Quote:
Originally Posted by Cybersprings
I have yet to read or hear anyone say, [x state] sux because I moved to Florida.
They usually reference the weather, the taxes, the crime, the politics, etc. So your point makes no sense (to me).
Because years ago our home state was awesome, does that preclude us from having a valid opinion now?
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Bingo.
Growing up, even living there as an adult, Minnesota was wonderful. Our nearest "neighbor" lived two miles away. I was always an outdoor type and living in proximity to the Superior National Forest in northern MN was something no red-blooded Minnesota lad could NOT appreciate. Hunting, fishing, trapping, skiing--we had it all in abundance. To the north of us stretched 50 miles of land unbroken except for one road and a couple of small rivers. School was a one-room schoolhouse which served the children through grade six, followed by grades 7-12 in a smallish school in a small town 20 miles away. To give it some perspective, our school district was larger than the entire state of New Hampshire.
Of course time has a way of glossing over some of the drudgery. We heated with wood, so it was the task of my three brothers and myself to make sure the woodpile and wood box in the basement were full--and when winter mornings could plunge as low as 40 below zero (often colder) we burned a LOT of wood. We burned birch wood almost exclusively; wood that once harvested was cut into 18" blocks, split, piled and dried for at least one year. Summers were not all play: we grew most of our own food which meant that a relatively brief Minnesota summer was filled with gardening chores, and filling the potato bin in the basement with enough potatoes to feed a family of seven for an entire year meant a growing season that was labor-intensive to say the least. Fall, we harvested wild blueberries, raspberries and cranberries which Mom turned into wonderful jams and sauces. November meant deer-hunting season and sausage-making: we always had plenty of venison on hand, and after buying a pig from a neighbor we'd combine the meat from both and turn it into about 200 lbs. of sausage, which we'd smoke along with a couple of hams and some bacon. Nothing went to waste: mom would boil the pig's head (often along with a steer's head) and turn it into loaves of wonderful headcheese. Of course, there were the mosquitoes, cars that didn't start in the winter, shoveling a 200 yard driveway by hand, things like that. But overall, GREAT memories. Minnesota was great when I was young.
But things change. The Minnesota I remember was undoubtedly nowhere near as wonderful as I remember it. In truth I could have lived the same life in a number of northern states and had the same experiences. But whatever it WAS, there is unfortunately no denying what it has BECOME. There are reasons that people are fleeing that state like deranged lemmings. My wife and I were only two out of many tens of thousands to do so.