The general decline in standards today

[rjb1]

"The South is as different from the Northeast as Belgium is from Sweden."
Lizzie is right the majority of the time, but missed this one, partially. The South is *more* different from the Northeast than Belgium is from Sweden. At least it once was. However, we are losing our identity and independent spirit as people come in from Elsewhere to take advantage of the good economy and jobs.
(By coincidence, a ground-breaking was held today on a new $800,000,000 plant a short distance from Nashville.)

Concerning hippies, Mr. Powers will be pleased to know that we here in TN received a whole caravan of them from San Francisco, once upon a time.
People here were VERY skeptical at first, but they turned out to be the sort that Lizzie mentioned concerning hard work, honesty, and good-neighborly-ness. They turned some almost-worthless scrub land into a profitable working farm and helped their neighbors at every chance. After time passed, we adopted them as honorary Southerners for all the good qualities they demonstrated.
From Wikipedia:
Stephen Gaskin (February 16, 1935 – July 1, 2014) was an American counterculture Hippie icon best known for his presence in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco in the 1960s and for co-founding "The Farm", a famous spiritual community in Summertown, Tennessee.[1]
In 1970, Gaskin was part of a caravan of 60 vehicles that crossed the United States to settle 60 miles south-west of Nashville, Tennessee, forming a community called "The Farm".

 

[EliasRDA]

Its funny Moe,
As a real estate agent when I get new customers I ask about where they are from, normally I see NY/NJ/MD/PA & some CT/further north. So I ask why are they leaving wherever they're from, now mind you, I moved here fulltime 30 yrs ago so I've seen the changes to the area but when we moved here from CT we didn't try to change it to be like CT. Most answer they like the "quaint"-ness of the area, they hated where they were living due to taxes or other reasons, the beach, no sales tax & low RE tax (we haven't done a tax assessment since '76 much to my dismay).

Within 5 yrs of them moving here they are trying to make it like Newark jersey, NYC, Baltimore, Phikky, etc. So I go back & ask them if they hated where they left so much then why in the name of Hades are they trying to make here like there???
Their response?? They missed where they came from & we need to "update" our area by adding in more big box stores. Umm, they don't know we had a small mall that now sits about half vacant, we have many commercial spots that are not being used, we have a massive over-amount of vacant houses sitting unsold & developers back to building large (125+ homes per 50 acres) developments.
I get called by fellow agents a "bad" agent because I cant stand to see the overdevelopment of the eastern side of the county. All the farmland disappearing & I wonder where they think their food will come from if we have no farmland to grow it?

Oh my aching head, least my roots in CT they have it under control somewhat. And the biggest headache? We have 3 casinos here, 1 in New Castle County & 2 in Kent county. They are taxed by the state to about the rate of 65% of every dollar they take in, I came from near the area of Foxwoods & Mohegan Sun, they were built about 2 yrs after we left. We saw what CT did to them, basically hands off & low amount of tax. We tried to warn DE about what they were doing, they were depending on the income from the casinos too much to balance the state budget & we were told to "mind our own business you transplants" (shrug)
So now they complain the state doesn't get enough money because people are not coming here for the casinos since MD, NJ, PA have their own casinos, NASCAR at the Dover Racetrack/casino is down & they are still taxing the casinos at high rates so there is no money for the budget. And one jackass politician wanted to build 2 more casinos, 1 down here near me & 1 upstate near Wilmington.
I read the other day Foxwoods is in deep doodoo, & it looks like again this coming year us DE taxpayers will be bailing out the casinos again. (Sigh) some days I really hate DE, I really hate the way things have become today & I really wish I was back in the 40's-50's before everyones hand was stuck out for their piece if the pie, they instead worked for things in life. (sigh)

 

[sheeplady]

Its funny Moe,
As a real estate agent when I get new customers I ask about where they are from, normally I see NY/NJ/MD/PA & some CT/further north. So I ask why are they leaving wherever they're from, now mind you, I moved here fulltime 30 yrs ago so I've seen the changes to the area but when we moved here from CT we didn't try to change it to be like CT. Most answer they like the "quaint"-ness of the area, they hated where they were living due to taxes or other reasons, the beach, no sales tax & low RE tax (we haven't done a tax assessment since '76 much to my dismay).

Within 5 yrs of them moving here they are trying to make it like Newark jersey, NYC, Baltimore, Phikky, etc. So I go back & ask them if they hated where they left so much then why in the name of Hades are they trying to make here like there???
Their response?? They missed where they came from & we need to "update" our area by adding in more big box stores. Umm, they don't know we had a small mall that now sits about half vacant, we have many commercial spots that are not being used, we have a massive over-amount of vacant houses sitting unsold & developers back to building large (125+ homes per 50 acres) developments.

I'm not sure that's a function of the states you mention, but a function of those city areas. Out in the rural areas of (at least) Pennsylvania and NY, there aren't box stores. People who move into these rural places want to start building them up in upstate NY too.

My parents, when I was young, had a couple who moved in across the street. My parents owned the land on three sides of their house and pastured their animals there. (The fence and animals were there when they bought the place.) Within three years of moving there they were suing my parents and petitioning the town to have my parent's farm shut down. They proposed having farming outlawed in the township. This is a rural township with a whopping 1,500 people spread across 4 villages that are 5 to 6 miles apart with no industry other than farming. I kid you not, they were talking about outlawing all farm animals except horses and cows through zoning. Horses and cows would be limited in number and by permit only; with whopping fees. They even debated making it horses only. It was put down on paper- a 50 page document- and the council voted on it.

If you had cows and wanted chickens, you would be fined $1,000 per chicken as chickens were not allowed in the town.

Needless to say, it didn't pass, but this is what some of these people are like. They want the beautiful open green fields behind their house but they don't want to have to be the ones to pay the taxes on it.

Let me tell you something: you want to live in the country with it's beautiful views and wide open spaces, you have to deal with farming. Also, if you want to eat, you have to deal with farming.

 

[LizzieMaine]

If you want to live in Westchester, move to Westchester.

I'm loaded for bear right now. One of my kids was verbally abused tonight by a snotty New Yorker because she didn't snap right to and answer her question the way she wanted it answered -- she saw our signboard on the street advertising the upcoming Metropolitan Opera simulcast and demanded to know how we expected to fit all the performers into our tiny little theatre. In case anyone could possibly doubt it, she declared, repeatedly, "I'm from NEW YORK CITY."

I was up in the booth and missed my chance to tell this NEW YORKER where she could catch the night bus back to where she belongs. We are not your serfs and we are not stupid hicks. If you can't grasp that, stay the hell in Manhattan and leave us alone.

 

[sheeplady]

I was up in the booth and missed my chance to tell this NEW YORKER where she could catch the night bus back to where she belongs. We are not your serfs and we are not stupid hicks. If you can't grasp that, stay the hell in Manhattan and leave us alone.

Well, considering it was advertised as a "simulcast" I'd say she's the stupid one.

I get that we have nice views out in the country, you want to come here and pick apples, do the tourist thing, wake up to brisk country air, look at the leaves; but seriously, go home if you're missing the comforts of home.

I will never understand the attitude of "It would be so great to live up here!" coupled with "obviously you would move to the city if you possibly could." No, thank you, I decided to live here. I am capable of making informed decisions about where I live and if I wanted to live in the big city I would *move there.*

I swear that the worst thing about tourist season is there's no tags for the tourists.

 

[jamespowers]

"The South is as different from the Northeast as Belgium is from Sweden."
Lizzie is right the majority of the time, but missed this one, partially. The South is *more* different from the Northeast than Belgium is from Sweden. At least it once was. However, we are losing our identity and independent spirit as people come in from Elsewhere to take advantage of the good economy and jobs.
(By coincidence, a ground-breaking was held today on a new $800,000,000 plant a short distance from Nashville.)

Concerning hippies, Mr. Powers will be pleased to know that we here in TN received a whole caravan of them from San Francisco, once upon a time.
People here were VERY skeptical at first, but they turned out to be the sort that Lizzie mentioned concerning hard work, honesty, and good-neighborly-ness. They turned some almost-worthless scrub land into a profitable working farm and helped their neighbors at every chance. After time passed, we adopted them as honorary Southerners for all the good qualities they demonstrated.
From Wikipedia:
Stephen Gaskin (February 16, 1935 – July 1, 2014) was an American counterculture Hippie icon best known for his presence in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco in the 1960s and for co-founding "The Farm", a famous spiritual community in Summertown, Tennessee.[1]
In 1970, Gaskin was part of a caravan of 60 vehicles that crossed the United States to settle 60 miles south-west of Nashville, Tennessee, forming a community called "The Farm".

TN can have as many hippies as they would like exported to them. Just let me know how many containers full you would like to order. I can get it done. They may just farm now but over time they will try to turn you into San Franfreako and then you will want to get rid of them as much as I do.

 

[jamespowers]

Its funny Moe,
As a real estate agent when I get new customers I ask about where they are from, normally I see NY/NJ/MD/PA & some CT/further north. So I ask why are they leaving wherever they're from, now mind you, I moved here fulltime 30 yrs ago so I've seen the changes to the area but when we moved here from CT we didn't try to change it to be like CT. Most answer they like the "quaint"-ness of the area, they hated where they were living due to taxes or other reasons, the beach, no sales tax & low RE tax (we haven't done a tax assessment since '76 much to my dismay).

Within 5 yrs of them moving here they are trying to make it like Newark jersey, NYC, Baltimore, Phikky, etc. So I go back & ask them if they hated where they left so much then why in the name of Hades are they trying to make here like there???
Their response?? They missed where they came from & we need to "update" our area by adding in more big box stores. Umm, they don't know we had a small mall that now sits about half vacant, we have many commercial spots that are not being used, we have a massive over-amount of vacant houses sitting unsold & developers back to building large (125+ homes per 50 acres) developments.
I get called by fellow agents a "bad" agent because I cant stand to see the overdevelopment of the eastern side of the county. All the farmland disappearing & I wonder where they think their food will come from if we have no farmland to grow it?

Oh my aching head, least my roots in CT they have it under control somewhat. And the biggest headache? We have 3 casinos here, 1 in New Castle County & 2 in Kent county. They are taxed by the state to about the rate of 65% of every dollar they take in, I came from near the area of Foxwoods & Mohegan Sun, they were built about 2 yrs after we left. We saw what CT did to them, basically hands off & low amount of tax. We tried to warn DE about what they were doing, they were depending on the income from the casinos too much to balance the state budget & we were told to "mind our own business you transplants" (shrug)
So now they complain the state doesn't get enough money because people are not coming here for the casinos since MD, NJ, PA have their own casinos, NASCAR at the Dover Racetrack/casino is down & they are still taxing the casinos at high rates so there is no money for the budget. And one jackass politician wanted to build 2 more casinos, 1 down here near me & 1 upstate near Wilmington.
I read the other day Foxwoods is in deep doodoo, & it looks like again this coming year us DE taxpayers will be bailing out the casinos again. (Sigh) some days I really hate DE, I really hate the way things have become today & I really wish I was back in the 40's-50's before everyones hand was stuck out for their piece if the pie, they instead worked for things in life. (sigh)

Ah yes, you learned what I did a long, long time ago.
I really love how they come in and want to take over. I wish they would stay where the heck they belong and not try to make other areas into where they came from. They won’t be satisfied until they can move anywhere in the US and have a homogeneous atmosphere.

 

[jamespowers]

If you want to live in Westchester, move to Westchester.

I'm loaded for bear right now. One of my kids was verbally abused tonight by a snotty New Yorker because she didn't snap right to and answer her question the way she wanted it answered -- she saw our signboard on the street advertising the upcoming Metropolitan Opera simulcast and demanded to know how we expected to fit all the performers into our tiny little theatre. In case anyone could possibly doubt it, she declared, repeatedly, "I'm from NEW YORK CITY."

I was up in the booth and missed my chance to tell this NEW YORKER where she could catch the night bus back to where she belongs. We are not your serfs and we are not stupid hicks. If you can't grasp that, stay the hell in Manhattan and leave us alone.

The New Yorkers came out here 60 years ago and I can’t get them to leave yet---although the damage has been done mightily.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

As a real estate agent when I get new customers I ask about where they are from, normally I see NY/NJ/MD/PA & some CT/further north. So I ask why are they leaving wherever they're from, now mind you, I moved here fulltime 30 yrs ago so I've seen the changes to the area but when we moved here from CT we didn't try to change it to be like CT. Most answer they like the "quaint"-ness of the area, they hated where they were living due to taxes or other reasons, the beach, no sales tax & low RE tax (we haven't done a tax assessment since '76 much to my dismay).

Within 5 yrs of them moving here they are trying to make it like Newark jersey, NYC, Baltimore, Philly, etc. So I go back & ask them if they hated where they left so much then why in the name of Hades are they trying to make here like there???

Their response?? They missed where they came from

If they miss Newark or Philly so much they should move back there.

All the farmland disappearing & I wonder where they think their food will come from if we have no farmland to grow it?

China.
And it's already happening.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I'm loaded for bear right now. One of my kids was verbally abused tonight by a snotty New Yorker because she didn't snap right to and answer her question the way she wanted it answered -- she saw our signboard on the street advertising the upcoming Metropolitan Opera simulcast and demanded to know how we expected to fit all the performers into our tiny little theatre. In case anyone could possibly doubt it, she declared, repeatedly, "I'm from NEW YORK CITY."

I was up in the booth and missed my chance to tell this NEW YORKER where she could catch the night bus back to where she belongs. We are not your serfs and we are not stupid hicks. If you can't grasp that, stay the hell in Manhattan and leave us alone.

For a people who pride themselves on their supposed cosmopolitanism, I find that many (but not necessarily all) "Noo Yawkers" seem to have their own special brand of provincialism.

 

[sheeplady]

Ah yes, you learned what I did a long, long time ago.
I really love how they come in and want to take over. I wish they would stay where the heck they belong and not try to make other areas into where they came from. They won’t be satisfied until they can move anywhere in the US and have a homogeneous atmosphere.

They want the whole world to be homogeneous. These are the same people that go to a foreign country with a rich and delicious food heritage and refuse to eat anything but food from a U.S. chain. And then complain when the menu at the McDonalds isn't 100% like it is back home.

 

[dh66]

There is little worse than a bunch of folks moving out to the country or to some "quaint" small town to "get away from it all", and bringing it all with them.

Jumping back a little, when I was growing up my grandparents had a farm out in the middle of nowhere rural AL, and I remember back in the 70s a couple of hippies moved in down the road, to get away from it all, I guess. They seemed decent enough folks. What stands out most in my mind about them is that one year they went down to the Caribbean for a vacation, and brought back a pair of cast iron frogs as a gift for my granddad. They were male and female frogs.....anatomically correct male and female frogs. My granddad thought these were the funniest things ever and proudly displayed them on the mantle in the living room and showed the to EVERYONE who came to visit. My grandmother, of course, was mortified, and probably somewhat less of a fan of the hippies after that.

 

[LizzieMaine]

They want the whole world to be homogeneous. These are the same people that go to a foreign country with a rich and delicious food heritage and refuse to eat anything but food from a U.S. chain. And then complain when the menu at the McDonalds isn't 100% like it is back home.

Or, no matter what the local food traditions say, they've got to have their "upscale ethnic food." This explains why here, in a part of the country famous the world over for its lobster, shrimp, haddock, and sardines, the most popular seafood restaurant on Main Street sells sushi. Generations of salty old Maine fishermen are revolving in their graves.

 

[LizzieMaine]

For a people who pride themselves on their supposed cosmopolitanism, I find that many (but not necessarily all) "Noo Yawkers" seem to have their own special brand of provincialism.

It's catching, too. My niece spent a year living there, and when she came home, suddenly we were all a bunch of illiterate rubes just because there was nowhere she could buy a knish.

 

[HudsonHawk]

It's catching, too. My niece spent a year living there, and when she came home, suddenly we were all a bunch of illiterate rubes just because there was nowhere she could buy a knish.

I have a friend sort of like that. He refuses to eat food that wasn't cooked in the back of a van.

 

[jamespowers]

They want the whole world to be homogeneous. These are the same people that go to a foreign country with a rich and delicious food heritage and refuse to eat anything but food from a U.S. chain. And then complain when the menu at the McDonalds isn't 100% like it is back home.

McDonalds?! :faint: Way to taste the local flavor. lol lol

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

McDonalds?! :faint: Way to taste the local flavor. lol lol

Though McDonalds in Germany does serve beer.
I'll have a McBrau"

 

[LizzieMaine]

Introducing the next generation of overprivileged, overentitled upper-middle-class white kids:

Brunswick High School Seniors Want Town To Spend Over $10,000 Cap On Graduation

For those future recipients of corporate welfare -- and their grasping, amoral parents -- for whom folding chairs in the gym just aren't good enough.

 

[jamespowers]

Though McDonalds in Germany does serve beer.
I'll have a McBrau"

McBrau sounds fine to me.

 

[jamespowers]

Introducing the next generation of overprivileged, overentitled upper-middle-class white kids:

Brunswick High School Seniors Want Town To Spend Over $10,000 Cap On Graduation

For those future recipients of corporate welfare -- and their grasping, amoral parents -- for whom folding chairs in the gym just aren't good enough.

Big screen projector?! That is insane!
When I graduated, I doubt it cost the district any more than keeping the school open and keeping the janitors around longer to put the folding chairs away. lol lol
If they want more then THEY should pay for it.
Well, at least we don't have those problems here. The kidlets know better.