[TheForge] YAK - Please talk Missouri UP or down

[Justin Fellenz]

Thank you, Dan, for giving me the benefit of the doubt on my age and sagacity.
   
  If you don't drink, as I often don't, coffee flows well in bars. And perhaps it isn't "frequenting" if you're doing research. 
   
  I dunno. An old-style diner might work as well, if you can find one. In my books, if you *can* find an old-style diner where you're going, complete with old-timers in beat-up caps and kind-spoken waitresses named Jolene, it speaks volumes. But again, that's just me.
   
  JRF

Dan Tull <dantull at numail.org> wrote:
  You must be an old sage.
Good advice, eloquently spoken, except "a bar..." if you don't drink, or 
frequent those kind of establishments.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Justin Fellenz" 
To: "Sponsored by ABANA" 
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2006 12:41 AM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] YAK - Please talk Missouri UP or down


You know, when I want to get a sense of a place I like to go sit in a bar, 
up by the taps, and ask whoever is there what's cool about this town. If 
people know you're thinking of moving there, they'll either talk up their 
town or give you their bitterness. Up or down doesn't matter as much as the 
things they choose to highlight. I always learn a lot about the place (might 
take a couple bars to make sure you have a good sample--but remarkable 
commonalities emerge quickly) and it's fun.

I used this approach when I was considering moving to St. Louis. After 
three days it didn't seem to be the town for me. I've since run my 
impressions past other people who have lived there and it seems I got a good 
picture--not that it's a bad town, just not where I wanted to live.

As for the town you're considering...you'll have some culture shock, 
moving to a small town from the burbs and moving from nearly the coast to 
the heartland. Culture shock is a funny thing, in that it, too, has some 
surprising commonalities, and it can happen in your own country. Among other 
things it can be this long but decreasing wave that repeatedly passes 
through anticipation, disappointment at the sameness, disgust at the 
differences, idolization of where you left...if you move it might be worth 
doing some reading on the experience so you don't bolt back to where you 
came from at a low ebb.

That said, as a friend reminded me when we were talking about our move to 
a farm in a small town in BC and I was expressing the same questions you 
are, nothing really needs to be forever. Try it for a few years and if it 
really sucks, it's a really, really big country.

JRF
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