I have an interest in Blairsville because it is my hometown. I don't want to see it destroyed by poor quality development and an controlled growth. I just can't figure out how someone can say that my opinion is somehow less valid. I would love to move back to Blairsville one day - I don't know that I ever will be unless the job market expands to include oddball professional types.

I guess this is what happens when a girl from a transplant family grows up in a lovely small town. She gets out of high school, puts herself through college, meets and handsome plumber (they really do exist) and lives happily ever after in another small town that her plumber happens to be a native of. All the while, she keeps tabs on her hometown and wishes that the native people there could be as warm and welcoming as the natives of Banks County are to her.

I would just like to bring up a few points about this area. That really concerns the young and middle aged people of this area.

JOBS

Jobs that pay enough to pay rent and buy food, etc.

Since most of the manufacturing has closed down all around this area, there are few jobs that pay little more than minimum wage. No one can live and pay rent on minimum wage. Let alone support a family.
The house building rage will slow and get competitive..there for lowering wages.

So...All the Local young people have to move away to find good paying jobs. Or adapt and make use of all the newcomers that need services.

Please let me know your comments.

wu

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Both of my parents are originally from South Georgia

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GrayEagle
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S.. N.. L..

In many ways I hope it stays that way. Who the heck wants Blairsville to look like suburban Atlanta! Though It would be nice to have some people to hang out with. My wife and I are are both about 30 with college and professional backgrounds. We are finding it very hard to meet people our age we have much to talk about with. Thats not to sound snobby, just a reality that we have different backgrounds than most of the people our age in Blairsville. Thats because there is nothing here for the kids who go off to college to come back to. This is why almost all of the folks between 25-32 are working class locals who have kids and are doing the family thing. There are no jobs or social outlets to bring young, educated folks here. That also means there is no place for locals who get educated to come back.

The pool of young professionals here is very small. I think lots would move here if there was work for them, but this highlights the serious lack of "good" jobs.

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Both of my parents are originally from South Georgia

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Electa, where are they from? Joy and I are from Brunswick.

GrayEagle
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Thoughts:
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Spam, I'm not trying to put you down here, but I've rarely found anyone who I couldn't find common ground to use as a starting point for conversation and possible friendship. I'm not as learned as some of the people I am associated with but I am able to converse with them and understand the principles and theories they present. Inversely, my background and experiences have given me knowledge that many don't possess, some things are not in a book. I have learned to modify my conversation to match the people I'm with. I can learn from bankers as well as bootlegers, comptrolers and construction workers, doctors and ditch diggers. Perhaps you might find those you are trying to approach easier to reach if you begin at their level instead of expecting them to be on your level. They may not know much about fine wine or mutual funds but they might know a good recipe for BBQ sauce or where the best way to find that squeek in your floor. I love to hear how a succesful businessman got started and also enjoy when a friend tells me about a new tool they have gotten. I wear a coat and tie when I'm forced to but am more confortable in overalls. I can't see that the amount of education or your profession would have anything to do with the level of people I want for friends. Any way doesn't PHD stand for "piled higher and deeper"?

Sweet N Low, who'da thunk it?? I just wish I hadn't gotten mad at my spelling teacher and tried to teach her a lesson by not learning how to spell. See ya.

I have observed that many times differences tend to be forgotten unless brought to the surface by those considered different. This may be race, nationality, status level, education or political beliefs. Some people, by their actions or vocal remarks, keep reminding those they are with that they are different. A mouse is a lot easier to see when it runs across the floor, a deer or a tree is hard to see as it blends with the forest, but stands out in an open field.

There is nothing wrong with being an individual, of having your own opinions and desires, but don't be supprised when those around you notice this and leave you out in the field. A tree in the forest is no less a tree than the lone tree in the field, although the tree in the field may receive more nurshing rain and minerals from the soil it has no protection from the wind like the trees in the forest.

Deep this morning isn't it!

electra, are you around Vidalia now?? I sometimes come down to that area and would be glad to buy you and hubby dinner one night when I'm down that way. With the size and price of houses around here now a days you might have a future here.
why

Edited by - why on 09/07/2006 09:15:58 AM

Everyone I know that has moved here wishes there was just one really top-notch plant nursery with more than the run-of-the-mill plants. Native plants would be nice too.

Why,

I am insulated from the "you're not from here" vibe that so many have experienced. Almost everyone I know is from elsewhere and they all know each other.

One person I know, bought a cabin up here before they decided to build a house and live here permanently. The guy who came to install their cable in the cabin was a local. He looked the wife straight in the eye and said he didn't like outsiders moving in. It had nothing to do with any conversation they were having, he just blurted it out.

So, that was their "Welcome" to Blairsville.

I've heard stories that went back to 1958 when I was born, that mountain people were not welcoming of strangers.

My parents lived in Asheville, NC for a couple of years after their marriage and I was born there. They returned to Florida when I was 6 weeks old. Throughout my life, they went to North Carolina quite often for vacations and to Ridgecrest (Southern Baptist training camp). But, they were encountering those mountain attitudes back in 1958!

Some friends of my parents moved to the mountains in North Carolina in the 1970's, long before the influx of newcomers. They decided to opt for a different life and went into farming for a while. Eventually, they found out that the feed store was charging them way more than the going rate for supplies. I guess that was their payback for daring to move into the mountains!

My own grandmother, a Virginian by birth, matter of factly told me that mountain people are "different" - not because they live differently, but because they are insulated and don't like outsiders.

The term "Southern hospitality" never applied to the mountains; it applied to the coastal and piedmont south.

Now, there are all kinds of sociological reasons for this. Mountain people had to depend more closely on family to just survive. They couldn't just trot over to a store for all their needs. I read that only 100 years ago, people HAD TO make their own shoes in Hayesville, because they were so remote.

This would tend to make people very reliant on the people they know. And there weren't a lot of strangers around all the time.

I think mountain people have just developed in a culture that makes trusting outsiders difficult for them. It's not the environment they grew up in. "Change" was not a constant factor in their lives as much as it has been for the rest of us, so they are uncomfortable with it.

On top of that, the rest of the south has had newcomers moving in for decades. It has taken longer for that to happen in the mountains - it started more in the 1990's.

So to sum it up, when locals feel offended by newcomers wanting to "change everything", it's often just their mountain heritage talking.

You can't change a person's background and world view. It has shaped them more than even they realise.

Wildflower

The mountains were remote and travel was more difficult. Outside influences were more rare.

The landscape itself created a unique culture.

Wildflower

Back then, it was all twisty winding roads that you had to travel at a snail's pace. Very few highways.

By the 1990's, she said it was so much easier to get around the mountains because of all the highways that had been built.

Wildflower

I have heard and read stories about people moving to Alaska and finding that the people there would not have any more than passing conversation with them. They found out that people who move up there were given two to three years to see if they were going to make it and fit in before being accepted. It is kind of like hunting with someone you have never hunted with before, you watch them pretty close to see if they are safe and if they can be trusted not to get themselves or you into trouble by putting you in danger.

As you know, I can see nothing wrong with the way things have been here for years. As far as jobs go, I left for many years to work in other areas, when I returned I found that for the most part those who stayed had prospered just as much as I had and were better off than I in terms of property as they had been here and able to buy when it was available at decent prices.

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electra, are you around Vidalia now?? I sometimes come down to that area and would be glad to buy you and hubby dinner one night when I'm down that way. With the size and price of houses around here now a days you might have a future here.
why

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Remember that you are unique, just like everyone else.

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WRJ, thanks for serving your country. I think too many young people over look the advantages of a military career. For someone able to learn and opperate under the discipline required there is a reward of early retirement and the possibility of a good civilian job with added retirement. Many of the young people who think there is nothing in the way of a job out there for them could find a way out of the unemployment lines and low paying jobs.

Spam, I'm not trying to put you down here, but I've rarely found anyone who I couldn't find common ground to use as a starting point for conversation and possible friendship. I'm not as learned as some of the people I am associated with but I am able to converse with them and understand the principles and theories they present. Inversely, my background and experiences have given me knowledge that many don't possess, some things are not in a book. I have learned to modify my conversation to match the people I'm with. I can learn from bankers as well as bootlegers, comptrolers and construction workers, doctors and ditch diggers. Perhaps you might find those you are trying to approach easier to reach if you begin at their level instead of expecting them to be on your level. They may not know much about fine wine or mutual funds but they might know a good recipe for BBQ sauce or where the best way to find that squeek in your floor. I love to hear how a succesful businessman got started and also enjoy when a friend tells me about a new tool they have gotten. I wear a coat and tie when I'm forced to but am more confortable in overalls. I can't see that the amount of education or your profession would have anything to do with the level of people I want for friends. Any way doesn't PHD stand for "piled higher and deeper"?

Sweet N Low, who'da thunk it?? I just wish I hadn't gotten mad at my spelling teacher and tried to teach her a lesson by not learning how to spell. See ya.

I have observed that many times differences tend to be forgotten unless brought to the surface by those considered different. This may be race, nationality, status level, education or political beliefs. Some people, by their actions or vocal remarks, keep reminding those they are with that they are different. A mouse is a lot easier to see when it runs across the floor, a deer or a tree is hard to see as it blends with the forest, but stands out in an open field.

There is nothing wrong with being an individual, of having your own opinions and desires, but don't be supprised when those around you notice this and leave you out in the field. A tree in the forest is no less a tree than the lone tree in the field, although the tree in the field may receive more nurshing rain and minerals from the soil it has no protection from the wind like the trees in the forest.

Deep this morning isn't it!

electra, are you around Vidalia now?? I sometimes come down to that area and would be glad to buy you and hubby dinner one night when I'm down that way. With the size and price of houses around here now a days you might have a future here.
why

Edited by - why on 09/07/2006 09:15:58 AM

Edited by - why on 09/07/2006 09:17:40 AM

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Edited by - spam4einstein on 09/07/2006 5:11:15 PM

There are all kinds everywhere you go. I am just as friendly as someone will let me be. I can remember the very first person I ever met from Florida. I looked out my parents' bedroom window and saw a man putting up a mailbox. We all went out to meet him and a wonderful friendship of many years began. This sweet man and his wife had no children of their own and my sister and I were happy to spend many an afternoon at their house and they were just as happy to have us there. We visited them at their home in Florida occasionally. It was a very sad time when his wife passed away and then a few years later so did he. My dad still goes every year to their gravesite in Florida to put flowers there.

We accepted him and his ways and he accepted us. There was mutual respect there on both sides.

I really don't think there are many people my age who don't like outsiders moving in. Most I grew up with did move here from somewhere. My husband wasn't born here and he doesn't feel like an outsider even though sometimes I do call him a yankee to tease him. He's lived here since he was six years old though so that might have made a difference.

That was interesting. I've heard remarks from time-to-time from locals who sort of have an inaccurate view of what kind of people transplants are.

One guy who worked on my car in Hayesville a few years ago was like that. He resented newcomers who (in his words) . . . "sit around being served drinks by their maids."

I thought "Huh?", I don't know anyone like that. Besides, since when do maids serve drinks? And besides that, how many maids live in full-time?

The thing is, if you could know the life story of every newcomer, you would see how much they vary. In spite of achieving enough financial security to retire, many of them have struggled at some point in their lives. They were not necessarily born with a silver spoon in their mouths.

Wildflower

Our new commissioner - Bill Kendall, is having a Town Hall meeting later this month to discuss a new ordinance for building heights. He wants to limit new buildings to three stories, but wants the citizens to approve.

He has already put a temporary ordinance in place, because he is getting calls from developers backed by big money every day, who want to put up high rises.

He wrote something interesting in the newspaper. He said that "all studies show that each additional residential unit costs more taxes in services than it pays, each commercial unit pays slightly more taxes than it requires, while open farm, forest, and mountain land pays far more taxes than the services they require. (This type property require no or very little services from its taxes.)

He is also concerned about stopping the sale of U.S. Forest Service land that the current administration in Washington wants to sell off.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this guy.

Wildflower

"Caring for the Land and Serving People" my arse! Have you guys noticed that the visitor centers are not as visitor friendly as they used to be and they have gotten rid of many of their public service people in the name of cost pool reduction.

If they sell it, it would go to developers.

I think the current administration made up a list of things that most people DON'T want, and proceeded to enact them.

Selling off the forest would be one of the things most people don't want. I don't think they care what we want in the least. Selling off our future - very shortsighted.

Wildflower

Blairsville, Georgia - home in the North GA Mountains

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