I know a guy that said if it weren’t for family obligations, he would move back to South Carolina. He told me a little about it and it sounds enchanting. Anyone here who lives there and wants to tell me about it? Distract me from this snowy, cold (8 degrees last I knew) Wisconsin winter.
My favorite quote about South Carolina comes from a 19th century politician, who said “South Carolina is too small to be a country, but too large to be an insane asylum.” (Just little friendly rivalry with their neighbor to the north, dontcha know?)
The coast and upstate are both gorgeous places. Great food, nice folks, weird politics.
I plan on doing some research, but what could you tell me that I won’t read online? What ethnicity/nationalities are dominent? This area of Wisconsin is hugely Scandinavian, and everyone knows Wisconsin = brats, cheese and beer. How is South/North Carolina distinguished foodwise?
I hope you don’t think SC is a tropical paradise. It snows often upstate, and every few years in the coastal areas. Hot and humid in the summer, but the winters are tolerable.
Now, that’s a far cry from 8 degrees, but don’t think you will be lying on the beach in February, although you may have 60+ degree days…
Check out this recent thread for some hints:
I like coastal South Carolina (Beaufort and Charleston, in particular) but there are some very poor rural areas.
jtgain, you made me chuckle. The idea of lying on a beach in February is so foreign to me… No, my friend just mentioned some picturesque scenes that are SO appealing in this Time O’Permafrost here. Thanks everyone, for your info, and MoniLizaT for the link.
MonaLizaT, I just read most of the link you provided, and thank you again. I think the winters there sound like heaven, the summers maybe a little too humid, but that’s what AC is for. The price of real estate is consistent with what my buddy mentioned. Thanks again for the info everyone.
The two largest ethnic groups are a) Black (about 30%), and b) Rust Belt/Northeastern refugees (about 20%). OK, that last number might be a little high
Food is fried. Regardless. And salty. Oh, boy, is it salty. There’s no real “Carolina” food. People might be tempted to say “grits,” but that’s just cracked up corn. Eh.
Tea is sweeeeeet. So sugary that it gives maples syrup a run for its money both in sweetness and viscosity.
Long chain of beaches. For this state, that’s the “Goose that lays the golden egg.” If not for that, it would be just a pee break on I-95.
South Carolina’s the one with cheap tobacco and South of the Border[, right? When I was a kid my family used to drive down to Florida every winter (my dad would stock up on pipe tobacco).
May I be permitted to hijack my own post and ask what peoples’ impressions are of Wisconsin and its residents?
Can I do that? I would really like to hear. And if anyone chooses to do that, may be respond with my reality?
As a Wisconsinite born and bred, whose roots in this state go back to 1847, all I can say is: “Visit Wisconsin! Come smell our dairy air!”
QTM, maybe we know each other. My family home was built around 1847 and my parents still live there, southeast of Madison.
Okay, hijacked enough.
South Carolina is relatively cheap and very hot during the summer. It is also very Southern which isn’t at all negative in my native raised Louisiana mind. The people are very friendly but also a little bit prying over time. The poverty level is high especially among the poor black population.
I would live there and almost did based on a job opportunity at one time, You just have to accept a little bit of backwardness and strong Southern culture in places (not always a bad thing). The public schools won’t be the greatest if you have kids. It is easier for a Northern t make friends over other places especially if you join a church.
My brother and his wife lived there for a while. I always liked it but you have to go in knowing what it is. Friendliness and affordability are better than most of the U.S. but here is also poverty and ignorance to contend with. Much of the state is beautiful and Charleston and Savannah are gorgeous.
The real question is you like Southern culture. The winters will certainly be mild but the summers can be tortourous to someone that isn’t accustomed to them.
Um, BBQ? Seafood, particularly oysters and shrimp (definitely not always fried)? Low Country Boil? That food of the gods, shrimp grits with biscuits and gravy?
[QUOTE=Shagnasty]
Much of the state is beautiful and Charleston and **Savannah ** are gorgeous.QUOTE]
Emphasis mine. A small nitpick because you are probably referring to the general area, but Savannah is in Georgia.
Er? No food? South Carolina is the only state that has, natively, all three kinds of barbeque.
I’m a native of South Carolina, though I now live just a bit to the north. There’s a lot about the Palmetto state that I honestly believe anyone can appreciate and enjoy, but I always, always warn people about the idea of moving there.
South Carolina is a very poor state. Things have changed somewhat in some areas with industries like Michelin and BMW establishing a presence there, but overall, it’s a state that has gotten where it is today through big government contracts (several very important military bases and one very important nuclear power facility), tourism (especially Charleston and the Grand Strand), and agriculture. And the last leg of that tripod gets cut a little bit shorter every year.
There are no big cities in South Carolina. Columbia, Charleston, and Greenville are the largest, but their combined populations don’t even reach 2,000,000 (per 2005 estimates from Statistical Abstracts). And the great majority of the state is rural.
Having been born and raised in Columbia, I can tell you a lot about that part of the state (called the Midlands), and having gone to college in Greenville, I can tell you a bit about that part of the state (called the Upstate by natives, the Piedmont by marketers and other corporate-speak drones). About Charleston and other Low Country parts of the state, I can give you outlines.
Don’t forget she-crab soup.
I spent a little time there with a very close friend who I grew up with but who has lived there for about 10 years, and our impressions as Yankees is that a Yankee can never, ever, be a South Carolinian. Oh, you can move there and you can vote there and raise a family there and have a job and pay taxes there and make friends there. But you will always be “That sweet Yankee girl on 4th Street,” if they like you and “That trashy Yankee bitch on 4th Street,” if they don’t. You will never, quite, feel like you fit in.
When I was a kid, my dad took me to a Civil War museum in…I forget which town. Might have been Charleston. It took me a while to figure out what was so weird about the place. And then I noticed the happy smiling slaves on all the murals. The exhibits were definitely slanted in the “War of Northern Aggression” type verbiage. That was prob’ly 20 years ago, so I don’t know if that’s changed.
Edit: Oh, and the poverty was depressing. Not a single man among her circle of friends had a regular job. They all (I met about a dozen of them) flit about from one temporary thing to another, and the women stay home with the kids during the day, work as waitresses at night, and look much older than I would have guessed.
But the barbeque. Oh, gods, the barbeque. Simply amazing.
Another SC native here. Rascal’s Mom, if I knew more about your interests I could probably tell you which part of the Palmetto State, if any, might be right for you. These reflections might be helpful:
-
The Upstate, Midlands and Lowcountry can be strikingly dissimilar places, despite SC’s small size. A person who would be unhappy and miserable in Spartanburg or Anderson might be happier than a pig eating sh*t if they lived in Charleston or Bluffton.
-
As you mentioned food, I would say that the good people of South Carolina have taken the casserole to an art form. You will discover this when you have reason to attend your first covered dish supper (and believe me, you WILL be attending a covered dish supper, sooner rather than later). You will also be introduced to the concept of the meat-and-three restaurant, meaning your choice of meat (usually fried chicken, meatloaf, ham, turkey with gravy, or fried catfish) with three vegetables. These eateries are our version of the delicattesen (sic?). We like to eat at such establishments for lunch, resulting in a statewide food coma between the hours of 1 and 3 PM.
-
We do not like people who move here and then complain about things. We do not, in fact, give a damn how you did things up north. It’s nothing personal.
-
We hate government regulations, zoning and land use laws. We then complain when our workers are killed in plant fires resulting from defective sprinkler systems, or when a junkyard or chicken farm opens up in our neighborhood.
-
Our reputation for intolerance is overblown. Segments of racism, homophobia, etc., exist in our population, but the overall appearance of such horrible attitudes is enhanced by gasbag politicians pandering for votes.
-
Regarding ethnicity, the Upstate is heavily populated by descendants of the Scots-Irish. The Lowcountry is more of a mixed bag of influences, more heavily Irish, with a handful of Huguenots (who are genetically predisposed to live in fear).
-
Anybody who moves to the Columbia area will suffer a loss of 10 IQ points. The loss of intelligence is temporary and will return once the person leaves the boundaries of Lexington or Richland Counties. The loss of IQ points is multiplied threefold if the person is there on Official Government Business. This phenomena explains why seemingly rational, well-meaning, and more-or-less intelligent people turn into sub-human morons when the General Assembly is in session.