I don’t want to complain too much. . . but the NC of my childhood is NO MORE. The traffic in Charlotte is horrendous as it is in other parts of the state. People are ruder and have lost all patience with each other. We used to be the kind of people who held the door for one another and said, "No, you go first!" But now, it’s "ME FIRST!" everywhere you go.

People who move here from places where the cost of living was higher are sometimes and oftentimes snobby: they can afford larger, nicer homes here and because of this, they assume they are better educated and higher society than people of the same education level who have lived here all their lives and only can afford a smaller home due to the lower cost of living and such. They get a false confidence from these material things, bigger houses and brand new vehicles, and act like major snobs.

They move here because they "love it", but then they do all they can to change it into what they left before. . . They don’t think our schools are good enough. They are very pushy.

And honestly, many native North Carolinians don’t want them here.

I’m warning you so that if you ever come, you will be welcome as long as you don’t behave like other transplants. . . and do have some compassion and respect for the people who have called NC home all their lives and deep into their family’s history in this country. And do understand why the natives have put their "fences" up and aren’t as polite as Southerners used to be.

Emily

The biscuits look good, too!

Have a great day…

Trish

Even after living 15 years here in Arkansas, I still consider myself a Californian and periodically feel the same restlessness and longing that you do. This month in particular has been one of those times. Most of the time I feel alone. Today I feel as though I have shared my feelings with a friend.

Thank you for your post.

I also just wanted to throw in my thoughts about moving East -> West versus MH’s West-> East move. In one respect, I am different from MH in that, since many of my friends are in tech-oriented fields, many of them found jobs out here in Silicon Valley with me. I have lots of friends here! On my more positive days, I liken it to almost being at home, except a few friends are missing and I don’t know where anything is. I mean, we do the same sort of things here that we did in NC – it should be the same feeling, right?

Well, I still miss NC very, very much. I thought everyone was somewhat on the unfriendly side and less open compared to NC. I think it’s just the atmosphere you know, because then you realize how you should interpret everyone’s mannerisms.

I hate the housing market here – many of my friends who stayed in NC and are the same age as me are already buying houses, putting in roots. Meanwhile, while I am living comfortably with my fiancee, there is no way I will be able to do anything more than rent if we live out here long-term.

Also, I think a large population (here, at least, in Silicon Valley) is also not "native" to California. Many people were brought in from other companies, other states, even other countries. I think anywhere where you have a good economy with a steady need for jobs, the population of those who were actually born and raised there will start to slow in comparison to those who moved from "out of town."

So. This ended up being really really long. I didn’t mean to. I just meant to say – your biscuits look GREAT! I am a big fan of fluffy biscuits, but my friends prefer ones that are easily split apart so they often do a roll, fold in half, repeat twice method to get neat layering effect. I will have to try yours!