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I stay because my kids are almost finished school. One graduates this year and is in a fabulous program for (former) special education kids. They mainstream them in a very special program, and it has done WONDERS for her. I have one more to go. After that, who knows!! I can't go too far north because I have terrible nerve damage I suffered while living up north (head injury that resulted in permanent nerve damage and a few fused discs in my neck), and the cold aggravates it beyond words. I never want to live in pain/tears like that again.
Considering Greenville, after all I've read on the forums here, and after talking with people I know that used to live there and only moved here due to a transfer (they miss it terribly).
Not sure what you consider "real" money, nor do I know what you do for a living. I find it truly difficult to believe, that unless you are in the medical field, you will find it "real". The only reason we can survive is that my boyfriend brought his very well paying PA (medical field) job WITH him. So he makes PA pay in South Carolina...which is appx 3x what the norm is here. And believe me, up there it wasn't considered all that much lol. I made more running a daycare out of my home when I lived in NY than he makes per hour now.
You seem like a truly nice person, and I wish the best for you. Hopefully you'll do just fine and perhaps the things that annoy me won't phase you. But on the way home from the store just now, I wondered why people FROM here don't get annoyed at this stuff. And I realized...they don't know things can be better. This is what they know, and they accept it. I just can't.
Best of luck to you as well. My wife works in the medical field. My company has transfer options to many places, but right now I make in the bottom 10% in the US and MB is in the upper 20%, so again we'd make out better. I guess living in this MI city, that has the 5th highest povery rate in America, many places would be an improvment. Not every city is for everybody. I dislike this city as you do MB.
I've read this board for several months now and must caution you that "pburgess68" seems to be intent on bad-mouthing The Grand Strand to anyone who he/she can. Anytime, anyone mentions Myrtle Beach, "68" launches into the pros of Charleston and the cons of the Strand.
The Strand may not to "68's" liking, or it could be as "68" says in his/her opening sentence above, "I wish there was just one of us on this forum." (That may sum things up.) "68" seems to knock the Strand on issues that only pertain to "68". "68" should most likely move to his/her beloved Charleston. The courts are wrong, the media is wrong, the roads are wrong, blah, blah, blah. For someone to continue to live here who just hates the area the way "68" expresses is a mistake in itself.
The Grand Strand has some of the prettiest surroundings, flora, fauna, and weather in this country.
It's housing costs and taxes are among the most reasonable in the country. It's people are among the most congenial in the country. It's beaches are beautiful. And its occasional hurricane reminds us that we still are blessed by and subject to powers that are greater than anything we control.
Yes, we are not without our problems, but I don't believe I would trade the Strand and all that it offers for anywhere else. Oh and by the way, I can be to Charleston in an hour and a half.
TNKY,
The Grand Strand has some of the prettiest surroundings, flora, fauna, and weather in this country.
It's housing costs and taxes are among the most reasonable in the country. It's people are among the most congenial in the country. It's beaches are beautiful. And its occasional hurricane reminds us that we still are blessed by and subject to powers that are greater than anything we control.
Yes, we are not without our problems, but I don't believe I would trade the Strand and all that it offers for anywhere else. Oh and by the way, I can be to Charleston in an hour and a half.
Being in a pretty area makes everything else ok, I suppose. While I really doubt this area is as stunning as say...the Grand Canyon or such...it does have some nice beaches. But life, is not a beach
Everyone's standards are different, Teddy. I think the special ed system here is phenominal and I've said that many times. However, some parents with a different kind of educationally disabled child, may not agree.
I cannot, in all good faith, ignore all of the problems and issues this area has just because the people are nice (agreed), the weather is good (minus the humidity), and the beaches are pretty. Unless you have experienced the negative stuff first hand, there is no way for you to gauge just how poor it is.
Your standards and mine are probably not that much different from each other on other things. I just happen to KNOW things can be better, if people want them to be. If people ignore them, things will stay status quo. The proof is in the current Mayorial candidates of the various towns, is it not? Look at all of them running now!!! People want CHANGE! So am I alone feeling this way? No, I'm not.
Thanks Teddyterp (I couldn't rep you as I have to spread it around first) and pburgess68 for your views. No place is perfect, one city is great for a person and a living hell for another. While I have bashed my current city enough, I'll throw in one more example since Mayorial candidates was mentioned. This past spring the mayor in a city 3 miles from us laid off several police staff (in an area that ranks in the top 35 in crime in the country) and firemen. Then, gave herself a hefty raise literally days later. So people in control are questionable everywhere. Yet, my in-laws LOVE this place. While we got 120 inches of snow last year, 31% living in poverty, high crime and property tax, the in-laws claim they have found their heaven here and will never leave. So different strokes for different folks.
I do give you props, 68, as you give MB some credit. I hope things get better for you.
PBurgess68: I live in Central NH and our schools have problems too getting info correct on the students. We who live here HATE motorcycle week which used to be only a weekend when I was in high school in the 80's. Now it runs 12 days! They take over the whole state practically! We wonder most of the time what the hell our town managers are thinking about with all the rules they put into place that don't make sense and up in Lincoln they are still arguing (going on 6 years now) about expanding the ski area or not because the tree huggers are concerned about some kind of bird that nests there! Ridiculous. There are the same type of problems all over the country. We are looking into moving to MB because we can't stand the winters anymore.
Some people are not happy anywhere. As someone who has lived more than ten different places due to job transfers, Myrtle Beach has been one of my favorites.
Just wanted to add on--I typically don't get on tangents, so I apologize. I hear people ranting about northerners all the time on here, and how it would be ok if they would only be more accepting of the southern way of life. You need to realize that someone can't just move somewhere and denounce their own heritage. A New Yorker won't move here and instantly develop a southern dialect, brew sweet tea, and salute the stars and bars. Nor should they be expected to. People from the north move to the south for various reasons, and usually try to blend in the best that they can. My observations have been that many well-intentioned people from the north encounter hostility from southerners due to misunderstandings and miscommunication. You also must factor in that Myrtle Beach is a tourist destination, and tensions can fly during peek season. Please don't be hypocrates, because southerners are capable of being just as judgmental and "keep to your own" as people from the north. I say this as a southerner who has lived in the north and has family in the north as well as the south, so I have seen both sides. Please don't be offended, this is just my personal opinion based on experiences and observations.
I am from the south and have lived in New York City for 25 years and have never been treated badly by Northerners
Southern hospitality or hostility- you be the judge!
Wow, was I ever shocked to hear from a friend who said that a post that I had written months ago, in which I had tried to warn outsiders about not moving to MB, had come under fire by some excitable hillbillies (his words not mine). I went on the forum to see for myself and, well sure enough, I was under personal attack by two zealous (I’ll call them Southerners, who’s screen names are Savannah48 and SouthernByChoice14). They had taken ultimate exception to what I wrote about being ripped off while living in SC; how people there act rudely and how it is not a good place to move to from elsewhere. When actually it is a very well known fact that Southerners hate Yankees--which includes everyone who is not a Southerner. Surely, you have heard of this? Savannah48 ripped apart everything I said and basically flat-out called me a liar. I am not sure why Savannah48 feels they know my own personal experiences better than I, but Savannah48, you are wrong. I actually toned down my true feelings for the area and left out many of the horrible experiences that we went through. Your attacks, however, were more of a personal nature when you suggested that I sounded like an “uneducated”, “bar rat” and had a negative attitude!!! For the record Savannah48, I am a journalist--from a large city out West, We moved to SC while on assignment with a national magazine. I went there with great enthusiasm and I was very excited to be living in the South. But, “literally” the very first day we lived there we were robbed and my husband ended up in the emergency room with a serious injury. This negative trend continued throughout the 5 years we were there: we got burned on a real estate deal and had to go to court for 3 years (Pburgess68 – I can completely relate to your tales re: the court system in the area- we had similar experiences). We had all the information and applications stolen from our laptop by a computer repair business (Seaside Computers) who were located all over MB and who are now facing federal charges for doing the same thing to over 200 other customers. You can find archived stories about this in the Sun News. Savannah48 suggested that I was frequenting skanky places in my own “personal pursuits”. I actually never went to a bar in the 5 years that I lived there. I have lived in 6 other states and two countries and have come away from each with tons of good stories and positive experiences. I have a Masters degree from Brown and it was probably because of my journalism background that I was exposed to more negative statistics than the average Joe, but I can assure you that MB and the surrounding area is a hotbed of illegal activity. As V65Magnafan suggested drugs are everywhere. True enough V65Magnafan but MB & Georgetown counties drug problems are severe enough to have them topping national crime lists. They also top out on high school dropout rates, unemployment rates, teenage pregnancy, new HIV cases, car theft and prostitution. Again, V65Magnafan joked that in their last family outing to MB they were disappointed not to have seen “actual streetwalkers”. Yet, at work, we had a saying about just this thing while living there, which was: "You couldn’t swing a cat without hitting a person from Ohio or a prostitute." Most MB prostitutes don’t walk the streets but work for Gentleman’s clubs and escort services--which are in great abundance in the Grand Strand. It is also a well-known fact that men from all over flock to MB for both the golf courses and the sex. “Golf trips” (winky-winky) are big business in MB. There are even popular golf tournaments that provide topless caddy golf cart driver girls, and for a little extra money you can get “happy endings”. Don’t be so naïve folks. I interviewed a guy who worked as a bus driver who drove tour buses full of “golf girlies” from all around the South for the busy Golf Trip season in MB. You might want to read: The Redneck Riviera by Richard N.Cote, which is a fictionalized account of life in MB that just simply rings with truth and is all about drugs & prostitution in MB. Or, you could go to Golf Packages By HnS, LLC to view a watered down version of caddy girls. Please note that many of the "caddy girls" are college students. Could this be why the local college in MB is jokingly referred to as StripperU? Another good non-fiction story about prostitution in MB is by Jane Stillwater of Novaeo.com. Simply google Jane Stillwater, MB and prostitution and her story titled- episode 2: Cruising for Prostitutes will come up. When I said that MB draws a low-level tourist base I clearly wasn’t singling out V65Magnafan and his very traveled and well-heeled family, but I might also have meant the loud and raucous hordes of bikers that attack the area three times a year (every year) and to be specific, not all bikers are bad, but certainly the ones who get drunk, bring even more drugs into the area and frequent the temporary sex-tents with the live sex-shows that happen during some of the bike weeks and, of course, the murders that occur during bike week can be a real bummer too. Don’t even get me started on the pollution--both noise and actual trash. The last point that I’d like to make is that SouthernByChoice14 wrote that she read that I had moved to Texas and was unhappy there too. How wrong you are SouthernByChoice14. I am ecstatic to be here! I love it here! Y’all can have the “RIV”- I’ll take Texas any day! By the way dear readers, do feel free to go back and read my original post on page 4 then read the posts that follow--I had simply tried to warn people from my own experiences while in the MB area. But, we were not the only ones that faced the problems we had there: we met lots of folks who also got burned repeatedly. So don’t ignore the warnings. After we got there and found ourselves in weird situation after weird situation, I looked back at all the well meaning people that tried to warn us. But our own enthusiasm for beach living and an opportunity to work for a huge magazine kept us blind to the warnings. Just like many of you, we vacationed in MB and found the experience quaint, but the blush quickly comes off the rose once you’re in residence. I think that Savannah48 and SouthernByChoice14 and their hateful attitudes are exactly what you can expect to experience while living in MB. Southern hospitality is indeed dead and has been replaced with it’s kissing cousin: Southern Hostility. SouthernByChoice14 and Savannah48 truly do exemplify the southern experience, MB-Style. How very scrappy and ready to stir up the bad energy & negative feelings they are. As Davy Crockett famously said: "You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas."
A journalist who doesn't grasp the basics of paragraphing is a rare find. I suggest that you take a look at some writings by Jeff Cooper--the Cooper Color Code.
It appears from your own admission that you travel with your situational awareness turned off.
Robbed? Try situation yellow. My daughter has travelled all over the world while applying The Cooper Color Code and so far, hasn't had an untoward situation that wasn't humourous. Situational awareness and basic knowledge of self-defense is a good idea for all travellers.
"Robbers" as you put it, scope out people who broadcast "weak-unaware-victim" signals. I suggest that you learn how to transmit "aware-confident-dangerous-when-provoked-signals". I and my wife, alone and together, have walked through the roughest areas of MB (kidding, of course) Manhattan, London (more dangerous than New York now) Chicago, The Bronx and Brooklyn, and Rome. No problems.
Burned in a real estate deal? I'm looking at real estate in the MB area. Before I sign anything, I will do my due diligence. I will be sure that I fully understand the ins and outs of SC condo law, I will personally check the title search, etc. etc. And I will have a full awareness of everything I need to know before I sign on any dotted line. People burned repeatedly? You mean like putting one's finger into an electric outlet repeatedly?
Wow, talk about bitterness and naivety.
Cameragirl, give it up, move on, and learn how to paragraph. I'm happy you like Texas. You must have found a nice womb there.
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transplant
