Did I say I was worried? I was stating the difference between a small town where everyone knows their hired workers.

Well, I'm sure your grandkids are really wonderful but ours are still newborn, baby age, toddler, 8 years, 11 years and one 18. We have a ways to go to catch up with yours.

Hopefully, some day....(p.s. actually quite a few of the landscapers I mentioned were Eagle Scouts in our town and in New Jersey)....just showing the difference.
Not worried. I'm keeping a running list of all the good ones people have happily used and posted.

I was expressing understanding of those who were worried........as we did see the ones working along the roadsides as we drove here and there (mentioned by others in this thread).
They didn't exactly look like our lawn maintenance guys up here.......let's just say that. We wouldn't leave our safes open or our doors unlocked.
Plus hubby would service his own pool. It isn't hard to do. He would chat with the guys who came once a week to vacuum and then he went out and got his own cleaner for the mold under the coping.........and would clean a little each day as he floated around. Type A personality.

That's a thoughtful post, senior c, (post #39) you describe your hometown environment with affection and pride and it is well deserved, I'm sure.
But you (and all who have grown up there) have come to understand, nurture and appreciate that wonderful environment as it has evolved for you.... over a lifetime.
In a way, it might be considered as a sacred tribe of sorts.


In comparison, a place like ours here is in it's infancy. As friendly as our citizens are and with the desire of community spirit that we endeavor to embrace, still we come together from many different 'tribes' or 'cultures'.
TV has been developed (physically) in the middle of another, existing 'culture' that has been here for generations. So with such diversity, we don't all hold to identical values and ways of doing things like many small communities do.
We hope that we all have a similar code of conduct, but humans do what humans do when they want to be contrary.

Since most of us haven't been here for a very long time, we haven't the luxury of recommending someone because they have stood the test of time.
We can only recommend based on our limited personal experience. Most of us try to be as discerning, then helpful as we can.

:)

I appreciate your post. You are correct. That's exactly what I was trying to portray. Thanks for sharing your outlook on things....I do "get it".
We had to adjust "once upon a time"........imagine coming from "city folks" to "rural folks".........?? It was like landing on Mars.

I actually wore a dress and high heels to the beauty parlor and to church.
Everyone else had on plaid wool hunting jackets. I soon learned I had to keep two wardrobes for my 2 year old daughter and soon to be born son who is a native Vermonter.....one set of clothes to wear in Vermont and another set to travel back to New Jersey in. Day and night. But we adjusted. Now, it's HOME. Longer here than we ever lived in N.J.

So, I do understand how it is for newcomers as "strangers in a strange land"........when we arrived in Vermont in 1970 it was a world apart from where we were lived from 1945 until 1970 in New Jersey. Truly different.

All of the out of staters who migrated to Vermont had to adjust.
But adjust we did. A few times we "fled" to Florida but Vermont always drew us back as a magnet would.

As my sweet old mom would say when she returned from a senior citizen club bus trip, "It was so good to get home again to Vermont.......it is "God's Country"......she had never dreamed she would ever leave New Jersey........but did it , after visiting us once a month by Grehound bus........she finally moved up here with my stepfather and they had a good 30 years of retirement........

Since you seem very open minded with a lot of wisdom, I will tell you a cute story.....when she was a very young woman, she went to a spiritualist which was all the rage and in vogue back in the 1920's/30's.......and this "clairvoyant" told her that "someday you will live in a place that is very very green and has green mountains".........now she lived in a city with cement sidewalks and nothing green, certainly no green mountains.

Her favorite book was "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" if you've ever seen the movie. That's how she was raised, but not in Brooklyn.

Truth is often stranger than fiction. She always remembered that and would tell everyone how she did end up in "The Green Mountain State" where she is buried now surrounded by a panoramic view of our Green Mountains and green farmlands and green forests. So, how did that spiritualist know? That's another topic, for sure.

We know Florida as we vacationed there each year, both coasts up and down plus Disney World each April school vacation.........and we lived there twice........plus I still read all the Florida newspapers so I can be well informed. We don't have our heads in the sand, but neither would we live in fear.

All of the folks we met during October and November were extremely nice and friendly and helpful.

But I can see the point some make about the streets being "empty" looking of neighbors.........up here someone is always outside who would spot anything strange going on........when we were in our rental homes, we noticed NO ONE OUT AND ABOUT..........or if so, very rare, for a walk in the morning.....and then empty sidewalks. It wasn't the heat as the temps were great in November. So, perhaps there is more opportunity for these lawn guys to break in if they think the homeowner is away.

Also, the cleaning ladies up here (not that I have one) are usually girls we know, trying to make extra money for college or whatever......and not unknown factors like down in Florida.

But to clarify, I am not worried. Thanks again for your post. You "get it".
We are looking forward to someday living in TV.

Sounds like a great idea. What is the range of things they do?

Can you share a phone number?

I was KIDDING about arguing about the grandkids senior. And I didn't think you were worried, I just think that anyone who doesn't live here has a lot of concepts to absorb about a place with so many new to each other people, just as Uptown Girl said so well.

The world has changed a lot since we were born and is still changing and bad people still lurk everywhere. I feel as safe here as I did in the nice community in Ohio from which we moved, but to completly let down your guard is foolish.