Posted on 06/01/2023 5:35:39 PM PDT by wastedyears
“I have seen some very pretty places in NY.”
I grew up in rural western NY. It is gorgeous! In fact, the first time we visited TN before we moved here, it occurred to DH and me simultaneously that it was exactly like driving the roads back home.
The only difference is that the NY autumns are prettier — more colors in the leaves. I think it’s the sugar maples that make the difference.
When I worked in another state a co-worker said that since I was from NY I “probably hadn’t seen much grass”. People do have some interesting perceptions about geography.
Folks out in California think the land east of the Mississippi River is a 1/4 mile strip of land before you get to the Atlantic Ocean.
Others ALWAYS assume ‘New York’ means ‘New York City’...drives upstaters nuts.
30+ years ago, while on vacation to visit several Civil War battlegrounds in the South, I stayed in Georgia, but outside of Atlanta. I had planned on going to see the Civil War Diorama there. At the time it was on a street or road with Peach Tree in its name. This was long before GPS, and I was relying on either a AAA Trip Tik, or directions I had figured out myself from a map. Anyway, I got off one of the exits on the expressway to head to the place, and the traffic was a bit overwhelming after coming off the exit ramp, even for me who has driven in NY City, Boston, and Washington, D.C. I said "screw it", and took the next turn to get me back onto the expressway, and headed back out of the city. That was my first and only visit to Atlanta. Short, but sweet.
During that trip was when I realized that a whole crapload of streets, roads, lanes, etc. in the city had Peach Tree in their name.
I’m a fire and life safety director, I’m responsible for managing emergencies until the fire department/police/EMTs arrive. It’s one of the most important jobs in a building here in the city. When an emergency happens, I take charge and tell people what to do and where to go.
As for admin, standard office stuff: order supplies, mail, take and make calls, whatever. I prefer that over security.
There’s a lot of stuff to do with security where I am, plus work going on that I’m not told about, which I kind of need to be, violations from the fire department that happened before I got here, I don’t know if the people doing the work have the proper certificates of fitness or permits, etc. I’m tired of it. Oh and the communication here is terrible.
Atlanta is a bad trip. Georgians don’t go there unless we absolutely must. Road naming seems to be limited like the vocabulary of the downtown inhabitants. I hate downtown Atlanta. Sherman did not dwell long enough down there.
I’ve heard, “Where is Sherman now that we so desperately need him?”.
I wish somebody had told me that all those years ago.
"Sherman did not dwell long enough down there."
ROFL!! I think you are the first person I ever heard say that.
As people say, it's a nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live here. I had planned on moving to South Carolina after I retired 20 years ago, but then I found out they would be taxing my State pension. I paid taxes on that money when I earned it, so I don't have to pay New York any taxes on it now. Federal, yes. State, no. Wasn't going to share my pension with the government of S.C. So I'm still here. My youngest son lives near me, and I visit my brother's family who live north of Rochester, and my oldest son who lives in Troy. Other than grocery store and doctor appointments, that's the extent of my traveling these days. Glad I got the traveling bug out of the way when I was younger, and could get around, and had money to do it.
I’m not impressed with getting older either. Sometimes I think I’d like to move out West, but the realities of such a move covers a lot of ground.
That surprises me. I did go back to Georgia...to Savannah with a friend from work. We had stopped and visited my friends who at the time lived outside of Charleston. We stopped in Savannah next, then headed to Alabama to visit her son, and then we planned to go to New Orleans.
We visited one of the tourism offices Savannah had opened. We were asking two elderly woman about the various sites, and directions. I can't recall what led up to one of the woman saying what she did, and I can't remember her exact words, but she was very brutal about Sherman, and his Army, and how they behaved in Savannah during the war. I knew the people in the South hated him, but I didn't realize that the animosity was still so strong in some people.
When we made that trip, Clint Eastwood was in the city at the Mercer House shooting "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. I'd wanted to see the house because it had been used in the movie "Glory." We didn't know they were filming before we got there. Clint's big luxury RV was on parked down the street. We never got to see him, but when we walked down a ways, we saw John Cusack sitting in the shade going through his script. That was before he decided to open his yap about politics.
On that trip my friend drove her RV, and I followed her in my car. When in Savannah, we camped at Tybee Island. Also visited Old Fort Jackson while there. I specifically wanted to go there, because a part of the 55th Massachusetts had been temporarily stationed there after the war ended. Another portion were also in Columbia, S.C. as the Brevet Brigadier General of the regiment, Alfred S. Hartwell had been appointed to work on reconstruction with the local people.
They used to say life begins at 40, but that's when you usually start finding out you've got all these health issues, and it's actually the beginning of the end for you. You're lucky if you live another 40. I was the baby of the family. Born in 1947. My parents died many years ago, and my three siblings are all gone as well since 2014. None of them lived to 75. I'll be 76 in August if I make it. I feel like I'm living on borrowed time.
I assume you are single and rent so just look up the fifty biggest businesses and branch offices in Charleston and send out a resume saying you are looking to be an overall facility administrator. Also apply to every hospital, insurance company and university. See if you can get some phone interviews on Zoom or FaceTime and wow them with your broad big city background. Should be able to get sixty resumes out in three weeks if you start tonight. If it is the coastal atmosphere you could include businesses in Wilmington, Savanah, Augusta, Kings Island (Kingsland, GA), Jacksonville and Daytona.
Numbers are your friend when you are soliciting interviews. Two hundred resumes would be better if you can co it. Teleconference interviews get you pretty far without a trip— most companies who are serious about filling their position will fly you down for an in-person interview.
I include Kingsland due to the big navy base and those that serve it.
People in the South do indeed still harbor ill feelings about the Civil War. Sherman did a number on the state. It was the very first time in history that the "ability to wage war" was specifically targeted, now known as strategic warfare.
Atlanta has become a special case. It is dangerous to pass through and the seat of state and federal offices. Good people really hate to go down to that liberal hell-hole. I'm an "import", born in Wyoming and raised in Colorado Springs prior to the avalanche of Californians. I suppose my friends and I do not view Sherman the way most in rural areas do.
When I moved from Colorado to Kentucky in 1962 I was astonished to discover the Civil War was at the forefront of people's thinking and how much they hated blacks. I've lived in Alabama as well. They are all candidates for the Confederate Army. Georgia is pretty well mannered for the most part.
I know a guy who was raised on Tybee Island. He has interesting stories. One was about he and his friends sitting on those old coastal battery mounts spotting for German U-Boats. They called the Coast Guard numerous times and then watched the attempts to sink them. He also told the story of fifty men dressed all in black, coming into a restaurant. Only one man spoke, ordering dinner for the rest. After they ate, they quietly left ... and walked out into the marsh. It was the crew from a U-Boat.
I guess you have moved around. I've been here in NY State my whole life, just moved to different parts, originally so my ex-husband could take a teaching job, and then me, after my divorce, to take a job with NY State. I ended up staying in the Utica/Rome area all these years.
That is a pretty interesting story about the U-Boats showing up off the coast of Georgia. Even more interesting that the crew ended up ordering a meal from a local restaurant. It doesn't surprise me, but it is interesting to actually hear about it. The Brits used to let the German POW's out every day to work on local farms during WWII. Never could get my head around that. I worked in NY State Corrections for 25 years, and never got used to the inmate gangs that had one unarmed officer escorting them out of the prison to perform community work every day. By the time they got everything together, and got out of the prison to head to the job, they only had a couple of hours outside the facility to do anything, before they had to head back in for the day.
When we visited Old Fort Jackson, the curator of the Fort took us to Johnny Harris's restaurant for BBQ. Because of my having researched the 55th Mass. extensively, I shared information and documents from the manuscript collections I'd come across that pertained to their time at the fort, and he was kind to treat us to lunch. I just searched for the restaurant, and saw that it had closed several years ago, the building torn down, and the property sold to developers. What a shame. I really enjoyed my meal there. I would order their BBQ sauce online from time to time. I also remember reading about them locating and raising the CSS Georgia that had been scuttled in the river. The curator of the fort pointed it out to us when we were there. Has it ever been returned to Georgia for exhibit?
Eastwood's movie was released in 1997, so we had to have been in Savannah around 1995 or 1996. Long time ago now.
U-Boats sank 367 ships and took over 5,000 lives off the US Eastern seacoast in just the first seven mounts following the declaration of war. People along the east coast would not practice light blackouts; and, that made ships easy to spot at night through the German periscopes. The U-Boat crews refer to that as "The Happy Times".
Once we started patrols with the flying boats and the B-24s, the Germans lost 94 U-Boats all within sight of shore.
Those things also raised hell in the Gulf of Mexico.
That doesn't surprise me. I can believe that the same people who pushed masks, social distancing, and the jabs, would be the first ones to defy covering their windows, and turning off their lights if, God forbid, we ended up in another situation like that in WWII.
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