One Year In Tennessee - 20 Observations (Oak Ridge, Harriman: transplants, apartment complex, lease)

[LauraC]

Been in Tennessee a year (as of 5/15) and these are my observations. Transplants, do you share these observations?

1. Time to take the shovel out of the trunk of the car. Don’t think I’ll be digging myself out of the snow anywhere in Tennessee. I used my ice scraper once last year and that was the brush end, to brush the snow off my car. (Note: I’m retired. If you are outside at 6:00A or earlier, every morning in the winter, you may have a different take on this.)

2. The summer heat and humidity, on the other hand…good luck with plans for a forum picnic in August.

3. The jewel of Tennessee is the State Park system. Been to 7 so far: Norris Dam, Big Ridge, Frozen Head, Cove Lake, Fall Creek Falls, Ft Loudoun, Cumberland Mountain). They’re all different from each other but in my opinion they are the best things about the state. If you don’t take advantage of them, what can I say?

4. Oak Ridge electric has it all over the places I lived in Maryland and Long Island, New York. Where I used to live in Maryland if someone just sneezed near the wires, we lost power and sometimes it was for days. I’m talking your home, traffic lights and the stores. It was a regular occurrence to toss the food in your refrigerator/freezer. Once I was worried I’d freeze to death, the power was out for so long in the winter and that was because something blew up, not because of a vehicle accident or frozen tree branches. After a hurricane, my area in MD was out for four days…and I didn’t live anywhere near the water. I had the electric company emergency number on my cell phone contact list. On Long Island, NY, we lost power a lot, too, but there the issue was also frequent power surges and brown outs and worrying about your electric appliances. Now here in Oak Ridge there are all of these trees, a ton of overhead wires, a lot more traffic accidents and yet power outages are infrequent, haven’t heard/seen a power surge and when the power goes out, it comes back on fairly quickly. Plus, it’s cheaper here. Transplants, is this your experience in your TN town?

5. Food is not cheaper here than the place I left. Maybe the food tax is throwing me. Comments from other transplants? Also, I expected more produce here and local farm stands. Didn’t have them in MD, just expected them here.

6. The birds are fat here (and so am I ). I never saw such fat birds in my life – the ducks are huge, the geese are huge, the songbirds (even the little ones) have huge bellies. I’m thinking if it rains here more frequently than other places, then worms come up more, so the birds eat more frequently. Anyone have any other ideas about this?

7. I don’t see any difference in Tennessee drivers and Long Island or Maryland drivers except they don’t honk here. Tennessee drivers tailgate just like everyplace else, they drive in the rain/fog without their lights on just like everyplace else, they speed just like everyplace else and they don’t use their directional signals just like everyplace else. Of course, those could be transplants from rude states bringing their bad driving manners with them… What I do hear about more are uninsured/unlicensed/drunk drivers on the road. Now do I just hear about it more here because my local papers in the other two places wouldn’t report drunk driving/unlicensed/uninsured driver stops unless a fatal accident was involved? I don’t know. My car insurance (same company, same car) is cheaper here so that has to mean something.

8. Strangers are definitely friendlier here. In my town, I have got to have the nicest postal clerks, the cheery supermarket clerks always talk to you and you get chatted up on store lines and in the doctor’s waiting room. My supermarket people offer to go with me to my car when I have a lot of groceries. But let me tell you a story. When I bought my MD leased car in Tennessee, I couldn’t get the old license plate off where I register the car (in my TN town). In the parking lot of the county clerk’s office, a TV cable guy got out his tools and tried to help me get the plate off, a clerk (who is not with the motor vehicle people) came out and tried to help me get the plate off, my apartment complex maintenance man tried to help me get the old plate off, all to no avail (stripped and it looked like the back of the car would have to be dismantled). I called the Harriman car dealer (remember they didn’t sell or lease me the car) who told me to come right in, took the car into the shop as soon as I got there, got the old plate off, put the new plate on and didn’t charge me. Now anyplace where I lived before, no one (state employee or stranger) would have attempted to help me in the parking lot, I don’t even know what the MD maintenance guy looked like in the apartment complex I lived in for 12 years and I would have had to make an appointment at the car dealer. And get this, when I took my car in for an oil change, I had the wiper blades replaced. It rained the next day. The woman in the car dealer’s office called me to ask how the new wiper blades were working out for me.

9. I love my Tennessee doctor. He is the nicest and most thorough doctor I have ever had. He spends time TALKING to you. He looks like he’s 15 but, hey --- and he’s a local who got his degrees in East Tennessee. You know you always hear these stories about these Florida people who fly back north to go to the doctor. Well, I wouldn’t trade my Tennessee internist for all of the others I’ve had put together. I don’t know if I just got lucky or what since I didn’t get him by recommendation. Interestingly, his assistant is from Maryland. What are your TN doctor experiences?

10. Food: Gondolier cakes (carrot cake and red velvet cake). Buddy’s Barbecue potato salad. Big Ed’s pizza – take out. Now I have to tell you the Gondolier cakes come from Georgia BUT if you ever eat in Gondolier (it’s a chain, make sure you have a slice of one of the two cakes for dessert, even if you get take out.) Like the Maryland suburbs, no bakeries except what’s in the supermarket. I had my first corn dog in TN this past year.

11. High School kids still work in fast food restaurants here. I salute them unlike the apparently spoiled kids in my old Maryland neighborhood who don’t work at all after school.

12. College sports here are held in higher esteem than pro sports. Not so in the two former places I lived where it was reversed.

13. There are more pickup trucks here. I know, DUH, but why? Any theories? There were way more SUVs in Maryland than sedans. I see more sedans than SUVs here. I’ve been away from Long Island too long (12 years) to know what’s happening there, now.

14. Polite: I’ve mentioned this before…generally speaking, male natives hold the door open for you before they walk through it. I say “thank you.” They say “yes ma’m.” It makes my day. In MD, if they don’t let the door shut without regard to you coming through behind them, then they hold the door only after they go through it. Poop on them!

15. The churches here open their doors for non-religious uses of their facilities. My retiree book club meets in a Lutheran church meeting room. The Community Band has its annual Christmas concert in a Baptist Church. My Camera Club is meeting next week in a Unitarian Church because we can’t meet in our regular place. I don’t ever remember the churches on Long Island or in Maryland opening their facilities for public meetings. Although I’m not religious I feel the churches here are a bigger part of the community and I like it.

16. There sure are a lot of dams here. High dams, low dams, big dams, little dams. I’ve seen more dams in a year than I have the entire rest of my life.

17. There are more flowers here. Bradford Pear trees are the bomb – pretty in Spring and Fall.

18. Deer sightings are so common as to be ho-hum. If only those people who go to Cades Cove to see deer would realize, they’re all over Tennessee…try any State park.

19. I actually know what my TN Congressman looks like and what he does. I can pick him out in a crowd photo. He comes to my town a lot. Couldn’t pick my former MD Congressman out of a photo of three people.

20. Haven’t met or seen or read about any showoffs since I’ve been here. Material possessions, the way you dress, the size of your house, the car you drive, who you know, doesn’t seem to matter/impress people. I am not conscious of who is wealthy and who isn’t by looking at people or their cars. No one is flashy (makeup, jewelry, fancy clothes). Wealthy people don’t get any attention at all in the two local newspapers…and I like that. Not true for my former MD and LI, NY locations where impressing people with possessions and looks was a sport. Here you get attention for accomplishment…and, you know, if you get arrested. Is that true in your TN town?

[JMT]

LauraC, you are beautiful! Thank you so much for taking the time to post this. You have eloquently stated what many of us transplants have thought about our new Tennessee hometowns. I believe that much of what you said can be applied to just about any town in Tennessee.

Reading your post makes me proud to be a Tennessean by choice. And to those who were fortunate enough to be born in this beautiful state, I hope you can appreciate what a wonderful place this is.

[jabogitlu]

From a native, sounds about right. And there are TOO many deer here, lol! I almost hit them daily as I drive to work (4 am) - and this is in heavily residential burbs!

[JoshB]

This is a great post. I hope I get to enjoy the Tennessee lifestyle someday.

kudos Laura!

[mysticfire0213]

This was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL post--makes me long to get there THAT much quicker! And I am from MD, so, so much sounded familiar!

[JMT]

I'd like to add something re teenagers in Tennessee (#11 in LauraC's list). Not only do a lot of teenagers have after-school jobs, but I've found that teenagers here tend to be very respectful, courteous and, for the most part, hard workers.

[JEANNE61]

I AGREE . . only been there twice ..( to adamsville . tenn) where i'll be moving in about 3 mths . . from wpb fla .
one thing i resent .. the constant comments about those 'foreigners ' from 'up north' or fla. .

we're not that bad . . after all , we wouldnt have CHOSEN your state to live in (t he rest of our lives) if we didnt 'see something good in it ..

sure its gonna be a 'transition .' as any move would be . esp from city to country . .but again . that's why we CHOSe it ..
we dont want to change you . .we want to change OUR lives. .NOT YOURS ...

why not just accept that possiblility . and leave the 'foreigner' comments out of it ..
we're just like you. . just havent' been in the country mode for many yrs ..

i'm just hoping . .once they hear my (former ) NY accent . . i dont' get this kind of guff from the locals .. . i certainly dont intend to offend anybody in my new 'hood' . .

thanks for listening . . jeanne

[blueeyes30]

Great post LauraC!

[gemkeeper]

I loved your post, LauraC. It brought tears to my eyes - yeah, really!

I am so anxious to move and be as JMT so nicely put it, A Tennessean BY Choice. I never feel like a foreigner in TN. With each visit we have made, which by now are too many to count, I feel more and more a part of the landscape. I don't mind one little bit if I am a Northern or Eastern or Mid-western transplant. I'll grow wherever my roots are planted.

Thank you, Laura, for making the adjustment and move for so many transplants so much easier with your wonderful observations. You are a poet with the camera and with your wise thoughts.

[alleycat]

She did call our birds fat however.

;-)