Who hasn’t warmed to the thought of buying a chunk of land somewhere and moving out there to ‘simpler life’. (Cue ‘Green Acres’ theme….)
The reality is that when you spend your entire life in NYC you may wind up not having factored in certain aspects of reality in your new venue..things like predators, weather, distances, etc.
It’s a trope as old as media itself – the person from ‘the city’ who winds up as a helpless idiot in the sticks….”Northern Exposure”, “Green Acres”, etc, etc. And, rarely, it goes in the other direction..”Beverly Hillbillies”, “Due South”, etc.
Having moved to the somewhat-rural envron of Montana from the urban part of NY, I can tell you that while there are differences those differences are not a problem for anyone of average intelligence and self-awareness. The folks you read about from CA or NY who wind up shooting cattle that are mistaken for elk are a pretty rare occurrence that is predicated more on the people being ignorant idiots than being predicated on where their license plates came from.
However…if you’re going to move to a completely new envrionment it might be a good idea to do a bit of legwork, keep your head down and your mouth shut until you know whats what, and don’t keep saying “Thats not how we do things in ….”
Living in Montana, from my favorite realtors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KNNUlEkYhE&ab_channel=LivinginMontana
Cue Frank Zappa singing “Moving to Montana soon. Gonna be a dental floss tycoon.”
CZ, I’m a city boy( Montreal Quebec) who through circumstance( I joined the military at 18) has spent most of his life in small towns and isolated areas. Your advice to “Keep Your Mouth Shut” and learn your environment is so apropos. Bye the bye that was my big word for the day! I have found myself listening to people new to the small town and rural life, saying very ignorant and stupid things to the locals and sometimes quite unknowingly. They had no idea what they sounded like and didn’t understand the poor reception they then received. That does set up an “Us and Them” reaction on both sides. All you have to do is slow down and pass the time of day and you will get a good “feel” for the new area you are in. Just my two cents work,(about 1.7 cents US) TTFN
I one year took my sabbatical from Very Big Medical School and Trauma Center, and got a gig teaching at a well-respected medical school in the Caribbean.
I decided that I might as well sit in on the new student orientation they offered, since I too was new to the island. The best piece of advice they offered was never, ever, disrespect ANY local, no matter who, no matter their skin color, because there were about 6 major families on the island, and almost everybody was related to everyone else, somehow. And whatever you said would get back to someone who would likely be pissed off about it.
Good advice.
I was discussing how I’d be interested in getting a second passport with a student of mine from a small Caribbean country, pop 40,000. But I told him how the costs were prohibitive.
He told me if I wanted, if I were to vacation down in his country he could arrange for me to become a citizen by investment, without actually investing. He explained that because the country was so small that half his family had high level government positions.
Heh. While I was down there, for a mere $100, I added an Airline Transport pilots certificate to my pile of FAA certificates…
Good thing I actually have an ATP
The worst part of people coming to the country from the city is that they bring the city with them…
And it’s always the part they ran away from in the first place.
The ignorance can go both ways. When I met my current wife we were in our 60’s, I had lived and worked in and around Detroit most of my life, my wife was definitely small town. She has no situational awareness at all. In the city you need to be very aware of who is around you. She is also clueless in rural Florida where we winter now. She thinks I’m silly for keeping an eye out for snakes and alligators.
My wife, who is from rural Maine and familiar with hardship, moved down to rural South Carolina, where I met her 26 years ago. She still retains remnants of her Yankee accent and has a habit of saying so and so and such and such was so much better up north.
Sometimes it’s all I can do to keep from saying…I-95 goes both ways.
If she hasn’t been to Maine in a while,take her there for a week or so vacation. Spend some time in Portland and Lewiston. She will probably stop talking about how so much better it is.
Portland is Boston North, and Lewiston is Somalia West. Sadly they’ve taken over the state and keep trying to stomp on the rest of us. We mostly just give them the finger and keep doing what we were already.
the world is full of ignorant idiots, and to be fair I’ve been that a time or two in my life.
Got gifted 15 acres south of town back in the early 80’s, put up a new single wide, had a well but also a small community water supply from a shared well. Grandpa had some cattle, got chickens, goats, a garden and some rabbits. This is all while I was new at my job and trying to work a ton of overtime to pay for all the improvements. The wife couldn’t handle two kids in diapers plus all the work on the mini ranch by herself.
It was a spectacular failure. The illegal aliens were constantly trying to get at the wife and babies when I was gone, which was a lot, and she had enough. Couldn’t even go outside in the kiddie pool without some jerks staring her down from the road non stop. Backed them off one too many times with the old Ruger Blackhawk and the stress was too much. Moved back into town close to her Mom and family support system and things got infinitely better.
Totally my fault and if someone isn’t ready for the committment, costs, time, labor it won’t work. Not that it’s really hard work, but it’s constant work. Throw in some nasty neighbors and other bad guys and watch it go down the drain fast.
We’ve got a lot of them here in rural Maine. While I congratulate the locals who have ‘made a killing’ off these reactionary retards, I resent them jamming up the local roads with their over-priced SUVs.
Massholes and the rest of the flatlanders have borderline ruined Maine.
The present show of Homestead Rescue portrays this scenario pretty well, showing people of “Normal” can do ability rescuing folks (not always but primarily) have zero business attempting that lifestyle. Some I venture to say, would have trouble surviving in a city.
Biggest issue is moving from an environment where everything is provided FOR you, to one where you have to provide everything you need yourself. With a complete lack of skills to even recognize the bare necessities and what providing those necessities require in the way of manpower and resources. I refer to them as critical thinking skills and common sense. Critical thinking skills “occasionally” can be taught in schools, (if you can find a teacher that actually knows what they are), and common sense is never taught in schools, it only comes from doing and ya’ll should be familiar with the adage about teachers and schools.
“Those who can, do – Those who can’t, teach”.
You realize those ‘reality’ shows are not real, right?
I remember when that show Survivor first came oit. I watched about a half of the first episode,it was so different than what I expected, never watched again. It was horrid
It was expecting a man v wild kind of thing, which in itself isn’t real either, but would be mildly interesting and perhaps informative.
Yeah I do, that’s why I don’t watch them. But they do depict the essence of the post quite well.
…And those that can’t do either, administrate.
There are good, decent, smart, resourceful, hard-working people that live in NYC or are from NYC – I’m one of them – there are also some ignorant, stupid, lazy, bigoted, and confrontational people that live in NYC or are from NYC – isn’t it odd that all of those decent, salt-of-the-earth types live in rural areas? Come on now, tell me, honestly, that ya don’t have any native-to-the-area rural locals that have some or all of the same negative characteristics that you attribute to people from NYC.
Yes, of course we do. And when they move to your beloved NYC and try to change your way of life – feel free to mock and scorn them at your pleasure.
But we do not elect them into office…
Buy man ol truck, use it instead of the new SUV or 90k truck.
Wave to people and smile….
Be a respectful person and good neighbor…
Having moved from “the big city” to a very rural setting a little over two decades ago, I can understand some of what the folks in the article were up against. The big difference was that my wife and I did our homework. Had we failed to do our due diligence, I’m sure that we would have been screwed.
We’ve been subjected to these cidiots in my upstate NY location. The good news: my house is probably worth 50% more than it was pre-Covid. (At least for now) The bad news: everything else. They bring their NYC attitudes, ideas and worst of all…their libtard politics of course. In the town I lived in before this one-the one I grew up in-cidiots regularly moved to the area then complained about the fire horn. “Why do we need that?!” Well, we don’t unless you want the volunteer firefighters to show up moron.
Born, raised and lived in NYC for 50 years, was a Paramedic in the Bronx for 15. I moved to rural NH about 15 years ago. Joined the local volunteer rescue squad and have been totally accepted. I make better money here than in NY since there are no sales or income taxes here. Wish I moved here 20 years earlier.
I’ve often thought joining the local volunteer FD or rescue is the best way to get accepted in a new community.