN. If you think of all Tennesseans as Red Neck drug addicted, racist, lazy pigs, maybe Tn might not be for you.
That being said, we moved here from Detroit MI 11 years ago. The only things that get held against us is that we are not U of T football fans and we don't go to church.

I don't think he meant it that way. I think he was stating it as a worst case, highly unlikely scenario. I have visited Knoxville and the surrounding areas twice in the past 3 months, and have actually found (so far) that there are less "rednecks" and the towns have less of the run down, low income areas than where I am currently living. I definitely noticed that the gap between low income/high income familes is much smaller in Knoxville than in the Tampa Bay area, where the poor are very poor and the rich are very rich with not very much in between.

And as far as drugs, I live in one of the better neighborhoods in this area, and when it's breezy I have smelled pot several times from my own yard. I don't really know anything about the meth problem, though. I don't think we've had a problem with that here.

I didn't mean to "butt" in. I just thought maybe mrshvo deserved the benefit of the doubt here.

~Kristina (a.k.a. Sunshine Baby)

LauraC · 11-17-2006, 02:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrshvo

I have recently read a couple of posts about all of that in my title. Now, I live in FL and I know if I go to a certain area...sure, I might find some of that. But, the people posting this about Tn, almost make it sound like it is running rampant (maybe that's an exgerration, but I hope you understand).

I am sure there are pockets...there are pockets in EVERY city in America, I am willing to wager on. But, it's not rampant, and I just don't know it...is it?

I want either Greeneville (preferably!!) or Knox County, or Blount County (for specific reasons). I know to look for the good schools. I know to make sure to have a hospital near enough. I know not to live in a run down part, like any city, but not all my neighbors will be meth growers/dealers, right! Not everyone has to be a confederate flag wearer with no teeth, sitting around in their big old truck collecting disability! Right???

Yes, everyone in Knox County and Blount County are meth dealers that uh, sell to the people in Greeneville who sit in their big old trucks collecting disability while they fly their flags, floss the space in their mouth where their teeth used to be and think about playing the banjo while they wait for some flagless, leathery-skinned newcomer with a mouth full of teeth from the Predator State, to walk by just so they can drag them to their church and force-feed them barbecue.

Mrs.Bewitched · 11-17-2006, 04:20 AM

I never would have thought that my comment would have been taken that I believed it to be that way. I was commenting on, and being sarcastic regarding some other poster's posts that I have read, regarding them thinking it was hillbilly county with meth growers, yaddayadda.

I do not believe TN to be any of that, was only being sarcastic, but was hoping that I was right to believe that it was not most of TN like that...just little pockets of areas like all other states.

cdeneve · 11-17-2006, 07:54 AM

Quote:

I have visited Knoxville and the surrounding areas twice in the past 3 months, and have actually found (so far) that there are less "rednecks"

We found this to be true of the Nashville area as well. We visited for 4 days in July and found FAR fewer jacked-up trucks, big belt buckles, and Copenhagen users in Tennessee than where we live now in central Florida. In fact, we didn't see one confederate flag the entire trip.

My daughter and son-in-law visited again last week for another 5 days, and had the same experience.

Oh yeah -- one additional perk -- we didn't hear the "BOOM BOOM' of the bass in passing cars even once!

Dd714 · 11-17-2006, 08:02 AM

hahaha, I get the sarcasm.

But you can't blame the other posters getting defensive when every other question here in this TN forum is "Hey I am a (yankee/minority/liberal, take your pick), will the KKK burn a cross on my lawn when I move to TN or will you rebels chase me out with your pickup trucks?"

And then to make it worse you get an anticdodal response from one person saying "yeah there are meth dealers all over where I live" when the actual truth is he read in the papers that police maybe made one small meth house bust that served a 3 county area sometime in the last year.

As I've said before, after seeing the questions here for about a month I am convinced that the sole source of info that people get about the south seems to be from watching TV reruns of "The Dukes of Hazard".

mbmouse · 11-17-2006, 06:01 PM

I agree with Dd714. I think because TN is part of the "Appalachian region" it gets a real bad stereotyping. Actually, here in East TN, the Tri-Cities to be specific and in Knoxville, Nashville and some other areas of the same size are actually very much on the "metropolitan" side. There is lots of history and the arts, music venues, and other such "cultural" things. The biggest difference is that people will smile and say hello to you here, even if they don't know you.

Sure, we have some crime/drug issues and "bad" parts of towns...what place in this country doesn't? I have found some will focus only on the negative and announce it to any one who will listen as a way of preserving what they found and want to keep it that way for themselves.

willowslady · 11-18-2006, 11:51 AM

At least the Tennessee schools don't have to have badged police officers, locked down schools and metal detecters like the Florida schools. The people here have the decency to stand up to you and look you in the eye and tell you good morning, how are you, they are hard workers...look around, not many carry watches because they work from daylight to dark. I don't have people shooting me birds or trying to run me off the road because they are mad at you like Florida people and we don't have hookers that sell hotdogs on the highways to truckers like Floridians! Sure I say "thar" for "there" but at least my language is proper for every human ear around! Sure we got drugs, everyone does, but Tennessee is approximately 15 years behind in the violence/crime/drugs than Florida! That is why people want to live here, they messed up their state so now they want to see what they can do to this one...just a rednecks opinion!