Moving to a warmer clime

[buffcoat]

Plus, in Chapel Hill the mysterious and benevolent - if sarcastic and not entirely approving - presence of buffcoat is always only a few miles away. 

[dave from knoxville]

Plus, in Chapel Hill the mysterious and benevolent - if sarcastic and not entirely approving - presence of buffcoat is always only a few miles away. 

Of course, you have NO delightful personalities in the greater Knox County area.

[buffcoat]

It's always ugly when the Atlantic Coastal South and the Inland South go to war.

[dave from knoxville]

It's always ugly when the Atlantic Coastal South and the Inland South go to war.

I'll say. Oh, and which coast can you see from your home, exactly? At least I can see mountains from mine.

[buffcoat]

It's always ugly when the Atlantic Coastal South and the Inland South go to war.

I'll say. Oh, and which coast can you see from your home, exactly? At least I can see mountains from mine.

Can you see all your relatives' shacks, too?

[Kim Kelly]

I really like Chapel Hill. The people are nice, and I guess you could call it a warmer clime. Yeah, not so much for me. What the fuck, I have to keep the kitchen and bathroom cabinets open so the sinks don't freeze? There's snow on the ground and ice falling out of the sky??? I learned the term wintry mix a few weeks after moving in. I had never heard that phrase before! I'm actually not making that up, it was a new phrase for me. WINTRY MIX.

But yes, I have been shocked at how friendly people are. Strangers will smile at you, or offer you a ride home because you ask for the number for a taxi service when your mom comes to visit you and gets your car jammed in the rails of the gd carwash because she sometimes does shit like that... Oh man, it's crazy.

[tenni]

But yes, I have been shocked at how friendly people are. Strangers will smile at you, or offer you a ride home because you ask for the number for a taxi service when your mom comes to visit you and gets your car jammed in the rails of the gd carwash because she sometimes does shit like that... Oh man, it's AMAZING.

[dave from knoxville]

I really like Chapel Hill. The people are nice, and I guess you could call it a warmer clime. Yeah, not so much for me. What the fuck, I have to keep the kitchen and bathroom cabinets open so the sinks don't freeze? There's snow on the ground and ice falling out of the sky??? I learned the term wintry mix a few weeks after moving in. I had never heard that phrase before! I'm actually not making that up, it was a new phrase for me. WINTRY MIX.

But yes, I have been shocked at how friendly people are. Strangers will smile at you, or offer you a ride home because you ask for the number for a taxi service when your mom comes to visit you and gets your car jammed in the rails of the gd carwash because she sometimes does shit like that... Oh man, it's crazy.

As a long-time son of the south, it saddens me that any of you come from places where people can't be pleasant. Sure, we have our self-obsessed assholes just like any other region, but even they can still manage an "excuse me" if we bump into you on the streets. What are people from these vicious aggressive locations, animals? Are you with me, Buffcoat, you tobacco apologist?

Wait, that was uncalled for. I apologize. Can I offer you a ride to the trade lot?

[yesno]

Responding to an earlier post: I found Savannah to be a combination of boring, dangerous, and touristy.

[buffcoat]

I am with you, Dave.  But the tobacco money of the past mostly now funds the white guy basketball museum program at Duke now.


It's an adjustment to travel outside the friendly South and not get the at least mild nods hello and the excuse mes, although the Triangle is sufficiently Yankified that I have to say it for them sometimes.  They like that.


I tell you, though, New Yorkers - you're not nearly as rude as you're proud of being.  I spent some time in the purely Scandinavian parts of Minnesota recently and those people are truly remarkable in their ability to avoid eye contact.


Sorry, Martin - maybe things are friendlier with the people who didn't split.




Laurie, you can get offered rides anywhere in the country, I bet, but they're more likely to end well around these parts.

[Kim Kelly]

Cary is actually an acronym for Concentrated Area of Relocated Yankees. It's true, you can look it up.

[buffcoat]

Cary is actually an acronym for Concentrated Area of Relocated Yankees. It's true, you can look it up.

My hometown.

[Boutros]

I lived in the Triangle for about 3 years, and really liked it.  Granted, this was 10 years ago, when I moved en masse, with about 12 other Ohioans, sure that our band's domination of the greater Toledo metro area would translate to similar mastery of the Chapel Hill scene (this was a miscalculation). 

That said, I'm sure a lot has changed in the interim, but I found it pretty seductive.  There was definitely some of that stereotypical southern courtliness you'd expect, coupled with a great foodie scene (in Durham, go to Francesca's on 9th St.; go to Fowler's for everything else), the aforementioned and widely-known music venues (Cat's Cradle, Local 506, Go! Rehearsal Studios in Chapel Hill were the obvious standouts), a surprisingly credible theatre scene (ManBitesDog in Durham, Playmakers Rep in Chapel Hill, Burning Coal in Raleigh), etc. 

And if you need a trump card: may I present the Durham Dragons - LADIES SEMI-PRO FAST PITCH SOFTBALL, in the ballpark from "Bull Durham."

Don't get me wrong - I live in Brooklyn now and can't imagine moving back there now, but still - there was some good stuff down there.

Savannah is straight-up creepy, and not in a cute way.  So is Charleston, SC, before someone else suggests that.

[Emerson]

I always had good times in Savannah, but I've never lived there. At this point, I have no desire to live without an ocean nearby, so I'd go with Savannah or Charleston if I moved back into the area. I'd prefer to stay in SoCal until it sinks into the Pacific, but, yeah, the job market bites, hard.

I have lived in Asheville and Athens, GA, and I have a lot of good things to say about either. If you live in Athens, everything's dirt cheap, there's a show worth seeing almost every night, and it's easy to develop a close circle of friends. Not sure what it's like to look for work, assuming you're not interested in working for the school.

Asheville is aesthetically stunning and full of cool small businesses (including a coffee shop inside a real double-decker bus). There's a pervasive new-age, clean-living flavor - your mileage may vary. It's a lot more expensive than it was when I was there, and the once-thriving punk scene seems to have been washed out. I think honorary FOT Greg Cartwright lives there. My mom still lives there, though I'm not sure she's as witty as buffcoat.

[Sarah]

In defense of Yankees, I feel obliged to report that people in Lubec are as nice as those Laurie describes in Chapel Hill, though they, too, are not as witty as buffcoat.