Calling all you southerners (mrstjohnson) - Updated -

I've lived in California most of my life, with the exception of 4 yrs in Germany and a few months in a tiny town in Georgia. I could've handled living in Atlanta or some of the other big cities in Georgia, but the small town thing was not my cup of tea. I think there was only 2-3 restaurants, no Starbucks or even a decent coffee hut, no malls, etc. They opened an Applebees right before I moved there and it was packed all the time. It just wasn't the kind of place I could've lived for very long, but the people were very nice. I also had no tolerance for the bugs or the humidity either .

aerial1313

mrstjohnson

P.S. I HATE sweet tea.

Then you must ALWAYS remember to ask for unsweetened tea in the South.  If you just ask for tea, it will be chock full o' sugar, lol.

Good luck with your call today!!

I haven't read through all the posts yet but I wanted to say this isn't entirely true.  I live in the very metropolitan Dallas/Ft Worth area and we just recently started seeing restaurants that offer sweet tea.  And they will ask if you want it sweet or unsweet instead of just assuming you want the sweet stuff.

scrubsfiend

I haven't read through all the posts yet but I wanted to say this isn't entirely true.  I live in the very metropolitan Dallas/Ft Worth area and we just recently started seeing restaurants that offer sweet tea.  And they will ask if you want it sweet or unsweet instead of just assuming you want the sweet stuff

 

Silly girl, you don't live in THE SOUTH, you live in Texas, a region all to itself!!    Iced tea here is served unsweetened except for one bar b q chain that serves sweet unless you ask for it unsweetened. 

Well, just got off the call and to say it went well would be an understatement Whoo Hoo!  I have another call tomorrow so hopefully that will go well too.  Now starts the big thinking.  Do we want to move there?  Do we want to stay here and risk me getting laid off (another round is coming in October).  Gosh I hate this. 

 Yay!  I'm glad the call went so well :o)  Whichever way you descide, best of luck!

 Good luck Lisa - life loves to throw curveballs - I'm sure you will make the right decision

 I don't know if anyone mentioned this, but southern towns, especially small towns - roll the sidewalks up at 5 o'clock, sometimes before. Then it is dead still. It's great in one way, but not in another when you need something after hours. Bentonville seems to be good sized though, so that might not be too big of a problem.

Deliverance is an on going joke, but when you get outside the nice sized cities, it is eerily like that in places! LOL A lot of services you are used to don't exist outside the cities either. Rural areas are still way behind in TV reception (digital is causing all sorts of issues in rural areas!), cell service, internet service, good hospitals and doctors just to name a few.

We are right outside Nacogdoches, and as large a city as it is with SFA University, we have problems with reliable, good quality phone lines, water pressure issues, and electricity outages. And there isn't cell service here either even though we aren't even 8 miles out of town. We are some of the lucky few to have DSL though - I'd think my hubby would have a cow if we didn't have a good internet connection! But then, so would I - dial up on old phone lines is a nightmare! LOL Just something for you to think about when looking at places to live. Country life is good, but you have to be ready to live with what that means in the south!

Good luck!

 i have lived in the south all my life. south carolina mostly. lived in atlanta for a few years. grew up in a tiny little town and now live in a medium sized city in sc.

 IMO atlanta is too spread out. it takes an hour to go anywhere. however, it is somewhat cosmopolitan in terms of having an array of nationalities and races. the pace is somewhat faster than where i live now. 

 where i live now is much more "white bread". dont expect to find any decent chinese food here. i have come to realize it doesnt exist. i could get pretty good chinese in atlanta. however, there are a handful of good thai places. the only good italian places are very expensive to eat at. the only ethnic markets are asian and mexican. believe me i have looked.

ethnic food aside, i love it here.  the pace of life is ok. actually, i wouldnt mind it a bit slower most times. i visited belize in the spring (yeah... it was too cold here for me). i liked the pace much better there.

never been to arkansas though. too far west for my tastes. i like being within a short drive to the ocean. good luck with the job. we have done site work on 3 new walmarts here in sc and in nc. if you see "Triad" pop up on a pay app... pay it quick... huh? :D

mrstjohnson

P.S. I HATE sweet tea.

 

Eeekk!!  That is a terrible combination of words!!  I gotta have my sweet tea, first thing in the morning!!  I only use 2 cups of sugar in the gallon!!!  But, my dad was putting sweet tea in my bottles when I was a baby so it's his fault!!

Bullymom

mrstjohnson

P.S. I HATE sweet tea.

 

Eeekk!!  That is a terrible combination of words!! 

I'm with you!!  Like I said before, I'll take Bojangles sweet tea any day of the week.  I like a little tea with my sugar, lol.

Here in NC, a lot of the small towns are former major towns - I mean historically, back when the "west" started beyond the Piedmont. So it's not a far drive to surprising levels of urbanity (I mean, by comparison). Anyone who has been HERE will agree it's about as far from anywhere as you can get on the East coast (out west it would be positively metropolitan!). But we can get stuff at corner stores down the road until 9 pm. And 30 min away there are takeout ethnic restaurants - many of them pretty decent. And I'd definitely disagree that every southern small town rolls up the streets at 5:00. We sure don't! There's a sports bar across from the lake rec area gate and an ice cream shop ditto, and in Milton just up the road there's a bistro and a funny little brewery slash ice cream parlor that's a big draw. There is a place in Roxboro run by Greeks with food to die for - New York transplants I believe. And you have to develop an appreciation for the "hole in the wall" cuisine - little gems of places with general diner type food but if you ask around you'll find out that every place has something uniquely wow. So it just depends on the area. You really can't make generalizations - the south is just as varied as any other region. The best thing is to start reseraching the area directly - there's lots of "local" guides on the internet, and start trying to make contacts in the area too, starting with your potential co-workers! Good luck - it's very exciting!

 Lisa, I'm really sorry about your job woes. Congratulations on things going well!!

 If you're concerned about what it might be like, and it's at all financially feasible, I really think you should just take a trip there and poke around. Be there for at least one work day and one weekend day. See the area you might be living, drive around, talk to people... just like a college campus visit. ;)

As everyone has said, the "south" is very diverse, in its own ways. I think you really need to be there to get a feel for what it's like in "your" area. Think of California - San Diego is wildly different from Los Angeles, which is wildly different from San Francisco, which is barely comparable to somewhere central like Fresno. I think it's a kind of "see it to believe it" type deal.

Best of luck to you in your search!

 I don't think KY is really considered the south, but maybe. Small towns around here are usually pretty bad, but i see none of the mentioned problems in Lexington at all. Lexington's not really a big town either...not sure of the population but i think it's about 250,000.

I had to laugh when I read the comments about people speaking slowly. In my area of LA, we tend to speak ridicuously fast and slur words. We also throw in a lot of French, so we're pretty good at butchering the English language lol.

When I moved to MS, people constantly told me they could not understand me. I didn't realize how fast I spoke until I was around people who didn't speak that way. I guess it's the Cajun in me because, in my area and in my family, we all speak very fast. People would ask me if I was nervous. I couldnt' imagine why until I realized they thought I spoke so quickly because I was uncomfortable. Sorry, can't help that. lol

marlania

In my area of LA, we tend to speak ridicuously fast and slur words

 

LOL!  My little sister is like that!  She was born in FL.  Sometimes when we are talking, I have to tell her point blank "Calm down and slow down!"  She confuses me!!  Oh, and she doesn't like any tea, sweet or not   I don't get it but hey, I don't reckon that we are meant to understand it all!!