flamingomonkey

I'm considering a move to NC (Raleigh/Triangle) from Chicago and have a couple of questions. First, I have a bit of an insect phobia. Is this going to be a problem in NC? I know that farther south roaches and such are inveitable. But with a more temperate climate, I'm wondering if this is the case in NC. Also, I know NC is a major tobacco state. How does this impact life there? For instance, is smoking common in the workplace? I can't tolerate being surrounded by clouds of smoke, so I'm wondering how progressive NC is in this regard. I remember hearing that it was just a couple years ago that smoking was banned in the state capital. Thanks in advance.

cmcfong

You will find mosquitos, ticks and a few other creepy crawlies, but nothing to interfere with the quality of life (which is very good!). Most public places are non smoking these days. I share your aversion to tobacco smoke and have not had any problems living in North Carolina. It is a gorgeous state with much to recommend it.

Sevastopol

Well, one thing's for sure....progressive and North Carolina do not belong in the same sentence...and I'm allowed to say that because I'm a North Carolinian.

dan_woodlief

I agree with what cmcfong said, being a native North Carolinian. NC is a lot more progressive than it used to be, especially in certain parts of the state, but compared to the non-Southern part of the U.S. as a whole - not really.

GoTravel

Sevast, what is your comparison? Have you just moved to NC? Have you live there all your life? What part of the state are you making reference to? The whole state? Charlotte? RTP, Greensboro? Statesville? OBX?

North Carolina is one of the most progressive states in the country. Do you realize the medical advances made at your state's universities? Some of the best med schools in the country are in NC. What about IT? Many Silicon Valley IT companies moved to Raleigh because it was so much cheaper.

ncgrrl

Have to agree with GoTravel here, Sev.

We do have mosquitoes in the summer, but my friends from Minnesota say the mosquito problem is worse on Minn. lakes. Do your best to get rid of standing water and wear bug spray with deet and you should be fine.

Flamingomonkey, come for a visit. Durham (part of the Triangle) is nicknamed "The City of Medicine" even though it was founded on tobacco money. Malls are smoke-free, most restaurants are smoke-free or have smoking at the bar only. Workplaces should be smoke free so you shouldn't have a problem being surrounded by a cloud at your dest, just at the smokers' entrance to the building (cough, hack).

flamingomonkey

Thanks for the advice. Though I'm not really an outdoors person. I'm more concerned about bugs in my house, particularly roaches. I have been down to the triangle, and was quite impressed. I'm a native Chicagoan and have always been a bit, uh, wary about the south.

Cassandra

Have lived in both places. Do remember that most of the housing in Chicago is older than most of the residential housing around the Triangle, on average. Yes, we have bugs but it seems to me my friend who lived in Wrigleyville had much worse infestation than I've ever seen down here. The roaches are bigger, but so is the pesticide industry, for better or worse. Some of the biggest flying insects I've ever seen were in the far north of Maine and Michigan, where mosquitoes and various kinds of blackflies attack in formation.

I also hate tobacco smoke and have had no bad experiences here, for the most part -- and at least we were spared those gaddawful trendy cigar bars that popped up around Chicagoland a few years back.

I'm guessing the culture shock you are worried about will afflict more on other accounts than smoke and bugs. Just come down here, spend a little time, and see that it's not Mars or Venus or a moon of Jupiter.

brookwood

When y'all gits down heah to 'Backy Rode, y'all learn how to chaw and spit.
When your spittin aim improves, backky juice 'll kill them crawling varmints, iffn you can coat 'em good.

Now, 'til then, 'bout them roaches. A nice lil ole hammer does 'em a world of good.

When I existed up Nawth, lil ole Benjy, 'bout 3, would sit on his driveway with a hammer and bust up anything that crawled. With each smote, lil Benjy would say, Son Bitch. And he would whack away.

Y'all come on down heah now. Hit's nice in the South. You got the Blue Ridge, Mountain Dew, the beaches on the coast, great fishin lakes, golf courses, darn good hospitals, particularly UNC Chapel Hill and Duke. And y'all got championship basketball at 4 great schools: UNC, NCS, Duke, and Wake and a few more asides.

And we got some good education down heah, too. Plenty of smart folks around that Triangle, and more colleges and universities than yo can shake a stick at. An we got some fine cities too:
Winston Salem, Asheville, Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, Wilmington, Greensboro jes to name a few.

As for them roches, jes git yoself a hammer or two. And bust up them creepies. And shucks, up nawth, they got more skeeters than us. They got flies too cause I seen 'em when I was thar.

Best way to git 'em, short of calling Orkin or some other bug man.

Now that there hammah ain't toxic to nobody, and y'all get some good exercise whilst a swingin it. Y'all might bust up a few plates, goin atter them roches, but when you buy mo crockery, its good for the local sto. It heps them and you too.

Y'all come on down, ya hear!! Y'all even larn to talk proper and to set a spell. Drop that blood pressure and get off'n them Effexacator pills.

Moreover, the tranquility effect of the North Carolina mountains is unrivaled anywhere. Nothing beats the rhododendron, mountain laurel, the flame azalea in the spring, or the fall leaf colors in the highlands.

flamingomonkey

Ok, I get it. I apologize for being a stuck up, condescending, ignorant northener.

Cassandra

Just about as bad as a stuck up, condescending, ignorant Southerner! ;-) (Southerners just do "stuck up" and "condescending" a little differently -- usually involves the word "Yankee.")

Seriously, some things will be less different than you expect, others will be more different than you expect. Just "come on down...."!

brookwood

And heah I thunk I was a talkin right nice. Try talkin nice and some folks think you're being condescending on them.

Jes be a might kerful when y'all fust get's heah. Some of them boys re-enacting some of the battles fought during the War of Northern Agression gets a might carried away at times. The take that thar stuff a might serious and they sometimes act a little curious about it too, particular atter you cross the Robert E. Lee Memorial Bridge.

And if it wriggles and rattles, better run. Might be one of them rattlin snakes. Copperheads raise their tails, but they don't do no rattlin. And most of the time their bite don't kill you; jes makes you sick neigh unto death.

But we got good hospitals that know what to do but them snake bites.
Iffn y'all kain't find no hospital, a big slug o' that good ole mountain dew will cause you to forgit yore worries.
Why some of that stuff's been aged dang near 30 days.

Gretchen

Too cute by half.
NC is a great place to live. Bugs are bugs. Don't worry about them.
No smoking laws are pretty universal now.
Good quality of life and nice climate.

Cassandra

Give it a rest.

Sevastopol

Go Travel -- I was speaking about progressive in terms of political leanings....not in terms of medical advances, nor about the technology boom in the Triangle area.

My point of reference? I was born in and grew up in eastern North Carolina -- moved when I was 26 years old and since have lived in Washington, DC, Pittspburgh PA, and Chicago....and I frequently visit my family there.

Most of the people I know would be happy to say that they are not "progressive." Similarly, my group of friends from D.C. (who grew up in the area) have vastly different ideologies from my friends and family in North Carolina...

flamingomonkey -- Move to NC. It's a beautiful state -- within hours you may drive to mountainous areas in the western part of the state with great hiking, outdoor activities, skiing. And the coastal areas have some of the best beaches you'll ever see. The people are warm and friendly.

As I mentioned earlier, I grew up in N.C and never had a problem with bugs or mosquitoes....never saw a roach in my living quarters until I moved to D.C.

brookwood

Well, just don't forget about ants.

leelane911

Sevastopol, maybe most North Carolinians have too much common sense to be progressive in the sense that you would like them to be.

Sevastopol

Lee Lane -- I never said that I wanted people to be progressive...look at my post. Where did I say that? In fact, I want them to be the way that they are....I'm talking about my family and lifetime friends here for god's sake.

My point was that the atmosphere there may be a little different for someone moving from an area, say, on the West Coast or other areas on the East Coast, or from an area that is progressive. (The original poster mentioned the word progressive in her initial post.)

A friend of mine from D.C. moved to Asheville -- supposedly one of the most progressive areas in the state. And she was uncomfortable there.

Whether you like it or not, or whether you admit it or not, there are cultural differences within the borders of the United States -- as well as within borders of any state.

In terms of rooting yourself and your family up from one area of the country to another, I believe that is something you need to think about in making your decision on where to move.

kgh8m

My parents' home - where I grew up - was in the suburbs of Raleigh in acres of woods, near the river. We had more bugs than most any of my friends in town, given the woods and river. We did a comprehensive bug treatment about 3 times a year. Indoors, you might see some silverfish, a few roaches (but certainly not those huge ones like in FL!), millipedes, and spiders. Outside, ants (black, fire, and cow), mosquitoes, and ticks. Actually, the insects to be most wary of are the ticks, given that they can give you Lyme disease or Rocky Mtn Spotted Fever. But the bugs are not awful, are easily treated by an exterminator if they get into your house, and no reason not to consider a move.

All workplaces should be smoke-free, and some are so smoke-free that you can't even smoke on the property - people cross the street and smoke on the sidewalk. Oh, and there aren't more smokers in NC than there are anywhere else, and potentially less. And it isn't like the majority of North Carolinians are super pro-tobacco. It's just a crop that grows there, and there's a big lobby to keep it around, but many, many NC residents don't like it, and wouldn't mind if it went away.

bob_brown

Now, if you really want big flying bugs, go to Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio. At night we would hear them hit the screens with a definite PING as one of them was attracted by a light.

One night an Irish fellow who liked to read in his bunk was enjoying his latest comic book with the aid of a flashlight.
A huge bug hit the spotlighted page and bounced into his mouth.

Irish then engaged in semi coherent 5 minute stream of sputtering, spitting, cursing, vulgarizing, and complaining. If I recall correctly, Irish announced in the midst his profanities that, "A gret big American boog is trying to eit me."

One of the more awake members of the flight told him, "That's ok Irish. He will break his teeth when he gets to your head." Such was life in the old barracks with flight H2C.

Just another routine bug bombing. Those AF brogans were good for something -- smacking Texas bugs. If you did not get the varmintthe first time, run and circle again from the rear with two brogans.

Throw the first one to distract the varmint, then smack him with the second one.