Greensboro is Fine; Pay No Attn to Haters
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3/4/2014
Having lived in so many differing regions in the U.S., what I've found is that people who move to a small town from a large one and/or moving to one region from another one, these people tend to bring their own prejudices with them. If they expect the town or region to be a certain way, especially if they want it to be "their" way, they talk very badly about the place. Northerners move to the South and criticize the Southerners very badly... VERY badly. Southerners who need to move to the North try to assimilate, but then get resentful because of the way they get "teased" even called -- supposedly in all "good humor" -- names. These negative comments about Greensboro are evidently from people who probably expect the fun to come to them. The town is in the middle of the state and it's obvious that the mountains and beaches are a few hours' drive away. It's also a small town, meaning that there's not going to be a great big party lifestyle there; it's the same for small northern town. The people there are down-to-earth and they are not racist; almost half the population there is African American. The one commenter who talks about having to go to the police station(?)/court house(?) with his/her "black friends" and where they were treated poorly as compared to when he went to the same place with his "white friends" probably didn't find out exactly why that was. I spoke with a magistrate about this and he said that it had to have been because there was something going on in the other part of the building and the officials had to ask them to wait in the uncomfortable area because of that. There IS a sense of community because it IS small. If you don't want to see your neighbor often, then go move to a big city where you can remain anonymous, especially if that's your thing. In the Midwest, folks there are retentive about opening up to you, but then warm up to you later on (Johnny Carson is a good example: a Midwesterner who is warm and charming, but kept his private life private). And they are guarded about their opinions, too. Out west, they are open to start with and are pretty laid back, but are snobs to people they don't know you, and drivers are considered crazy. I honestly know all this: been there, done all that. Do your research! Nowadays, there's so much information available to us, especially by way of the Internet, that you can get a pretty good idea of where you're moving to. Greensboro is truly a nice place to work and live. It's what YOU make of it -- or ANYwhere you live, for that matter -- and YOU need to learn to grow where you're planted. Otherwise, you'll shrivel up and will have to up-root yourself and go elsewhere. If you do, do it on your own; don't blame the area or the people.
D | Franklin, NC