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About every so often I receive letters in my email asking about our fair city of Greensboro. Generally I try to respond but lately they've been piling up as I try to balance a full work load, my parents living with me, and my crazy kids.
The truth is Greensboro rocks people. Compared to Winston Salem, which we use basically as a big pit-stop on our way to the mountains, we are much cooler.
But some bloggers disagree with this opinion. Meet James. James is a recent transplant to the wonderful land of Greensboro, and has recently blogged his concerns over this areas inability to excite him:
Quote:
So I'm trying this out...not sure what will come of it, or if anyone actually reads this stuff. I've been in Greensboro, NC for about 6 weeks now and I'm not exactly sure what it is about this region that leaves me unsettled but I have a few guesses.
1) Extreme diversity/racism. Being raised in Phoenix I am not as familiar with large numbers of different races other than white and Hispanic. It's very different here, which is quite alright, but it does take some getting used to different lifestyles, how some of those are so painfully loud that you have to experience their lifestyle whether you wish to or not. Since I don't exactly have a problem with other races/lifestyles it comes as quite a shock to hear the speech of those who do have a problem with other people's race...in my first week of living here and in a conversation with someone I had known for five minutes I heard that person drop the "n-bomb" twice! I truly wish that I could have seen a mirror at that moment...what the hell do you say to that!?
2) Everyone here thinks they are a race car driver. I'm not one for driving slow but if you're going to drive fast do it well and with some sense of courtesy...and also "real" race car drivers should know how to turn in both directions, not just turn left all day long!
3) Claustrophobia. It's pretty here, don't get me wrong, but I just spent the last three years in Kansas where nothing gets in the way of the horizon and the landscape is rather bland, but in some odd way incredibly beautiful and calming. Here, there are trees everywhere. It's nice to have the change I'm just starting to feel a little trapped I guess. I think I just need to be in the West somewhere...Rockies or the plains. Odd how I've come to appreciate the beauty of Kansas that is not so obvious until you actually experience it instead of just drive through.
In the end I'm sure that I will enjoy it here once school starts, but I don't see myself as a lifetime East coaster.
Dear James,
Please don't assume because you spoke to one person using the N word, that the area is racist. I'm here to tell you it is. Technically we're all a bunch of cross burning, arian racists, that want to stone gays, and want to regress America to a time when a community could legally hang you for not having sex in the missionary position.
Yes we love to drive fast, and if you didn't see Days of Thunder prior to moving to North Carolina you won't pass the NCDMV driving test. We require all citizens of Greensboro to be capable of swallowing lug-nuts, and making ethanol come out the other end. If you don't have one Dale Earnhardt sticker on your car or atleast one Chevrolet Monte Carlo sitting in your front yard, you should leave right now.
You think the trees are in the way of the horizon? Those freaking trees are providing the oxygen going into your head dude. If you didn't have those trees you'd only be breathing carbon monoxide and nicotine from second hand smoke. You should be glad you feel a little claustrophobic, because I think it's time to let you know it's a hell of alot better then those tornadoes you have to wrestle back in Kansas. Yes Dorothy, your not in Kansas anymore. |
