16 Years in ‘The South’

An old friend of Terrie’s last year highly recommended a seafood place where there was going to be a wine dinner featuring product he distributes. The wines were great, but the best part was discovering a remarkable seafood restaurant here in the South.

It was the one remaining thread I had left in my bag for missing my home state for 19 years, Connecticut.

Thanks to Reel Seafood, I’ve pretty much got my bases covered in things I no longer miss. Great seafood was about the last thing on my list.

Do we have as great a pizza joint in Winston-Salem as my old neighbor Bill Pustari’s Modern Apizza or other pizza haunting grounds from my original home, New York City? Maybe not, but there’s some very fine pizza here.
Do we have snow and cold? Some, but not much. In fact, I kind of like the one storm of 4 to 6 inches we get every year and corresponding three to four days off work because A) we don’t have snow removal equipment here and B) we don’t know how to drive in the snow here.
Do we have a bunch of backward thinking, Confederate-flag loving crazies? Sure we do. But the most harmful ones are mostly in the state legislature. In actuality, I’ve always been surprised by the moderate nature of the majority of folks in North Carolina.

In other words, as I approach my 16^th year living in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, I am perfectly happy living in the South and proud to state it, for a fact, to anyone who asks. Heck, I didn’t even really learn to shoot pool despite playing it over the years until I moved here. I’ve even recommended to old friends considering a change in scenery to check out our state.