Here's to the land of the long leaf pine,
the summer land where the sun doth shine,
where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great,
here's to down home, the Old North State.
I've lived here in North Carolina all my life and can give a number of reasons why it's a great place to live:
- The weather. We have around 8 months of moderate weather, coupled with two months of HOT and two months of more chilly than I'd like. We'd probably have to wear jeans and a light jacket, but we can usually eat Thanksgiving dinner on the deck. We have seasons here.
- We get snow 2-3 days every 1-2 years. We don't pay taxes to buy snowplows and salt, and we don't spend our own money on things like snow tires. Instead, we all just agree that we'll stop the world on those few days. We all stay home, cook good food, and have fun in our 2" of snow.
- We're 4 hours from the beach, 2 hours from the mountains. We can be in Florida in 8-10 hours, Atlanta in 3 hours, DC in 8-10 hours in the other direction. In a nutshell, lots of options.
- We don't need to spend money on expensive winter coats and boots.
On a similar note, we aren't forced to wear heavy, uncomfortable winter coats and boots.
- The cost of living is low. A middle class house is 150-200K, and my city/county property taxes are around 1K per year. Goods and services are similarly inexpensive. Land is very affordable, and you can afford to live on more than a postage-stamp sized lot.
- The South is less populated, making for a much more comfortable life. We have more small towns.
- Traffic doesn't even approach the big cities in other parts of the country.
- People are more laid-back, less aggressive, less time-oriented, more polite.
- The food is excellent. Y'all up North don't even know what barbeque is, and y'all Texans mistakenly think it's beef. YES to the sweet tea.
- The UNC-college system contains 16 universities that are literally the lowest-priced in the nation. UNC-Chapel Hill is consistently listed as one of the top 3 "best buys" in the nation, and some of the other UNC schools have taken a turn on the list.
On the negative side:
- We are home to all four types of poisonous snakes.
- We have hurricanes.
- Our politicians are a disgrace and are determined to end public school as we know it.
- Too many Yankees have found their way down here, and we don't like being told "that's not how we do it at home". If you like home so much, stay there.
