Yup, my pregnant wife, 2yo daughter and I are picking up and moving down from Canada to the United States. We’ve targeted South Carolina as a destination, and specifically, the Greenville area.
With any big move there is always some apprehension and, well, fear. While we have done as much research as we can so far on the area, if anyone here has some additional insights they could share - it would be appreciated.
What are some of the nice, and not so nice things about living there. Any local insights into the economy/job availability? Being from Canada, I’m going to be all over the Greenville GRRRRowl - is it a family friendly atmosphere at the games? How aboput rec hockey - are there “beer leagues” there? Do the city politics work, or are they dysfunctional? Please fill me in on anything if you can!
Here’s a thread where I wrote up a nice piece on Greenville (post #4) with some excellent contribution by others.
Local economy is great, actually. There is high job availability right now, and the standard of living is quite low.
On the best Saturday night, they have a crowd of about 4000. I love to go, my band actually played 3 games this past season. It is very family friendly, makes for a good outing.
The best you are going to be able to do there is the Pavilion. There is a .pdf on this page that talks about the adult league.
Holy shit don’t get me started. I will say that the biggest controversies are where the new baseball stadium will be or if we are going to pay 2 million dollars to have trees line 385.
Check out the other thread, I put some links to some local attractions. If you have any other questions, just ask!
I’m hoping I can substitute “standard” for “cost”… 
Seriously, thank you for the links. Come the fall I’ll be taking a little trip down there to start laying the foundation for a job and gather more information.
I was there once. Kinda nice, but EVERYTHING was deep fried, even the “Sweet Tea” that was constantly being forced on me like it was required by law somehow.
But I’d go back, if someone picked up the tab.
Just wondering, why did you decide on South Carolina in the first place?
:smack: Right, cost. Also, we are quite literate. :rolleyes:
Paging DOGZILLA
DOGZILLA your assistance is needed in aisle 4.
Hope you are not a liberal or even a moderate.
You’d have to ask my wife that. She has a collection of friends and family in the area (albeit more in the Charlotte and Charleston areas), which is a support network that she does not have up here. I’m sure the decreased amount of snow and increased amount of scenic mountains aren’t hinderances either.
I vote Conservative here in Canada, which will still probably earn me the nickname “Stalin” down there. I am very well aware that SC is a lovely shade of red state. As a guideline of my life, I avoid charged political discussions. Nor do I plan on getting a slogan license plate.
Thanks Poonther for the heads up.
I lived in Greenville for two years and could not find another job and get the hell out of there fast enough. So, while Bruce_ Daddy loves it there, I’ve been paged to give you another perspective. (And Bruce_Daddy I hope you do not take offense to any of my comments. Liking a place has a lot to do with the people around you, as well as this being a matter of taste and lifestyle. I respect your opinion, so I hope you can respect mine. I’m just going to relate a few experiences I had there.)
• For families, it’s probably a great place to live. Lots of kid and family-friendly things to do. Unfortunately for me, I was a 27-year-old single professional woman with no children. I was looked upon with suspicion and derision. One fine resident of Greenville actually said to me, out loud and to my face, “You ain’t married and you ain’t got no kids? What’s wrong with ya?”
I would not make this up.
• I found the cost of living to be good (it’s better here, so there) and the quality of life to be very good. It’s close enough to Atlanta and Charlotte, so if you find yourself jonesing for some actual culture, it’s a quick drive out of town. (There is no ballet, I don’t think there’s a symphony, the zoo is lame, and the theater scene blows. The music scene is really nonexistant; you have to go to Charlotte, Ashville or Atlanta for concerts.)
• I thought Greenville itself was one of the ugliest cities I’ve ever been to. Downtown is quaint and pretty, but most of the newer development could use a little landscaping. A few miles out of town and you’re in the beautiful mountains. I spent a lot of time in my car, on the Blue Ridge Parkway when I lived there. It was the only place I wasn’t viewed as a freak because I’m not Baptist, and I don’t have 20 children.
• I never met anyone I related to there, that I could feel comfortable being friends with. After a year, I could easily understand why that woman drove her babies into that lake, down the road a pace in Union. I also understood where Jerry Springer got his guests (if that comment sheds any light on the previous one). I saw nothing but people witnessing to me out of one side of their mouth, while talking about their numerous extramarital affairs out of the other. Could be a function of where I worked and the types of people – but I was working with management types mostly. I’m the only one who had a degree and the only woman on my team for a while.
• They do have a chain of really excellent greek restaurants called The Acropolis. I highly recommend it. I also understand the Indian restaurant is also outstanding. There is a lot of good food there.
True stories coming up. You decided for yourself if this is the sort of place where you want to live.
First, I was there prior to and during the '96 Olympics in Atlanta. I worked at BMW. The torch (aka flaming dildo) was going to be run through the parking lot at the Beemer plant, and then on into Greenville County and back out toward Anderson and then on to Atlanta…
So Greenville County is the only county that I’m aware of that doesn’t just have a nondiscrimination ordinance. Oh, no. They actually have a discrimination ordinance. If you are gay, bi, or transgendered, you may be denied housing, employment, insurance, services and goods. Storeowners can refuse to sell products to you. You can be evicted, legally, simply for your sexual orientation. You can be fired, or not even hired. You can be denied auto insurance, homeowner’s insurance and even basic health care coverage. I believe this may also apply to bi-racial couples, but I’m not sure about that. Nice, huh? Veeeerrrry family friendly.
If everyone in your family is white, straight, Republican, and Baptist.
So, the USOC gets wind of this little law just prior to the March of the Flaming Dildo. They said to themselves, “Hey, wait a minute. The Olympics are about sportsmanship, fairness and above all, tolerance and unity. We don’t think your little discrimination law is very nice. If you want to see our Flaming Dildo, you’re going to have to come to Atlanta.” So they ran the Olympic torch right up to the county line, where the runner hopped into a van so nobody in Greenville could see it. When they crossed into the next county, the runner hopped back out and continued the dildo parade. Take that, ya homophobic, misogynist, racist, bigoted bastids!
Second true story. I swear on my grandmother’s grave I did not make this up.
The manager of the paint shop at BMW was a 40-something year old man who had a lovely trophy wife and an 18-month-old child. He was having a torrid affair with his 20-something year old secretary (whose first name was the same as another fine German automobile and boy, weren’t those jokes original). In fact, at one point, he assembled the entire paint shop staff to announce that he was leaving his wife, he was in love with the secretary named after a car, and he was just announcing this publicly for rumor control and could we all get back to work now.
Okay. So I’m hanging out at the time with this girl who was about my age and also liked to drink while listening to blues bands. So we were on the blues band circuit, going out all the time. One night, we’re out drinking and we run into this woman-named-after-a-car, who is of course, out with the paint shop manager guy. Since the paint shop guy was buying rounds, my friend and I stuck around to talk with them for a bit. It just so happened to be Pride Week in Greenville that week, bless the hearts of all those brave G/L/B/T people who had the courage to stand up and step out of the closet at great personal risk to themselves. The Pride Parade had marched itself right past their house – this spoiled whore homewrecking secretary and her boyfriend. When the topic of this parade came up, she turned to me and said, “THOSE people marched right past our house. Isn’t that disgusting?”
My friend had to literally stomp on my foot to make me shut up, and hissed in my ear, “Don’t say anything Dogzilla – they just bought our drinks!” She knew that I was about to go off and explain to Stupid, Spoiled, Homewrecking Whore that what I find disgusting is middle-aged men leaving their wives making them become single moms, and abandoning their children and fatherly duties to shack up with some slut from work… and then passing judgment on those whose sex lives have NOT been announced publicly at the workplace. Oh, but the GAY people are threatening the institution of marriage. There are not enough of these :rolleyes: to go around for that hypocracy.
So, hey. A lot of people love Greenville, but it’s not for everybody. Your mileage, most assuredly, may vary. Personally, I’d rather gnaw my own foot off than live there again near those judgmental assholes who want to impose their religion all over my rights.
Oh, and for such a fine, Christian, upright town… it’s the only place I was ever robbed in a grocery store parking lot. Purse snatched right off my arm in the middle of a mostly-white, upper-middle class neighborhood. I’ve lived in downtown Ft. Lauderdale, worked in Miami, San Antonio, Cleveland… never have I feel less safe than in lovely Greenville.
I have a dozen more stories to share, if you’d like. Just ask. 
After those two? Absolutely.
MMmmkay, let’s see…
• BMW is a great place to work. IF you can get in the door. They have a seven-step hiring process, which takes about two years to get through. They take hair follicle samples for the drug testing stage, which means, if you smoked a doobie at a college party five years ago, you won’t get in. (I worked for a sub-contractor. :D) There are other large factories there and I would imagine all are somewhat difficult to get into. Probably all, if not most, are non-union shops. This was a big deal for a girl who comes from the rust belt in the midwest (me). For you, mebbe not so much.
• Because many of the plants there (manufacturing will be the major source of employment) are owned by European and Asian countries, there’s a significant international population. You’d think they would sort of balance out the strict conservatism, but I didn’t see it. Things could be very different from when I lived there as well. It’s been a long time.
• The schools are supposed to be good, but it’s South Carolina. You want great schools, go to a part of the country other than the South. I think the schools are good, relatively speaking, but I don’t have kids and didn’t go to school in that state, so I shouldn’t really comment on that. Consider home-schooling or private secular school. If you can find a private secular school. (Surely there’s Montessori or something…)
• The white girl-black guy couple who lived one floor below me moved to Miami (where she’s from) because nobody would talk to them. Except me, and then nobody would talk to me (in our apartment complex).
• I once left work to go get smokes with another supervisor, who happened to be a black guy. As he got out of my car, I got some very nasty looks from other people walking into the store who had noticed that a white woman and a black man were traveling in the same vehicle. I couldn’t figure out why anyone should have a problem with that until he explained it to me. There is no doubt in my mind that lynchings still take place in certain remote areas of the county. This will probably be vehemently denied by resident apologists, but this is IMHO and I am merely stating an opinion. I think, in some corners of the world, that sort of racism is alive and well and everybody tries to pretend that it doesn’t.
• The only place I’ve ever been where the people are friendlier is Ohio. I think the uber-friendliness of South Carolina is superficial, however. Either people want something from you (like your money, your spouse, or to get into your pants) or they’re just trying to get some good dirt on you so they feel better about themselves. Even though a lot of people were very, very nice to me, to my face, nobody has bothered to check and see if I’m still alive since I moved back to Florida in 1997.
• It took at least three weeks before I understood a word anyone said to me, because the accent is so heavy. This applies to native Greenvillians. Transplants can be understood. (Hell, the Germans are easier to understand than the natives!) The further out of town you get, the more difficult it is to understand what people are saying to you. I nodded and smiled a lot for a long time. The friendliness seemed to fade the minute someone found out that I was a) a transplant from up north and b) staying. If you were just visiting, they could swallow that. The ones that are there to stay, they call “damn Yankees.” (People actually said that to me. "Oh, you a damn yankee, ‘cause you ain’t leavin’.) You will have to make friends with other damn Yankees like yourselves. Which brings me to…
• “You ain’t from here, are ya!” is actually Greenvillian for “So. Where are you from?” The tone is not meant to be so ugly and confrontational, but to them, you will be the ones with the accents. That which is different is wrong, scary and potentially life-threatening. Be kind and gentle so as not to alarm the bubbas who don’t realize that the American Civil War is over and you are not invading troops attempting to rape their women and pillage their towns and set their farms on fire. Don’t get me wrong, this is a minority of the population. But don’t let anyone mislead you into thinking you won’t encounter that at all.
• You’ll learn a lot of new words. A “hose pipe” is what you and I call a “garden hose.” You don’t “turn” things on and off, you’ll “cut” them on and “cut” them off. You’ll learn how to spell, and properly prounounce “y’all” (note my placement of the apostrophe) which is Southern for “you all” (which is just bad grammar, but anyway). You’ll never get the difference between “pin” and “pen” so just ask people to spell which one they mean. And if someone asks you to “wrench” something, they want you to rinse it. Oh, and this is a big one: when they “carry” somebody, that means they gave someone a ride in their car. It does not mean they lifted someone up and physically carried them. One “totes” things that one has picked up and carried around.
• A chili dog has cole slaw on it. Watch out for this if you don’t find the concept appealing. All tea is iced tea and sweet enough to give you a diabetic coma, even if you aren’t diabetic. Always order unsweet tea and all sodas are Cokes. Sometimes they fry the dill pickles and boil the peanuts. Actually, they fry everything and if you don’t like it, just smother it with ketchup.
• Everyone will call you “honey” or “darlin’” or “sweetie” or {insert other terms of endearment}. Nobody means anything by it; it’s just how people talk to each other down here. Please inform your wife that “ma’am” is not meant as an insult; it’s meant as a sign of respect. She is from up north; she thinks that nobody under the age of 50 qualifies for “ma’am.”
• I dated this boy once. After a long night of heavy drinking, we found ourselves in my apartment, seriously fooling around. He stops making out with me to ask what church I go to. I inform him that I’m an athiest, thinking that should clear the air if there’s any religious issues with sex. He asks if it bothers me that I’m going to burn in hell. I screwed him silly anyway, but that just demonstrates the tacit understanding people have: ALL people are supposed to be Christians or else they’re going to hell. And you’re expected to put out at the end of a date anyway.
• I bought my car in Greenville and I adopted my dog in Greenville. Besides the fat bump in salary, those were the best two things to come out of the place and I could have gotten either any place else.
• Football is the other religion. Learn it. Live it. Love it. This is followed closely by NASCAR, which brings us to the 11th Commandment, Thou Shalt Not Insult The Memory of Dale Earnhart. (That’s what the number 3 means on all the pick 'em up trucks.)
• There’s no alcohol sales on Sunday, which means the bars close at midnight Saturday night. You cannot have wine with dinner in a restaurant on a Sunday. You must join “private” clubs (which are exempt from the law) if you want to imbibe on the Sabbath. Generally, this consists of signing a sheet of paper upon entry and being declared a “member,” so it’s not much of a hassle, but it is a hassle. You cannot watch football with a few brews unless you buy the beer on Saturday. You are forced to plan your drinking, if that matters to you at all.
• Greenville is the home of Bob Jones University, South Carolina’s finest ultra-conservative, knee-jerk reactionary university. All I know is the women aren’t allowed to wear pants and they have to put up a big-ass fence to keep those kids from getting out. Surely, nobody would want to break into the place. There’s also Furman University which is a private school, but I don’t think it’s quite as conservative. These kids say they go to “Furman” and “BJU” with straight faces. That ought to tell you something.
•I heard comments like, “I hate to see a woman smoke.” And, “I hate to hear a woman talk like that.” (Generally after I’ve dropped the f-bomb.)
• James Dickey, the author of “Deliverance,” was born and raised in Greenville. The book, later became the legendary movie, was written about the Oconee River, which is just mebbe 100 miles away and forms part of the border between SC and GA. There’s a reason those “country people” were so accurately portrayed. Don’t stray too far out of town at night. Also, the book “Bastard Out of Carolina” was set in Greenville.
That ought to give you some things to think about.
Dude. You’re throroughly entitled to your own opinion on anything else, but do you honestly and sincerely think people out by the county line are putting on their bedsheets and hosting neck-popping parties? Because I have no dog in this fight, being from the Midlands, but that goes a little past “the story of my bad experiences” and into insult. Certainly to imply that not only does it happen (which I doubt) but that it’s so common it doesn’t make the news.
You’re absolutely right: I should clarify that. I certainly didn’t mean to imply that it’s common. I think it’s secretive, underground, conspiracy stuff. Which is why you think I’m full of beans. That’s okay. I knew someone would immediately seize on that one comment. I do have a slight tendency toward the paranoia. . . You’re entitled to think I’m a nut job. I’m just sayin’ that, based on my experiences with people I talked to, places I went to and the people I met in some of those places… I honestly and sincerely think that some very rare individuals are quietly maintaining some very old habits, very discreetly. They’re not putting out flyers at the record shop, like a rave. They could go after the homeless and addicts and prostitutes and probably get no press at all. I just think it’s entirely possible. If it exists at all, it exists in a place like this. Dude.
I also don’t think your average family with small babies is going to be out wandering around the back roads of Cherokee County in the middle of the damn night, so prolly these folks here don’t have anything to worry about. Nobody’s burning crosses anymore… right?
Well, damn, with the bitterness you’re demonstrating against the town, no wonder. You may not have liked the place, but if you look hard enough under every little rock in any town, eventually you’ll find enough shit to make a laundry list of things you don’t like about it. If all you look for is the negative, that’s all you’ll find.
I was in Greenville once for a weekend, and eventually I’d like to get back there. Granted, it was only a weekend, but I didn’t encounter any of what you saw, such as the witnessing and the “Y’all ain’t from around here, are ya?” I was obviously from out of town, having no accent to speak of, getting childishly excited over a crock of boiled peanuts, incredulous over the $2.75 packs of Marlboro Lights, the beer for sale at the gas stations, grits, real live cotton fields…
I was treated pretty well for the most part. Being a “damn Yankee” did me no harm that I was aware of.
Now keep in mind, I respect your right to hold an opinion. I am aware that I am not required to agree with yours, just as you are not obligated to agree with mine. However, I have been taught that opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one, and sometimes they are packed full of shit.
xen·o·phobe Audio pronunciation of “xenophobe”
n. A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples. See Dogzilla
I have never read such a flaming heap of gasoline soaked garbage in my entire life.
29, going on 30. Never heard this. Lie.
I thought we quit handing out blinders 100 years ago. I guess if you are looking for weeds, you’ll never see the flowers.
Apparently coherence isn’t a prerequisite. What are you going on about? To paraphrase: “Greenville is ugly. Well, not downtown. And… um, not a few miles outside of town. Or… Um 30 miles outside or town. And … um … something about religion. And I like Snickers candy bars”. :rolleyes:
That is so awesome. You are so beyond any of the local hillbillies in your intellectual stature with your degree. :shameful bowing: I grew up in Union, and Susan (Vaughn) Smith was my baby sitter. Lucky for me, they have a seat on the “Springer Show” that might catch me a buck or two since I am such a lonely redneck. How else could I keep up my extravagant “huntin’ and fishin’” lifestyle while staying in line with your “holier than thou” moral guidlines.
What in the Fucking Fuck. In the largest county in the state of South Carolina, during the course of 2 years, you managed to find one restaurant accommodating to your tender palate. Con-grad-u-fucking-lations.
CITE?
Please, tell me more about your selective moralism. I am especially interested in why you are able to judge people by the age of their partners while at the same time denouncing others for their equally arbitrary and unjust judgement of others?
Pot. Kettle. Black. Hypocrite. Nametags by the door.
WTF? Would it be more acceptible if it occured in a “mostly-black, lower-class neighborhood”? Seriously. You got robbed. It happens everywhere. And I’m missing the “Christian, upright town” connection. You got robbed by a “Christian” in your “mostly-white, upper-middle class neighborhood”?. Did you ask the thug?
BFD. I thought about applying to BMW. After researching their hiring strategy, I elected not to apply as well. So what? It’s a German company after all. Don’t like unions, don’t like drug testing, don’t apply! I didn’t. Yay capitalism!. There are only, oh, I don’t know, A MILLION OTHER PLACES TO WORK!.
Paraphrased: There could be roses on the stems, but I’m too busy pricking myself to notice. Oh well.
I went to public school. I went to a State university. I have a very nice job. Amazingly, I am able to put together full sentences.
Realism called, and left a message. I didn’t write it down, but I remember the gist of it. Something along the lines of “Racism exists everywhere. It sucks. Racist people are not to be tolerated. However, do not let racist people dictate your life. Good day.”
:rolleyes:
Heaven forbid someone speak different than you. Of cource, that makes them less worthy, I don’t see how I missed it.
Incredible. Someone noticed that you do not have a Southern accent. We will not try to initiate conversation again, sorry for the inconveniece.
Congratulations. You discovered regionalisms. Most people realize around 8 or 9 years of age that people around the country have localized vocabulary. Perhaps you should come back in State, one of our “slow” schools might still have a desk available.
Again, Welcome to different people around the country having different cuisine. It’s called “being traveled”.
Sorry, calling SUPERDUPERBULLSHIT on this one. Unless, of course, your are confusing your “I AM BETTER THAN THOSE HILLBILLIES WHO BELIEVE IN GOD SO MUCH THAT THEY MIGHT FORSAKE MY PUSSY LADEN WITH GOLD FOR THIER LUV OF JAYSUS” fantasy with reality.
[quote]
I bought my car in Greenville and I adopted my dog in Greenville. Besides the fat bump in salary, those were the best two things to come out of the place and I could have gotten either any place else.
Congratulations on finding a dog so fond of peanut butter and rancid twat.
HI2U 1960. I’ve have 4 consecutive weekends of drinking downtown on Sundays, thank you ever so much.
I’ll give you that Bob Jones University sucks ass. They do. I agree with nothing they stand for. SO FUCKING WHAT? They don’t affect my life! They can have their little religious jerkfest inside those gates all they want. It’s their land, and they can circle jerk all they want.
Come on back one weekend, we’ll go down to the Chattooga. Those people will shake your hand, feed you a fried cherry pie and give you whatever you need. They will even overlook your blatant regionalism.
I will give you something to think about. Never have I seen a greater display of elitism than yours. To look down your nose at the lowly Southerners who fashion themselves a moral and religious structure from which to lead their lives. Please, grace us again with your presence, so that we may know how to live and conduct ourselves in what is your immaculate perception of what is and what is not to be. And in so, forgive our hospitality in what must be a ruse, a ploy to some other end.
:eek:
…is it safe to come back in?
I didn’t want to cause a kerfuffle here. I asked for Dogzilla’s experiences, and did she come through. It appears that some of the troubles were more “self-imposed” than others though.
Bruce: The thing about the Olympic Torch is essentially true (indirect reference in link) unfortunately. Don’t know what else to say about that.
I think the name of this thread should have been “Tell me what you LIKE about Greenville, SC” because apparently you aren’t supposed to say anything negative.
I know Dogzilla IRL and knew her when she was living in Greenville. I can vouch for every one of her stories being true.
I thought she’d be a good one to tell the OP of her experiences there because Dogzilla was not raised in a Deep South environment just like the OP and some of the things she ran into with the culture of the Deep South would be some of the same things the OP might experience. He’s from Canada, she’s from Ohio (almost Canada geographically speaking) and lived in Fort Lauderdale (1/4th Canadian.)
To say that Dogzilla isn’t use to different cultures is silly. She lived in South Florida…every block down there has a different culture to it. I think she just was not use to there only being one dominant culture that often times exists in the Deep South.
To say that Dogzilla hates Southerners is silly, she lives in North Florida…we are Southerners here until you get down past Ocala.
Some of the experiences that happened to her in Greenville might have happened to her because she was a single female. Sometimes they are treated differently than say single males. The line about “You ain’t married and you ain’t got no kids? What’s wrong with ya?” did happened to her and she was shocked by it…I remember. Sometimes things like that are said to females more than males.
Disagree with Dogzilla all you guys want, but you should not make it personal which has happened. This is IMHO and she’s entitled to her opinion as much as you are to yours.
Stick to the topic and not the person.
One of the things that somehow got left out was that Greenvillains (:D) eat children, but that might have been covered in the weekly lynchings. Nevermind.
I didn’t say they weren’t self-imposed. I lived there. I had bad experiences. I left. You may very well choose to discount every word I’ve posted here. No skin off my nose either way.
I figured someone would be in here to post a point by counterpoint post to dispute many of my claims like the employment situation isn’t all that rosy, the religious and political oppression is very real, the schools are bad… In fact, I was sort of hoping someone would pop in and tell you all the wonderful good things about Greenville that I didn’t see/hear/experience. I expected cites like, “here’s our award winning schools,” “here’s where we’ve dropped our homophobic bigoted discrimination policy,” “here’s this resources available, here’s something else Dogzilla didn’t know about.” Instead, I find my vagina being accused of being rancid. Hm.
Attacking the person instead of the post sounds to me a lot like some people don’t have anything positive to say about the place either, or else they would have not wasted the bandwidth attacking my “rancid twat” and trying to discredit my opinions. I especially liked how some people took offense to the slightly more positive comments I made in a feeble attempt to balance out the ugly comments I made. But those were met with suspicion and derision as well. Typical.
Good luck in Greenville. I hope you have better experiences there than I did and I hope I’m dead wrong about the racism. While it’s true that if you pick up enough rocks, you’ll eventually find some creepy crawlies… apparently people don’t like it much if you name the creepy crawlies out loud.
Anybody want to hear what I think of Mansfield, Ohio? No? It’s my hometown. Bruce_Daddy, if you want to go live there for two years and then come in here and trash my hometown, I promise not to call you a liar or insult your vagina.
Y’all eat children there?
Well, goldurn, if I’d have known that, it would have changed EVERYTHING. :smack: