GayPatriot

The Internet home for American gay conservatives.

Relocation to Charlotte, Part II

by

As many of you know, I rarely stray into the territory of personal thoughts and/or information. But a series of events in the past 24 hours has prompted me to do some public reflecting.

John and I have only been in Charlotte for one week, and are only able to move into the new house this weekend. But we have experienced such a change of culture that it has been quite eyeopening. We have been treated more as real-life human beings — with courtesy, respect and genuine acceptance — in the past week than during the six entire years we lived in the DC metro area.

The people we have encountered in Charlotte are so kind and open that it has been such a pleasant change from living in the “what can you do for me” environment of the nation’s capital. I am so happy to have made the move down here that I wonder what took me so long to escape the self-absorbed mindset of DC.

We have good friends in the DC area… and they have always been great. But it is the change of the attitude in “strangers” that has been so refreshing. I cannot tell you how many people have turned around in a cashier’s line just to say hi or to engage us in a conversation. That was unheard of in Northern Virginia.

We have even been invited to a Christmas party already in Charlotte — something that never happened the whole time we lived in Virginia.

So I wanted to take this space to thank my new hometown for welcoming us with wide open arms. We are so happy to be here and looking forward to many more years of genuine Southern hospitality.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Comments

  4. Objection, Your Honor! I’ve lived in Northern VA for 13 years and have always found the people here very friendly. Mind you, not the slow, annoying kind of friendly like you get in the Deep South, just very polite. Of course, I moved here from New Jersey so I guess it’s all a matter of perspective.

  5. I moved to Maryland after three years in South Carolina, proceeded by five years in Arizona, a year and a half in the Pacific Northwest, and after growing up in a certain industrialized midwestern Blue State. My observations: People in the Midwest are the most genuine, people in the PacNW the most phony. Arizona was just all around great, not only friendly, but a real melting pot, where there was genuine cultural fusion. Also, in Arizona, very accepting of individuality (the real kind, not the phony liberal kind). People in Carolina tended to be superficially nice (I think they call it ‘genteel,’) but most likely to talk about people behind their backs. All of ’em are nicer than the people in Greater DC. (Except for Frank IBC. He’s a gem.)

    To be honest, I’d love to work my career so I had GP’s option of working from anywhere, and I’d choose either the Great Lakes region or the Mountain West. Until the boys are grown up, frequent travel isn’t an option.

  8. I thought you were well familiar with the ways of us from the Mid-Atlantic and NE. Apparently, what you describe is a phenomena that occurs outside of the aforementioned areas.