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Being from Virginia my friends joke and call me a yankee here in Florida. I quickly remind them of facts and history. Where was General Lee from???.
Thoughts on out of state moving & local resentment
- Thread starter brendonjames65
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I guess I must be one of "them" because there isn't too much good to see beyond the "50's" in my opinion. In fact there are many things after the "50's" that have diminished the shine.
JMHO.
Pete99004
An "unwelcoming" attitude isn't limited to interstate moving but can be manifested intrastate as well. We're "refugees" from Austin and when we moved 100 miles west/northwest of Austin to a "city" of less than 2000 souls we were viewed with some suspicion by certain lifelong locals. We're what they call "move-ins."
What we discovered, however, is that if you embrace your new home and desire to be as supportive as possible within your new community, our town is extremely welcoming. My wife, son, and I are actually closer to lifelong residents here than we are to others in the "move-in" category.
I sing in the church choir, preside over our local church men's group, secretary/treasurer of the local Lions Club, and volunteer as a certified youth hunter safety instructor. My wife is on several boards of local charities and facilities and is president of the high school band boosters club and operates the snack bar at the football stadium. My son is in the band, participates in several sports, is active in church youth groups, and is involved with the theater program at school.
For the last two seasons I have been half of the radio broadcast team calling our high school varsity football games. I thought that this might represent the pinnacle of community acceptance - for those who realize how important Friday night lights are in Texas - but I was wrong. When the head waitress at a long established local diner where our church men's group meets for breakfast every other week says "you want your usual?" then you know you have arrived!
It just takes time and the right attitude - at least that's what we think about our new forever home.
What we discovered, however, is that if you embrace your new home and desire to be as supportive as possible within your new community, our town is extremely welcoming. My wife, son, and I are actually closer to lifelong residents here than we are to others in the "move-in" category.
I sing in the church choir, preside over our local church men's group, secretary/treasurer of the local Lions Club, and volunteer as a certified youth hunter safety instructor. My wife is on several boards of local charities and facilities and is president of the high school band boosters club and operates the snack bar at the football stadium. My son is in the band, participates in several sports, is active in church youth groups, and is involved with the theater program at school.
For the last two seasons I have been half of the radio broadcast team calling our high school varsity football games. I thought that this might represent the pinnacle of community acceptance - for those who realize how important Friday night lights are in Texas - but I was wrong. When the head waitress at a long established local diner where our church men's group meets for breakfast every other week says "you want your usual?" then you know you have arrived!
It just takes time and the right attitude - at least that's what we think about our new forever home.
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People have been affected by human migration since the beginning of time...just ask the Indians. As for "outsiders" moving in and instituting change, the right to complain ends the minute they make a tax payment, at that point a person living someplace for a year has the same rights as a person who has lived there for generations. Anytime I hear someone complaining about people that moved into town, I tell them they should have bought the property themselves. I hold elected office so I welcome everyone until they give me a reason not to, and those reasons for the most part are limited to criminal activity. All I care is that they are law abiding citizens.
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My youngest daughter recently moved from LA to Texas.....The only advice I offered when asked was, " When asked where you are from tell them you were born and lived for 13 years in Montana, went to Colorado for a while, got a job in California and then found Texas"
She later told me that was some of the very best advice I had ever given her.
The moment the folks in Texas heard from Montana, it was "come on in the waters fine"!!!
Randy
She later told me that was some of the very best advice I had ever given her.
The moment the folks in Texas heard from Montana, it was "come on in the waters fine"!!!
Randy
OP
brendonjames65
US Veteran
A most excellent attitude! I think some folks misunderstood my post, I got along quite well with the locals in our community in north western Montana during our 4 years there. I was invited to join a militia after all! I politely declined. Heck, my great grand parents immigrated from Ireland to Butte MT in the 1890’s. It’s the locals who complain online and pass judgement about newcomers without even knowing them that irritates me. They don’t have the courage to look someone in the eye and tell them. If you judge people knowing nothing about them, that’s wrong, pure and simple.
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No doubt you're right, but regrettably it's very difficult to change the ingrained attitude of small-minded folks.
GypsmJim
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One of the workers in my factory had come from a country that was in constant turmoil. War, police state, no jobs, no health care, etc, etc. He was truly escaping from heck.
His daily and constant diatribe was about how bad it was in America. His union was no good, people treated him awful, the pay was lousy, on and on. The day I first met him was before I knew of his rantings. He said this equipment was no good, he needed this and that. Being a salaried employee within a couple weeks I got him every thing he asked for. It still was not good enough. Instead of thanking me he continued to berate me because I was a supervisor. But......I knew enough to keep my mouth shut.
Nevertheless another person told him to go back to where he came from. Within minutes a grievance was filed and the man that spoke up was in trouble.
The moral of the story is be nice to everyone regardless of how they treat you.
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In my experience, the ones that complain the most about outsiders and the change they bring let it happen through their own inaction. Either engage in your local community and government or accept change...or move away and lob insults at the place you left behind. We are an extremely mobile society now thanks to the ability so many have to work from home, so if you have something where you live that you want to protect, you will have to work for it because not everyone will share your view.
pantannojack
US Veteran
I have experienced that you will never get the TRUTH out of a Californian.
pantannojack
US Veteran
Country Musician Lainey Wilson, when she moved from Louisiana to Tennessee, told folks she was from LA. They did not believe her.
California is a stage prop. Truth is not valued there.
BLACKHAWKNJ
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A big difference between those who move in, embrace the new place's values, attitudes, mores, accept it the way it is as opposed to those who come and try to change it to what they supposedly wanted to get away from.
It isn't just "conservative" places. Nearby Princeton, NJ, site of Princeton University, a pretty liberal town but long standing complaints about "transients" who plan on staying for only a few years, want this and that, especially in the schools, and are long gone when the bill comes due.
It isn't just "conservative" places. Nearby Princeton, NJ, site of Princeton University, a pretty liberal town but long standing complaints about "transients" who plan on staying for only a few years, want this and that, especially in the schools, and are long gone when the bill comes due.
I don’t think objections to “outsiders” is necessarily due to small-mindedness. Put yourself in the other persons shoes. They are probably living there because they like their community or state (etc.) and have seen some places (I can think of a few) that had so many new residents that the character of the place changes. I figure the objectioners are more towards that angle. I have seen that attitude in this thread and suspect the concern is not because of small mindedness.
BLACKHAWKNJ
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Yes, there are those who want to live in "the country" and object to the noise and smells of farms.
pantannojack
US Veteran
I saw well off move ins come to Arizona, then insist sports arenas be built, displace the life time residents in their last years, some of whom died as a result; Then the move ins return home to Minnesota proud of themselves because they showed us how we should "live"?
GypsmJim
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Many years ago my little town was completely farms. It soon became a "bedroom community" because it was a nice place to live.
Eons ago the Town Council had us classified as a "Right To Farm" community. Y'all can complain all you want about the "smell", but there are laws that prevent you from doing anything about it.
OK, OK, you might comment about living in NY. But there is more to life in NY that y'all may not realize:
* I have 2 shooting ranges and 3 indoor gun clubs within a 15 minute drive. I pay $50 a year for unlimited access to an indoor range, outdoor trap, combat, 100-200-300 covered rifle ranges, archery ranges and 2 fishing ponds. No range fee, 24/7 access indoors.
* A recent national publication proclaimed my area as having the best bass and salmon fishing in the nation.
* Political signs would indicate an enormous conservative population.
* World class theater.
* Low home ownership costs.
* Low traffic volume.
A recent survey showed XXX people moved out of state. Yet, it also showed that 0ver 300,000 moved to CA. Some things are just hard to figure out....LOL>
LVSteve
Member
That's about all anybody could do who objected to the lightning growth of the Vegas valley over the last 35 years. We had a succession of mayors who just loved to say Vegas was the fastest growing city in the US. When was that made a competition? Oh, and you can be darned sure that the developers throwing up half built homes of unsuitable design for the desert using illegal labor made darned sure the "right" people got plenty of money for their campaigns as well as other perks. See "Operation G-Sting", and that probably only netted 5% of those who should have gone to Club Fed. A proper flush would have meant we might be getting the state back from the Dept of Interior about now.
Too many in government treat their cities as a business and measure success in business terms, not in the terms of the happiness of the population. #1 lie: "Growth pays for itself"; #2 lie "The Growing pains are worth it". This is where the French have the Anglo-Saxon world whipped. They build up a place until it's a nice place to be and then stop. They know how to just "be", and that it's not all about "more".
Completely agree with all of this. My world is living in a town with a population of 1200 for the last 100 years, so I tend to think in those terms. But for your situation, what works for me definitely wont work for you. But I can understand your frustration, and agree with what you say.
My wife has a bunch of nephews born and raised in Gatlinburg, TN. The family made its living making and selling those cute little fireplace brooms with the twisty handles--the ones tourists just had to buy. They spent their money buying up mountainsides overlooking the town and building "cabins" to rent to the tourists after they bought brooms.
Even though my wife is family, and I have been fully accepted by them, we are still "outsiders" and will never be anything other than that to them.
Even though my wife is family, and I have been fully accepted by them, we are still "outsiders" and will never be anything other than that to them.
