A Yankee! Suh, there’s to be no name calling in my thread! Mild insults are alright, but let’s not take the level of discourse to the Pit! 
I live in Lincolnton, NC (about 40m NW of Charlotte) and I LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT. I wouldn’t move back to NY if they gave me a free house and doubled my salary.
We moved to Fayetteville when I was 10 and Swansboro when I was 13. I went to NC State in Raleigh and stayed in Raleigh until I was 27.
I’ve now had a chance to live in Dallas and Seattle and I don’t miss NC at all. I like big cities with real skyscrapers, tons of good shopping, interesting downtowns, good ethnic restaurants and lots of fun stuff to do.
Y’know, people usually pine for the fjords…
Am I the only North Carolinian who doesn’t really care to move back? I was trying to get out of Winston as soon as I turned 18, finally managed it 7 years later.
I could live on the coast and maybe in Greensboro or the Raleigh/Durham area. Even if I wanted to go back to Winston or Clemmons, they are not the same places I left, too much and too many things have changed and likely the things that made me want to leave in the first place have not.
Besides, when I got married we moved to Norfolk, Virginia, that became home to us.
I thought I was the only one! I visited there only once back in ?'94? and it was just so wonderful, I’ve longed to return.
Interesting. I have a friend in Asheville and he says there are zero (0) jobs in Asheville. He has several degrees and has to work in the deli of a grocery store. The fun part is, he’s vegetarian.
That friend, my fiance, and I recently took a trip to California. I liked seeing the rest of the country, but I realized that I’m NC born-n-bred and I want to stay here. I have seen insanity on the roads, my friends, and it is called Southern California. :eek: Greensboro is tame by comparison. Although I will tell anyone who is planning on moving here or who already lives here this bit of advice about getting across the state: If you are going across the state, take Highway 64, not I-40. The scenery is better, there’s not as much traffic, and you avoid Greensboro completely.
There are negative parts of this state. I used to live in China Grove, which is just north of Kannapolis. You may remember Kannapolis from such news stories as the local mill shutting down, leaving over 50,000 jobless. I went back there to catch the train to Washington and it’s dead there now. Nothing is left but an empty mill and a 9-ft. bronze statue of Dale Earnhardt. Much like the rest of my childhood haunts, it is an empty shell. I won’t go on about the textile industry leaving small towns in the dust here because it’s too depressing.
I live in Greenville now, in that great void east of I-95. It’s nice here, but I’m pining for the hills. My fiance and I have agreed that when we’re both done with grad school, we’re heading to the central part of the state where the red clay lives. Lovely, lovely red clay.
Chiming in with the North Carolina love.
I moved to Raleigh in '94 for a job. I can safely say that I LOVE it here for all the reasons others have listed: beaches, mild weather, warm people. Just like any city, it does have problems but that’s what you get for living in the big city.
Raleigh has great schools, theater, music and sports (basketball crazy, allegedly, but then again, I grew up in Indiana so I know real basketball crazy).
I’ve driven in Chicago, Atlanta, and Indianapolis and, honestly, Raleigh isn’t that bad. Except for the fact that at least in Indianapolis, things are gridded and don’t change freakin’ street names every 1/4 mile.
I happen to love car racing and, once the season starts, you can see races Friday and Saturday nights. Dirt tracks, short tracks, any kind of car set up you can dream of.
Unless (god forbid) my folks get seriously ill, I plan on staying here until I get old(er) and gray(er).
Oh, no- I assure you you’re not the only one. Grew up in NC and moved 3000 miles away as soon as finances allowed. I cannot even conceive of the amount of money it would take to convince me to move back. If I had to, I could live in Chapel Hill, maybe, but only at gunpoint.
Seattle is home in more ways than NC ever was.
What really sealed it for me was not Raleigh or Durham…those were great. It was Spencer.
See, we stopped to ride the train. (Shut up! 
). And the guy at the ticket counter had the most pleasing Southern drawl I have heard in ages. It sounded like home. Kinda like I felt when I flew into Atlanta and we got out of the car and I smelled the pine trees.
Someone mentioned hurricanes, is that going to come up in Raleigh/Durham? Or are we far enough inland?
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I’ve driven in Chicago, Atlanta, and Indianapolis and, honestly, Raleigh isn’t that bad. Except for the fact that at least in Indianapolis, things are gridded and don’t change freakin’ street names every 1/4 mile.
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Ah, I see you’ve been on Infamous Street in Charlotte.
I used to live near Spencer. I loved it there. The local elementary schools used to take the kids up there for a field trip and we got to ride the trains and see the roundhouse.
Hurricanes do come up to Raleigh occasionally, but by the time they get there, they aren’t as strong as they are when they hit the coast. They most common track is through Wilmington/Cape Fear to Greenville and then across 95. We get some of the good out of it before it gets to you. You’re welcome.
This is, of course, barring another Hugo-type hurricane that went through Charleston and up through Charlotte, but that is VERY RARE and the odds against it happening again in our lifetimes is astronomical. Someone needs to tell that to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board.
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I just moved to Virginia a few months ago, and like it here so far - but from everything I’ve heard about North Carolina, I’m sure I’d like it there too. I have family around Charlotte, so I’ve thought about visiting down there & seeing what it is like. They are also said to have a thriving tech community, which would definitely work for me.
Susan
Spazcat: that datum was from '99 or '00; things certainly could’ve changed since then, especially with the nation-wide economic slump.
But IIRC, the rating also took into account things other than just economics, rating its overall livability. Again, IIRC, Austin TX rated pretty high and I have several friends in Austin wishing they were living somewhere else, so the whole survey may have been bogus.
In any case, I thought North Carolina was a dandy state to live in, even if I only lived there for 4 months on a job site for the military.
Great, we appreciate it.
I grew up in hurricane country, so I’m not worried about em too much, but living in Atlanta, I haven’t had to worry about em.
I opened this thread havubg misread the title as Is Dining in North Carolina Normal?
Since I was very unpleasantly introduced to a dreadful “aritficial margarine” called Shedd’s Spread at a NC restaurant, I have to answer emphatically NO!
As someone who has driven I-40, the Beltline, and downtown during rush hour. Raleigh had nothing on 285.
Pining for NC is perfectly normal. Mrs Magill, Pinky, and I just got back from a visit, and all I have to say is, “I wanna go home.”
My only complaint is that my cell phone tends to be quirky. (Which is why we missed your call Saturday night, CSS.)
There’s a reason for that.
I knew there had to be a good reason!! Sorry I missed you guys too. 
My wife and I planned to spend our two week honeymoon going up and down the eastern seabord. We wanted to visit Atlanta, Nashville, DC maybe Miami. We started in Asheville so my Mom could meet my wife face to face. We spent the whole two weeks there. My wife even sabotaged our departure purposely because she didn’t want to leave. Since I work from home now and can do this job anywhere that has internet access, as soon as I’ve saved enough dough, the family and I are Asheville bound.
I’ve lived in Illinois, New Hampshire, Vermont, Arizona and North Carolina. North Carolina is my favorite!
I think I’m a Southerner at heart. I was born in Jacksonville, FL and although we moved shortly after that, I’m told I started speaking with the biggest Southern Drawl ever heard coming out of the mouth of a baby in the Midwest.
The seasons are beautiful in North Carolina. Ok, well, the summer is hot & humid, but the rest of the year is wonderful! The rain is warm most of the year. The vegetation is lush and semi-tropical, and the sky really is a distinctly different blue color there. The convergence of several really good public and private universities makes for an interesting populace. The Duke Forrest Preserve and the Chapel Hill Botannical Gardens are great.
And how can you not love the state that gives us the Venus Fly Trap? Yep. They’re indigenous to coastal NC.
If I don’t get the chance to move back to the Triangle while I’m working, I’m seriously considering it for retirement!