Posted on 11/23/2001 5:25:09 AM PST by LarryLied
Despite the "friendly" Sunbelt's purported ease and opportunity, the "unfriendly" North continues by far to have the best quality of life.The United Way now reports that Minnesota (of which I am genetically half a native, which may undermine the good data here) is the best state, in economic well-being, education, health, civic engagement, safety and the environment. Having visited this Midwest Finland, I am not surprised. And I find New Hampshire's Number 2 rating apt, too, having inhabited that rocky realm of rectitude, responsibility and (usually) reasonableness for four years.
Ditto the others in the top 10: Connecticut (even with Hartford!); Massachusetts; Vermont; Maine; Wisconsin; Iowa; New Jersey, and, yes, even Rhode Island, hardly a state at all!
Meanwhile, the bottom 10 are all in the Sunbelt, the worst New Mexico, and then Louisiana.
Maybe it's mostly the weather. The North's bracing and wildly variable climate energizes people and encourages planning and careful citizenship. And it's probably better for you, because cold is bad for bugs. Even the post-war wave of air-conditioning hasn't let previously soporific Southern schools, offices and factories overcome the North's paradoxical climatic advantage.
And Northerners tend to be less mobile, and so less likely to slide into that appalling anomie in which the American Dream is pursued by folks wandering the roads in search of pots of gold that turn out to be tin, and leaving no forwarding address. But then, it is easier to wander about where the weather is warm. Thus the pervasive trailer parks in the Sunbelt, and enough social problems to make you ask if the Sunbelt's growing national power is a good thing. (Don't show this to my Tennessee relatives.)
It's a great place to visit...in the summer.
You're going to get me in trouble with my mother now - she grew up on a farm in Iowa & went to the U of Iowa. She has lived in CT since I was about 9 months old (that's about 36 yrs ago) but she still thinks highly of her old home state. I've been there plenty of times, but I have no plans of ever living there.
I can see my mother reading this and turning into your screen name the next time I talk to her. (So what's wrong with Iowa! It was good enough for your mother, you think it's not good enough for you?)
For at least the next 5 years or more home is where the Air Force sends me, so Iowa is an unlikely stop because there are no bases.
Every place I've been has its pros and cons - normally the people who are miserable at any given place are just miserable everywhere they go. No offense intended to any Iowans here - OK mom?
Even longer too. Moses Austin (1761-1821), whose house still stands in Durham, CT, deathbed request was for his brother Stephen to prosecute "the Texas Venture."
By the way, Rhode Island, which I actually like, is more of a condition than a State.
The clam cakes I remember as a kid at Aunt Carrie's on Judith's Point were a treat. And there was a Nazi sub sunk off shore too. Plus some farms on the way which were not really farms but military bases disguised as farms. Even when I was a teen, I liked RI. Narragansett beer was cheap and very drinkable.
Only recently did I turn. Tried to sell at a street fair in RI. The state sent me so much paperwork, I sent it back and said no way, no how would I ever step foot in RI again and I sure would never consider doing business there. I could spot a set up when I saw it.
And in all your travels you found NOTHING to like about the north? Narrow minded a bit, I'd say.
Sounds like they're reverting to their "Pirate" past. Ahh...tradition.
I believe the Nazi sub was full of Joe Kennedy's whiskey.
I grew up in Ohio, lived in Atlanta, Tampa and Texas. Living in Northern Ca. is like a commie country when it comes to regulations.
On the other hand, it never snows, I'm three hours from Tahoe and 30 minutes from the beach!
This is family lore but I suspect there is truth in it. My granddad was a teamster. Back when they had teams of horses. Good German that he was, he had a rep for knocking down a shot chased by a beer with a raw egg in it. But, I digress. In the 1920's he hauled kerosine. And, rumor has it, a US Navy sub used to met him in the Branford River to exchange fluids.
I would as well over any state east of the Mississippi an most p\of those west of there as well. The beauty of north New Mexico is tough to beat.
My wife's stepfather was German, and I worked with him a couple of times when he was in his eighties. Hanging a whole row of heavy garage doors in Brooklyn in the middle of winter. After every one it was around the corner to the house he rented out and the bar on the first floor for a shot of schnapps and a draft. Long days, long days.
Later he cut his hand half off with a table saw. After two months the hospital that did the microsurgery on the nerves called him back to tell him that if he didn't come in for the therapy, he would never be able to use his hand. He said, "I can't today, I am breaking up a sidewalk with sledge hammer." He was, schnapps and all.
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