Posted on 07/11/2005 8:51:33 PM PDT by amy1975
I was down in Charlotte, NC last month. Very beautiful area with well-mannered and exceptionally friendly people. I'm talking to my husband and family about moving and we're seriously considering a town or two just north of Charlotte (Cornelius is one of them). We are from NJ and are basically fed up with the northeast and are looking for a slice of real Americana - mom, apple pie, and the red, white & blue. How would a northerner be looked upon and would we be as welcomed as residents as we were as guests? How does Cornelius stack up with other towns in the surrounding Charlotte area?
Asheboro, NC is the place to be. I don't care much for Charlotte. Too freakin big.
Have relatives who moved from NJ/IN to rural area just ourside of Apex when they got married. They love it!
I was 14 years old before I realized "damn" and "yankee" were two separate words.....
There is an old saying in the south that a Yankee is one who comes to visit while a Damnyankee is one who comes to stay.....
Honestly, you'd be welcomed with open arms in the South as long as you didn't come down here with the intention of changing things to be "just like it was back in Joisey."
North Kakkylakky Ping.
My advice to you is to go to Virginia. You have better scenery and you don't have to pay an income tax.
Why is it so many damn people from New Jersey want to move to North Carolina. Let me profile: you are a nominal Catholic and you or your hubby work in financial services. You currently live in Morris, Somerset, Hunterdon, or Ocean County.
BTW: Expect to be surrounded by other relocations from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut once you get down to Charlotte.
I lived in Charlotte up until about a year ago and it is a great city. There are MANY relocated northerners in Charlotte and I wouldn't worry about the locals being accepting...it's a fairly diverse city. The only thing I would caution you about is the traffic...especially if you are commuting into the city from one of the surrounding towns...traffic is horrible. I guess that is the norm in cities like Charlotte though. If you can live with the traffic, Charlotte is otherwise a great city.
Welcome to FreeRepublic, as of yesterday! :)
I agree with you regarding VA since I live here myself and the scenery is beautiful here, but we do have an income tax.
May I invite you to stay where you are? After the crash of the credit economy, you can apply for Southern citizenship.
A friend of mine is a real estate agent here in the Triangle, and he's condensed the Yankee experience into four steps:
1. Lose the crappy job you could scrape together;
2. Lose your marriage;
3. Lose your house;
4. go back to whereever you came from, leaving your money behind.
He loves it. He's making a heckuva lot more than I am, all off you foreigners.
Wow...I wasn't prepared for such animosity; so much for "southern hospitality" I guess.
It's funny - some southerners seem to be as rude, crude, and ill-mannered as the northerners they supposedly dislike and, dare I say, feel that they're above.
Or maybe this is just an affliction particular to southerners on this forum?
I came to Charlotte from CT 7 years ago and hated for a while before warming to it. You're not really going to find "Americana" down here, and yes as mentioned above Charlotte is a bit sprawling, and it is loaded with soccer moms, minivans, and strip malls. It seems like the whole country is going in that direction. There are a lot of choices of the housing depending on your particular lifestyle).
Plusses:
- Good paying jobs
- Moderate housing prices ($100/square foot)
- Warm weather
- You can make it well here without being a local (sorry yokels).
Minuses
- Long way to the beach
- Not as conservative as you may think
- Not as much charm as some other places
- Public school controversies
- Illegals galore.
You're right, there are some bitter yokels on this forum still fighting the Civil War (or war of Northern Agression as they call it), who blame Yankees for every ill in the South (although most of the liberals here are natives), but for the most part the general attitude is nicer (compare the parking attendants at Charlotte airport compared to say Newark). You can ignore them, though.
Good luck.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.