Almost two years ago our family packed up and moved from Chicago to the Upstate of South Carolina. It wasn’t enough to just move to a smaller (much smaller) city. We decided to move to the country. We went from our neighbor’s house being 6 feet away to “where are our neighbors?” (there is a house across the street, but looking out the back there is only trees and mountains). Needless to say, life is much different now. Here are some observations:
Everything is a 30 minute drive, but that’s alright because the only traffic that occurs is if you get stuck behind a tractor.
Or occasionally the driver just out enjoying themselves and the view. You can tell when it’s someone that doesn’t actually live out here because they feel like they need to slow way down for every curve. Nah! You can totally take that curve at 50 MPH!! In Chicago, one time it took me an hour to drive 4 miles.
Even the grocery is 30 minutes away, but that’s alright as well because we can just get our produce and dairy straight from the farm down the road.
And then you get the joy of actually talking to the farmers and/or their family members. Just plan on staying a while to listen to some stories. In Chicago, we loved our local grocery store that was 1/2 mile away, but it would still take us 15 minutes to get there.
Parking is not a concern. If by some chance the parking lot is full, you can just park in the grass.
We went to a local high school football game last fall. There were pick up trucks parked on every free patch of grass. In Chicago, I would sometimes not go places just with the fear of having to find (and pay) for parking.
We are more concerned with bears/coyotes/bobcats/copperheads than burglars.
Sometimes we go hiking behind our house and we have to be very alert for copperheads, and at night we here coyotes. In Chicago, I was once harassed and threatened walking out at night.
We hear gunshots every weekend but don’t even consider needing to call 911.
Seriously, like all weekend long. We’ve contributed to the noise a few times. In Chicago, even in our “safe” neighborhood there were gang shootings.
Having deer/foxes/wild turkeys 10 feet from our back door is a regular occurrence.
One night I had a fox bark at me. Didn’t know they did that. In Chicago, we saw rats.
“Yes” and “no” are followed by “sir” or “ma’am.” And there is no sarcasm involved.
They also talk like this in Kentucky, where I grew up. In Chicago, I would talk like this and taught my son to respond this way. I had someone actually ask where we were from because it obviously wasn’t from there.
We don’t leave small pets outside. A hawk may grab it.
Our dog isn’t that small, but I’ve heard stories of kittens going missing. In Chicago, we had rats.
We don’t mind seeing black snakes. That means free pest control.
One day we saw a black rat snake come out from the crawl space under the house. I was thankful to see it didn’t catch anything. In Chicago, we needed these to take care of the rats.
We’re more afraid of ants than any other insect. Those suckers hurt!
My hubby has unfortunately developed quite an allergy to fire ants. He got bit on his hand and his whole arm swelled up. In Chicago…well, I gotta admit there are not as many mean bugs there.
We’re nice to everybody because you better believe that each person we meet knows someone that knows us. And they will talk.
We learned within our first month here that running into to people that you know is just part of life. It really is a small town. And when you are out at stores and make eye contact with people you actually speak to them. In line at Walmart? You’ll know the life story of the lady behind you. Eating a Chick Fil A? A nice lady will come over and ask about your pregnancy. In Chicago, there are just soooo many people. One time I set out to make Chicago be friendly, you know say “hi” to people on the street. I was exhausted within 10 minutes. It’s just not possible to be friendly with everyone.
I know I’m pretty critical of Chicago, and it’s true that I much prefer the South and the Country. But there are many things that I do miss. I miss being able to walk to a friends house. I miss taking the bus to meet a friend for dinner. I miss that grocery store. I miss my neighbors. I miss our doctors. I miss yard work that only took 30 minutes. But I do not, in any way, miss the rats.
