[at-l] Fwd: Squeaky is comin' in for a landing!

[jbullar1 at twcny.rr.com (Jim Bullard)]

At 07:33 PM 12/29/2005 -0500, Carol Donaldson wrote:
>I live here, I put 'em on Medicaid, I know who's related to whom and how 
>closely.  I know the families who sell the land and why and I know the 
>people who don't like outsiders and why.  Oh, yeah, spend money here, but 
>don't come LIVE here amongst 'em.  Outsiders who move into Suches area are 
>kept on the outside lookin' in.  You have to be BORN in Suches to be 
>accepted and if you're NOT but your child is, your child's opinion will 
>matter and yours won't.  I know this because I work with the people.

>There are four major groups and one minor group here.  1-You're born here 
>and never leave the County (or leave it very rarely); 2-you're born here, 
>you leave for military or college and you come back to settle (and 
>occasionally travel to another County or State); 3-you move up here when 
>your children are young or you move here and have children here (you 
>travel to visit relatives and try to entice them to retire up here); 4-you 
>are a retiree who visited the mountains for years (after your move to 
>Florida from a major city on the East Coast) and moved up here because you 
>like the weather and the slower pace (we call 'em "half-backs").

Hmmm, that sounds like the 'North Country' AKA NYS North of the 
Adirondacks. My 3rd Great Grandfather was among the earliest settlers of 
this area but my father made the mistake of moving 80 miles South so I'm 
now considered an outsider in the area where my family lived for 4 generations.

>Now, the Half-Backs are usually the ones complaining that Wal-Mart isn't 
>on every corner up here.  They quickly forget that one reason they left 
>the East Coast AND Florida's congestion was to get away from it all.  But 
>AWAY from it all from here is at least a half hour and can be two or more 
>hours drive.  And forget about 'walking around the block' because, if we 
>have a 'block' it's not shaped like a square or rectangle and it is often 
>five or more miles from point A back to point A, the 'short way' around 
>the 'block.'

I have a couple of "blocks" I walk around here. The small one is 4? miles, 
the bigger one is 6 and I'm not even in the mountains.

>Nightwalker:  I'll 'come out of it' on October 1 of 2006.  I'm wiping the 
>mud off my boots and movin' South.
>
>Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live here any longer than I 
>have to.
>Coosa

It's a shame you don't like living where you are. Except for the winters 
and the short growing season (zone 3 to 4 in gardening lingo) this is a 
damn nice place to live even if some folks do consider me an outsider.