This has absolutely nothing to do with preparedness and is just more of a life update. Though for people looking for a retreat east of the Mississippi the South would have some of the better possibilities unless you want to go way north and stuff grows way better here. I have been living in the South for a bit over a month now. I have been in the Carolina’s and Louisiana before for reasonable periods of time but spent little time off post so I knew the weather and environment a bit but almost nothing about the culture and people. I will use the format which worked so well in the rv living posts; the good, the bad and the ugly.
The Good: Stuff is cheaper, especially gas and tobacco. Rent and the general cost of living is also lower which means our money goes further. The weather is pretty nice at least in the time we have been here. To date even if the morning is cold there are still nice sunny afternoons which reminds me of where I lived for the last three years and the area I will return to someday.
The people here are just plain nicer then anywhere I have ever been. Having strangers sitting at the bar next to us strike up genuine conversations without being sloppy drunk or looking for something is somewhat unusual to me but nice. Once our apartment manager signed for a package of ours. She noticed that it needed to be refrigerated and put it in our fridge and left a typed note on the fridge saying she came in and left it. That was way above and beyond the call of her job. There are other examples but the point has been made.
The Bad: It seems like it takes four times as long as it should to get anything done around here. While people are almost always polite efficiency is often woefully lacking. Getting the gas for our hot water turned on took almost two weeks. That is right a customer called them and wanted to start giving them money for their services and they took half a month to take us up on that offer. Assorted minimum wage employees seem to suck a lot more here then back home and that takes real effort. I once had to almost yell at a girl at Walmart to get her to do her fucking job. She worked at the special counter where you get money orders, and other such stuff. I needed stamps and since the girl at the normal counter directed me to her that is where I went. I said “is this where I can get some stamps” and she said ” it is but I don’t have any”. (Note that she did not say they were out of stamps just that there were not any within her arms reach.) I promptly told her “fricking go get some then”. I hate hassling people but should not need to just so they do their jobs.
The Ugly: I am pleased to say that to date there has been no ugliness. That being said there sure has been some weirdness. I get local and regional nuances but some shit is just strange. Every road in the South seems to have three or four names. Instead of GA 12 it is GA 12/ Johnson Drive/ Anderson Lane/4th Ave. A few blocks down the road the same road will be GA 12/ 19th Street/ Anderson Lane/ 4th Ave. This plays hell with finding your way around with written directions as any given road sign will just have one of the names. (Which of the names seems to rotate in an order I haven’t figured out.) By the time you read the sign and check with the 4 road names you are looking for the opportunity to turn has often passed. I do not understand this and it sort of pisses me off. In the drive here I noticed this phenomena in a few places so it isn’t just this immediate area.
One thing that completely baffled me happened in a BBQ restaurant somewhere between Birmingham and here. We both ordered rib sandwich combos. What arrived was two pork ribs on a hamburger bun. Yes ribs full of bones and cartilage. A sandwich that is impossible to eat in the form it is delivered makes no sense to me. I wasn’t quite sure what I was expecting but since I like ribs and I like sandwiches there was an assumption it would be good which was quite wrong. This one is far less troubling then every road having 4 names but it is just about the weirdest thing I have ever seen on a plate.
I guess to compile my thoughts on the matter I like living here. I do not love it but I do like it.
I doubt that there will be another post on this topic but it has been brewing for awhile and there was just no inspiration today.
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Moved from Illinois (Chicagoland area) to Arkansas. The hardest thing was relearning to garden. Long growing season is really two seasons because it gets so hot that most things will either burn up or sit there until cooler weather. Dd is married to a marine. They were so glad to leave California and get back to civilization. We may be fat but at least we don’t shoot anyone for breathing. Funny – isn’t CA supposed to be nicer because it’s a gun control state?Welcome to the south. Wait until you find coleslaw on a bbq sandwich 😦 Don’t forget the fingerwave as you pass the neighbors – but not the California hello one.
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Welcome to the South. Manners arent dead here and “above and beyond” is just the way we do things down here. We carry little old ladies groceries, hold doors open and I have seen men in suits changing tires of someone they dont know.Men are men here and chicks can cook, shoot and look good ;)The weird stuff is some of the best things. The stuff that just makes you go – what idiot decided this was the way it should be done? But that is the way we do it and probably wont change – tradition is big…The first chance you get, you need to go to a southern State Fair….Fair People are a whole different breed down here 😉
I’m fixin to bail outta Cali for rural eastern TN and a taste of freedom. Keep up the excellent observations. I want to leave all of the bad from here behind, not that I’m an idealist about where I’m headed, but enough’s enough out here.
Stephanie, I bet it is different here in terms of gardening. Noticed the coleslaw on BBQ thing but haven;t tried it as I don’t like coleslaw.IDMTIP, Manners are nice. I will try to get to a fair when they are in season.Revelerr, Since you asked for it I might write another post or two on living down here. It is just a question of whether there is enough stuff on the subject to fill out a post. Worst case maybe a short monthly update.
I almost gagged at the thought of coleslaw on BBQ. Try it, it’s freakin’ delicious! It’s a bummer, to get to the south, I gotta drive north! Heh heh heh……
Remember when you get where you are moving too, that they don’t care how things were done where you come from, you are “here” now and if you like the way things were done back there, why then go back.Too me one of the strangest things about highways in Georgia is the way the exits on the interstates are numbered, not by the mileage of the exits from the state line, but by how many exits from the the state line, so exit 11 could be 10 or 15 miles from exit 10. Panhandle Tex
Mayberry, Texas is an interesting mix of the West and the South.Panhandle Tex, As usual you make a great point. I am fully aware that things are how they are. Aside from that lazy girl at walmart who got a little piece of my mind I just note these things and roll with the punches.
Good TOR, I was not trying to rebuke you at all. Walmart stores are an irritation to me, and I blame you not, down right lazy is wrong anywhere.I just mentioned that to all the others talking of moving, it can be a trap, I myself fell into it once and it was but a word of warning. Oh say have you noticed the Interstate Highway exit numbers yet? :)Panhandle Tex
Panhandle Tex, No worries. I hate it when people move to a new place and get pissed because it is not like their old home in the ways they want it to be. Their favorite micro brew isn’t available at the local grocery which considers having Bud, Coors and Miller products a good selection and a few 6ers of Corona downright fancy. I haven’t really done enough driving on the interstate to notice that. I pretty much got here and have stayed in the immediate area since then. Thanks for the heads up though.