That’s wild we’ve lived so close to each other, and we both ended up on Lemmy.
South Carolina isn’t my favorite, tbh. I love my family there, and the town I’m in is nice, but the area as a whole is… Depressing, I guess would be the word. I miss living in an actual city.
I love the internet for exactly that reason. I host a lot of the internet presence for Simutrans, an open source game that’s almost 30 years old. Because of that, I get to talk to people literally around the world - it’s a small community, but a global following. And then there’s times like this - finding someone who was very close in proximity that I never would have met othewise. lol. It’s awesome. :)
Well, I feel your pain on SC - that’s probably not unlike how I felt moving to Panama City. Well, not only was it a tiny community (I went from what was at the time I think 6 million down to 150,000. lol), but also I grew up inland, so it kinda freaked me out being on the water. I didn’t feel like I was gonna fall off the edge exactly, but it was weird to me not being able to just drive in any direction. lol.
Small towns definitely have some big disadvantages. I think the lack of interesting places to eat is my worst complaint. lol. But even moving from Williamsburg to Newport News has opened up - we have an African market around the corner, and apparently the Yemini community is well-represented in local restaurants. heh.
Hopefully you find sufficient comfort in the family and the town so long as you’re there. I do miss a very few thngs about Panama City. Not much. But a few. hehe
150k is absolutely enormous compared to where I am now and have been since leaving VA. Haha.
I feel about the geography change! It freaked my brain out not constantly having the ocean to my east! It was so hard getting used to the idea of not just constantly knowing where east was, and learning how to live in the mountains, with the roads you can just straight up fall off of. Haha
Also, sorry for the delayed reply. My phone broke and I just got a new one
I opened the tab so I’d not lose track and my ADHD kicked in. It’s been sitting here waiting on me, sorry - I’m afraid it happens. :(
I don’t know if I could handle THAT small. I grew up in Dallas but with family in Mississippi - so several times mom would drive me (and herself) to visit family in Natchez, which has around 20,000 people. Maybe another 5,000 across the river in Vidalia, Louisiana. Not much in that town, surviving mostly on tourism especially after the last industry - a paper mill - closed down. Very very sad, which is also a bummer because it’s really a pretty place with some history (although I suppose a lot of the history they trade on is a bit distasteful).
Actually, worth mentioning… it’s easy to google my name - Isaac Eiland-Hall - but that is, of course, my married name. When mom was pregnant with me, they were living in Natchez at the time. Obviously they had my last name - Hall - and waffled between Jacob and Isaac eventually settling on Isaac… but they couldn’t come up with a middle name. Driving around town one day, they passed by a particular antebellum home, and mom jokingly said “How about Isaac ‘Stanton Hall’?” - and dad, not seeing where they were, thought about it, and liked it. And then mom thought and liked it too, so I was named after a building. heh.
It actually caused me to have to sit and think when I found out my wife wanted to hyphenate. I’d vaguely heard about it before and was fine with it - but it would “ruin” my name thing! But I finally decided she was more important than it (and I wanted to share the same last name) lol.
It’s funny how where you live changes perspective. It definitely freaked me out in Panama City with the huge expanse of the Gulf, although by the time we moved up here, I’m fine with having the Atlantic close by. heh. I kinda like it. It’s also still weird after eight years growing up watching the NYC ball drop at New Year’s at 11pm, then watching whatever local event at midnight. Now, of course, the ball drop IS midnight. lol. And growing up with television talking about programs playing like “Watch the latest episode tonight, nine Eastern / eight Central”. Now I’m the Eastern. lol.
I do kinda like living on the east coast, though. There is some lack of respect for places inland. And while I’m not particularly interested in the military, having Norfolk here feels nice. And as much as they’re a pain in the butt to use, the bridge-tunnel complexes are just cool and rare infrastructure…
I’m sorry for the broken phone, dealing with that sucks. I’m glad you got a new one. :)
And mountains are the one thing I wish we had closer. My time in Seattle got me spoiled on them. But I guess you just can’t have everything. lol.
![[OC] Sunset on the James River](https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/f4a84628-927c-4753-9ce6-a182a23217fa.jpeg){kind=link}
That’s wild we’ve lived so close to each other, and we both ended up on Lemmy.
South Carolina isn’t my favorite, tbh. I love my family there, and the town I’m in is nice, but the area as a whole is… Depressing, I guess would be the word. I miss living in an actual city.
I love the internet for exactly that reason. I host a lot of the internet presence for Simutrans, an open source game that’s almost 30 years old. Because of that, I get to talk to people literally around the world - it’s a small community, but a global following. And then there’s times like this - finding someone who was very close in proximity that I never would have met othewise. lol. It’s awesome. :)
Well, I feel your pain on SC - that’s probably not unlike how I felt moving to Panama City. Well, not only was it a tiny community (I went from what was at the time I think 6 million down to 150,000. lol), but also I grew up inland, so it kinda freaked me out being on the water. I didn’t feel like I was gonna fall off the edge exactly, but it was weird to me not being able to just drive in any direction. lol.
Small towns definitely have some big disadvantages. I think the lack of interesting places to eat is my worst complaint. lol. But even moving from Williamsburg to Newport News has opened up - we have an African market around the corner, and apparently the Yemini community is well-represented in local restaurants. heh.
Hopefully you find sufficient comfort in the family and the town so long as you’re there. I do miss a very few thngs about Panama City. Not much. But a few. hehe
150k is absolutely enormous compared to where I am now and have been since leaving VA. Haha.
I feel about the geography change! It freaked my brain out not constantly having the ocean to my east! It was so hard getting used to the idea of not just constantly knowing where east was, and learning how to live in the mountains, with the roads you can just straight up fall off of. Haha
Also, sorry for the delayed reply. My phone broke and I just got a new one
I opened the tab so I’d not lose track and my ADHD kicked in. It’s been sitting here waiting on me, sorry - I’m afraid it happens. :(
I don’t know if I could handle THAT small. I grew up in Dallas but with family in Mississippi - so several times mom would drive me (and herself) to visit family in Natchez, which has around 20,000 people. Maybe another 5,000 across the river in Vidalia, Louisiana. Not much in that town, surviving mostly on tourism especially after the last industry - a paper mill - closed down. Very very sad, which is also a bummer because it’s really a pretty place with some history (although I suppose a lot of the history they trade on is a bit distasteful).
Actually, worth mentioning… it’s easy to google my name - Isaac Eiland-Hall - but that is, of course, my married name. When mom was pregnant with me, they were living in Natchez at the time. Obviously they had my last name - Hall - and waffled between Jacob and Isaac eventually settling on Isaac… but they couldn’t come up with a middle name. Driving around town one day, they passed by a particular antebellum home, and mom jokingly said “How about Isaac ‘Stanton Hall’?” - and dad, not seeing where they were, thought about it, and liked it. And then mom thought and liked it too, so I was named after a building. heh.
It actually caused me to have to sit and think when I found out my wife wanted to hyphenate. I’d vaguely heard about it before and was fine with it - but it would “ruin” my name thing! But I finally decided she was more important than it (and I wanted to share the same last name) lol.
It’s funny how where you live changes perspective. It definitely freaked me out in Panama City with the huge expanse of the Gulf, although by the time we moved up here, I’m fine with having the Atlantic close by. heh. I kinda like it. It’s also still weird after eight years growing up watching the NYC ball drop at New Year’s at 11pm, then watching whatever local event at midnight. Now, of course, the ball drop IS midnight. lol. And growing up with television talking about programs playing like “Watch the latest episode tonight, nine Eastern / eight Central”. Now I’m the Eastern. lol.
I do kinda like living on the east coast, though. There is some lack of respect for places inland. And while I’m not particularly interested in the military, having Norfolk here feels nice. And as much as they’re a pain in the butt to use, the bridge-tunnel complexes are just cool and rare infrastructure…
I’m sorry for the broken phone, dealing with that sucks. I’m glad you got a new one. :)
And mountains are the one thing I wish we had closer. My time in Seattle got me spoiled on them. But I guess you just can’t have everything. lol.