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Realistically, you will run into people who believe they own the place and have built in resentments - some needing anger management classes. Fortunately I have not run into any in the area where I chose to settle this past month south of Brevard in Transylvania county - they have shown the epitome of Southern hospitality - and many are from Florida, some from New York. I have experienced on this Western NC forum that there is less aversion to up state New Yorkers than there is to Floridians. In the mind of one, ALL Floridians are evil, land-raping, money lusting/laundering developers.
You will fit in just fine. Just avoid the expression "where I come we did xyz..."
Realistically, you will run into people who believe they own the place and have built in resentments - some needing anger management classes. Fortunately I have not run into any in the area where I chose to settle this past month south of Brevard in Transylvania county - they have shown the epitome of Southern hospitality - and many are from Florida, some from New York. I have experienced on this Western NC forum that there is less aversion to up state New Yorkers than there is to Floridians. In the mind of one, ALL Floridians are evil, land-raping, money lusting/laundering developers.
You will fit in just fine. Just avoid the expression "where I come we did xyz..."
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This is it!
I am a yank here 13 yrs and love it, my friends are all rednecks and are great. We have had a few yanks here on the hill I live on and they were just hated.
One moved here from Up North and ran for public office Twice and was hammered, his platform was we do it like this Up North and thought southerners were just stupid. I once asked him why he thought he could move here and change things, he basiclly said it's backwards here. Oh he's back Up North, moved in the fall.
Another yank used to dress like John Wayne from the boots and hat to his holster he used to wear. He would wait for folk to go by and just start shooting at things. LOL! He thought he owned the entire mountain and had the smallest property. A few of the old timers set him straight and he left finally, he was in Polk county then the same thing happened there and now lives in the heart of Spartanburg.
Just act yourself is all. I love it here. My friends here tolerate just about anything but they do hate when a yank acts like they've been here forever and want to do it like they did Up North, I've seen a few go off on a few yanks. Always about the lifestyle here and as I posted in another post usually about guns or the laws here.
Good Luck.
thanks guys this feedback has been extremely helpful and very encouraging. I'm glad to see it has plenty of good and friendly folks who don't immediately shun outsiders just because they are transplants.
I tend to think I would get along well with the locals, as I know the reasons I am fleeing NY and I do not want to do things the "new York" way but would be moving to an area that is what it is because of the way they do things and that is what I am looking for. I would GLADLY adopt the way locals do things. I am becoming more convinced that western NC is where I want to find a way to move to.
koolaid - I read the responses to your inquiry with great interest and found them very informative if you think about them carefully.
Clearly, some who moved here have had some positive experiences with locals and others have not; that would be an accurate assessment. It is tempting to assume the Yanks (or others) who didn't fit in, or acclimate well, were just people with the wrong attitude but the reality is more nuanced than that.
Having lived a few places in my life, I can say that discerning a local behavior, outlook, approach, mindset, etc. is one of the most difficult aspects to pin down about a new destination (but, one of the most important IMO). I have made straightforward comments previously on this board regarding this topic and a couple of local readers got immediately sensitive, which tells you something right there. And, of course, that's too bad because it only helps everyone to be well-informed. But, that's not the way many see it here.
People who have only ever lived in the state or region where they grew up and then move to a completely different region are sometimes shocked at how different it can be. I feel sure that for some newcomers who may have said, "we do it like this in xyz" --- it was actually more a clumsy, impolite way of just wanting people to have an open mind, not necessarily meaning to be critical of local customs. See the nuance there?
If you want to private message me, I'll pass on some additional detail that I typed up for someone else a few months who was considering a move here from outside the region.
koolaid - I read the responses to your inquiry with great interest and found them very informative if you think about them carefully.
Clearly, some who moved here have had some positive experiences with locals and others have not; that would be an accurate assessment. It is tempting to assume the Yanks (or others) who didn't fit in, or acclimate well, were just people with the wrong attitude but the reality is more nuanced than that.
Having lived a few places in my life, I can say that discerning a local behavior, outlook, approach, mindset, etc. is one of the most difficult aspects to pin down about a new destination (but, one of the most important IMO). I have made straightforward comments previously on this board regarding this topic and a couple of local readers got immediately sensitive, which tells you something right there. And, of course, that's too bad because it only helps everyone to be well-informed. But, that's not the way many see it here.
People who have only ever lived in the state or region where they grew up and then move to a completely different region are sometimes shocked at how different it can be. I feel sure that for some newcomers who may have said, "we do it like this in xyz" --- it was actually more a clumsy, impolite way of just wanting people to have an open mind, not necessarily meaning to be critical of local customs. See the nuance there?
If you want to private message me, I'll pass on some additional detail that I typed up for someone else a few months who was considering a move here from outside the region.
thanks this is very helpful to think of. I have gotten a ton of useful information from this thread into varying thoughts and opinions and it seems really helpful.
I think at least in my opinion there is a difference between an honest conversation of trying to relate to a certain activity of simply saying "oh I see, I am used to doing it a different way back up north" which can be pretty innocent and just trying to relate in conversation vs. "you guys are doing it wrong, I know how it should be, this is how we do it up north, you guys don't know any better, i'll help you" which I can justifiably see why that would quickly annoy the locals being so arrogant and how it would alienate you from everyone else.
as in football player? sorry...just a little confused and trying to pickup on what you mean
You seriously never heard that term?
"Halfback (Def.) A person originally from the northeastern U.S. who retired to Florida only to later move "half way back" to the southern Appalachian mountains."
BC1960 - now why would anyone from way north in NY State know that term? They wouldn't. I lived in Atlanta for a couple decades and never heard the term until I moved to WNC.
Koolaid - I think you should read my post again. You are assuming that those transplants were "a bull in a china shop" and some probably were. But, like I said, I'll bet many were not, but were simply interesting in interacting with open minds and did not find those so easy to come by. There is a strain of defensiveness in the Southeastern US that is something to behold. I haven't encountered anything quite like in other places I've lived or traveled.
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