Why do you diss your former state?
 

So many of us have found our way to Florida in our retirement years. The majority of us came from "up north", up north is where we made our living, went to school, made lifelong friends, met our spouse, married and bought a home. We then sold up everything and moved to TV in Florida to live out our retirement years.

I see no reason to diss your home state just because you moved here. Yes, northern winters can be brutal, but many of us continue to go back to family for holidays and have a great time.

We seem to forget that if we had been born in Florida sixty plus years ago we would never have had the quality careers we had "up north", we would never have made the money we made, never have had the opportunity to go to great schools or have great health care. Because sixty plus years ago Florida was known as the honeymoon state or for the nearly dead.

So before you start dissing your home state why don't you stop and think about how fortunate you were to be raised in a state with opportunities available to you and then been able to sell up and move to Florida.

I never lived up north and had everything you listed. Southern born and raised.

I sometimes miss but do not dis my prior states of residence and I know how to spell dis..
Dis Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

Although I was born in NJ we moved to NM when I was three years of age. In my adult professional life I spent a few months in Pittsburgh but only once lived for any length of time north of Maryland, in Rochester, NY. Although I loved the two months of summer there it was the longest twenty years I ever spent in 30 months, 12 feet of snow my first winter there and very little sunshine. The 1967 RS/SS Camaro convertible I took up there started to rust out. I soon discovered "Up North" was not for me. I like warmer climes and lots of sunshine. I do miss the Rocky Mountains. My son lives in the Idaho panhandle 30 miles south of Canada. I do not visit during the winter but love the long days of a northern summer, the lakes and mountains up there. His mother-in-law, who has spent most of her life in San Diego, Hawaii and Baja California, Mexico went up there over the holidays, slipped on ice, and shattered her wrist. I remember in Rochester a 23 year old secretary slipped on ice in the Kodak parking lot and broke her hip. Another reason I do not care for long, cold winters.

I think the OP has it a bit backwards. Many of us didn't leave our home state for what it WAS, but for what it has BECOME.

I take an occasional shot at New Jersey because of the obscene Property Taxes. I am so disappointed in the way the quality of life for my friends and family is still deteriorating. It isn't all about what exit you live near because there are plenty of solid points about New Jerkey and it is beautiful the further west you go. Towards the Pennsylvania border.

I just wish it was easier on 2 of the 3 children we have who still live there. They moved about 10 miles from the PA border and their property taxes are in the neighborhood of $20,000. Yes, 20K. Sad indeed.

Still own our north homes, love SNOW, fall colors, the multi lakes one can swim, kayak, waterski, and party on the sandbar. Not sure why one would be concerned about the home state of others

I miss Connecticut, Boston, and New York. All three were my stomping grounds to one extent or another. I don't think I'll ever stop missing up north. I'm not a summer person, never was. I'm not a heat+humidity kinda gal, never was. I am not fond of palm trees, I think they're silly looking.

On the other hand, I'm also not a February in Connecticut kinda gal either. Extremes bother me in all things, from weather to politics. But given only two choices: a couple of months with a couple feet of snow and a nor'easter OR 6 months of heat and humidity - I'd rather crank up the heat and shovel my way to the snow plow in the garage.

Maybe you should check the references you cite.

dis
1 of 5
verb
ˈdis
variants or less commonly diss

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?

Ditto ! Did (due to career) have to live in Illinois for a few years, so welcome
"dissing" that state, the one that never met a tax they didn't love, and "might" hold the title of most governors sent to prison (or does Louisiana hold that title ?) along with a variety of other elected officials. Good to be back in the south. Actually moved "north" to central Florida to retire...LOL.

I am so glad I no longer call NY home. Now I truly know what it is like to leave an abusive relationship. I have no regrets for leaving and I feel bad my children had to spend 2 decades in that sorry state!

We lived in NY and when we go back to visit, I feel proud, not embarrassed like I do in Florida. But no place is perfect. I like to think the lifestyle choices in The Villages offset the negative aspects of the State of Florida.

I am a “Native New Yorker” and wholeheartedly disagree with your assessment of New York and Florida. I am sure you enjoy the “No Income Tax” and “Low Property Taxes” in Florida compared to New York! Sounds like you’re one of those northerners that we like to tell, “Welcome to Florida but please don’t bring your voting mentality with you”! Luckily we still live in a “Free Country” (for the time being), you are “Free” to move back to New York. We wouldn’t want you to live, feeling embarrassed every day !

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.

I know the OP didn't come from NYC.