So today marks my one-year anniversary as city editor of The Free Press. It’s been quite an interesting ride so far. I’ve met a lot of great people, and some who aren’t so great. The jury’s still out on whether I can honestly say that I like living here, but I can say it’s been a good life experience so far.
To steal from the “top 10″ lists that have been a hot topic over at the ENC message asylum, sorry, I mean message boards, here’s a list of 10 observations, a mix of positive and negative, about life in Eastern North Carolina through my own eyes.
1. Assumptions about Southerners from other regions of the country (OK, Northerners), are, for the most part, way off base. Most of the people I’ve met here are very intelligent, hard-working, stand-up individuals. Yes, I’ve come across some people who occupy the lower rungs of humanity’s ladder, but no more than what you would find anywhere else.
2. People here are much more passionate about historical preservation and pride in their heritage. For many years, I lived in an area rich with colonial and American Revolution history, but it’s largely treated as an afterthought. The fact that a lot of effort has been made to highlight this area’s history is a feather in Lenoir County’s cap.
3. Thank you Eastern North Carolina for adding an inch or two to my waistline. I’m a borderline addict when it comes to pulled pork barbecue and sweet tea.
4. There seems to be a lack of pride when it comes to the community’s appearance. It absolutely drives me crazy when I see litter all over the sides of Kinston’s streets and roadways throughout Lenoir County. Am I missing something, or has the concept of garbage cans not yet reached this area yet?
5. There are a lot of “lifers” who seem to think they are more entitled to talk about what’s happening around town than “newbees.” We all have to live here, folks. If somebody sees something they don’t like, they should be free to speak up, whether they’ve been here a year or 100 years.
6. The slower pace of life is really appealing, even though it’s taken some getting used to. Most of the people I’ve met take a “whatever will be, will be” approach to life. I like that.
7. Without sounding too much like a butt-kisser, and despite some of its shortcomings, The Free Press generally gets the “community” part of “community newspaper” right. I’ve worked at a few “community newspapers” that hardly ever get involved with the community they cover. The FP folks understand they need to be a part of the community, and it’s evidenced by the number of events the paper sponsors to individual staffers getting involved in things like youth basketball.
8. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the racial gap that exists here, and I think both sides contribute to it. I never had someone tell me not to go to a certain business because of all the black people working there until I moved here. At the same time, I’ve never had a person of another color treat me differently because I’m white until I moved here. It makes my skin boil every time I hear things like “white flight” contributing to the downfall of a community. It’s really sad that a person’s skin color is used to judge their character, and while racism exists everywhere, that monster rears its ugly head here more than any other place I’ve lived.
9. While I’ve met some of the rudest people I’ve ever come across in my entire life, I’ve also met some of the kindest, most polite individuals. Fortunately, the latter groups drowns out the first batch by a lot. One thing that sticks out in my mind is that on my family’s second day living here, a gentleman came by, gave us two watermelons from his crop and gave us the low-down on essentials like the best place to go grocery shopping, getting us in touch with a good mechanic and other slices of life that are important to settling in to a new area. I’ll never forget that.
10. This marked the first time in my life I’ve ever gone through winter without snow. Not sure how I feel about that yet. On one hand, it was 72 degrees and sunny on Dec. 31. On the other, I did miss those biting cold days of 15-degree temperatures and three feet of snow on the ground (days that let you know you’re alive).
So, that’s about it in a nutshell. I’m looking forward, or at least I’m curious, to see what another year brings.