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I've lived in the North just as many years as I've lived in the South, so I'm either a native of both, or neither. Northeners think I have a Southern accent, and Southerners think I'm a Yankee. My accent is probably closest to a 'neutral' Nebraskan accent, where my family is from, even though I haven't lived west of the Appalachians for 28 years.
I'm not a winter person. Snow is fun for a day or two, maybe a long weekend, then get me inside. College was outside of Albany NY, with -20F in February and snowbanks on the side of the road over eight feet high. Atlanta is about as far north as I want to live these days, and autumn is sneaking up on us. The leaves are just starting to turn and it's getting chilly in the mornings, though the days are still wonderfully in the 70s. Winter will be here soon and everything will look dead for five months.
My first job was in Boca Raton, just north of Ft. Lauderdale. When I lived in South Florida, we skipped winter. In February, the temperature dipped into the 60s and everyone broke out the jackets. March was into the 70s again and the jackets got stuffed into the closet. In three years, I turned on the heater for one night (when it dropped to 50). I'd watch the evening news, and they'd show New York, Chicago, or Boston, and I'd half-think it would be old film -- the fact that people were cold somewhere almost didn't register.
Florida isn't paradise -- it's hard to be in your mid-20s when the rest of the population is over 65. It's expensive, salaries are low, and you have to deal with tourists who come in to your state, trash it, and leave. Summers are hot, humid and under constant threat of hurricaine. Scam artists and criminals come south to prey on the elderly and tourists, and anyone else they can rein in. But, for part of my childhood (when I lived there for 4-5 years) and for my early career, the lack of winter outweighed everything else. Not just the warmth, but the overwhelming fecundity of flora and fauna. Death is a constant staccato splashing ripple (things die with great regularity in the tropics, from plants to people) but it's not a tidal wave enveloping everything for months, the way winter is in the rest of the world.
Florida is going to be a killer place when GenX retires. Imagine us geezers tottering around the state with gray mohawks (if we have any hair left). We'll redo our piercings, and wrinkled tribal tattoos will peek from beneath our bermuda shorts and sleeveless tees. Restaurants will play Muzak of The Police and The Rolling Stones during the early-bird specials. In the evenings, after the sun has set into the everglades, the mosquitos will drive us indoors where we'll play our 60-and-over restricted games of Age of Empires XXII, Quake LXIII, Doom CXI, and Duke Nukem LV. Someone order me a virtual pacemaker.
I'm not a winter person. Snow is fun for a day or two, maybe a long weekend, then get me inside. College was outside of Albany NY, with -20F in February and snowbanks on the side of the road over eight feet high. Atlanta is about as far north as I want to live these days, and autumn is sneaking up on us. The leaves are just starting to turn and it's getting chilly in the mornings, though the days are still wonderfully in the 70s. Winter will be here soon and everything will look dead for five months.
My first job was in Boca Raton, just north of Ft. Lauderdale. When I lived in South Florida, we skipped winter. In February, the temperature dipped into the 60s and everyone broke out the jackets. March was into the 70s again and the jackets got stuffed into the closet. In three years, I turned on the heater for one night (when it dropped to 50). I'd watch the evening news, and they'd show New York, Chicago, or Boston, and I'd half-think it would be old film -- the fact that people were cold somewhere almost didn't register.
Florida isn't paradise -- it's hard to be in your mid-20s when the rest of the population is over 65. It's expensive, salaries are low, and you have to deal with tourists who come in to your state, trash it, and leave. Summers are hot, humid and under constant threat of hurricaine. Scam artists and criminals come south to prey on the elderly and tourists, and anyone else they can rein in. But, for part of my childhood (when I lived there for 4-5 years) and for my early career, the lack of winter outweighed everything else. Not just the warmth, but the overwhelming fecundity of flora and fauna. Death is a constant staccato splashing ripple (things die with great regularity in the tropics, from plants to people) but it's not a tidal wave enveloping everything for months, the way winter is in the rest of the world.
Florida is going to be a killer place when GenX retires. Imagine us geezers tottering around the state with gray mohawks (if we have any hair left). We'll redo our piercings, and wrinkled tribal tattoos will peek from beneath our bermuda shorts and sleeveless tees. Restaurants will play Muzak of The Police and The Rolling Stones during the early-bird specials. In the evenings, after the sun has set into the everglades, the mosquitos will drive us indoors where we'll play our 60-and-over restricted games of Age of Empires XXII, Quake LXIII, Doom CXI, and Duke Nukem LV. Someone order me a virtual pacemaker.
