Weird Locals

[Boots]

I dunno... maybe I am just having a self righteous moment or something...but I think I need to vent a little. Has anyone else moved to a new place and found it absolutely near impossible to function with the weird people?

I have lived here about 3 years now, and I swear it is not getting any easier. People here remind tourists to turn their clock back 100 years... in all seriousness! They aren't joking!

I love my farm, but I am seriously considering selling it and relocating. I suggested the community consider some local transport recently - because there are a lot of oldies caught widowed on rural or outstation properties. And the response was, "Ooooh. You may think we neeeeed that, but you're different!" I then asked - joking, "Different? Why, because I have ridden on a public bus?" and they very solemnly nodded! About 6 of them! I was gob smacked!

Then at a school meeting I suggested that entrepreneurs and further education were important considerations for the career expo, and I got "Oh your kids might be interested in that, but they are different!"
"How are they different? They aren't any different from any other kids, are they?" And the Vice Principal said, "Yes, your girls are confident." I just stared at her! Far out, man.

Isn't that a goal in schools nowdays????

Can somebody explain this weird behaviour? I cannot for the life of me cognitively negotiate it. I fear I have settled in the land of Mr Potato-heads.

[Andy Hamilton]

oh dear and I thought I had it bad when I lived in the centre of Bath.

If you really are not happy I would move, either that or get a load more different people to move in, you might even sway the narrowminded @£$%@@ bastards to try and accept 'different' people.

I get this sometimes well a bit of flack anyway, being called Jesus and hippy or whatever. You get idiots everywhere.

[Martin]

sounds like the brides and grooms in your area probably have lots of relatives in common!
who said Norfolk?

[Shirley]

Blimey Boots... I don't think I could cope with that at all...

Hey.. you could come and live with all us weirdos in Aberdeenshire

[Chickpea]

Yeah, Boots, I think that would drive me round the bend too. On the other hand if they've already decided you're "different" you can pretty much do what you like. You could shave your head, pierce your tongue and go to town in flippers and a dressing gown singing "I'm a little teapot" and they'll just say "Oh, that's Boots. She's not from round here. She's different".

[Wombat]

My sympathy Boots!

It's a bit different here in Sydney, mind you I think i am the weird local that everyone else complains about!

Nev

[Luath]

Me too................... they all thought hippy travellers ahd descended on them when we moved - our camper van was full of chickens, ducks and other creatures. Now I'm known as that odd Scottish hippy woman at the end who doesn't let her children go to school..............

Been here 9 years

[Boots]

*sigh*

There are definately a lot of related people here...Family fueds exist all over the place. All you have to do is say I was talking to ___ the other day, or I stopped at a certain shop, and folks just stop talking to you! It is the weirdest thing. Like you have just aligned yourself with the devil or something.

I really like the flippers trip though... though I have the feeling there are probably a few flipper wearing people who could quite possibly be buried in "them thar hills". The closed thinking that goes with this lot is very much shared I think. They really stick together on things that I find quite odd. Law breaking, for example.

The tip is an embarassment to Australia and a major environmental hazard. Each week it is filled with tyres and plastics and burned. Sheets of black smoke billow across the old peoples homes and township, and despite numerous complaints from 'newcomers' this activity continues because 'that's the way we do it here'. I am at a loss to understand how they get away with it. The EPA visits regularly, but it is always explained as a 'stray fire'... as in, unintentionally lit. So it continues...

That is not even mentioning the fact that the pit tip is positioned right beside and uphill of the town water supply!!! Am I glad I don't drink or access that supply...?

Requests from many to introduce a recycling service at the tip, have just received the same weird nod, that leads nowhere.

There have been a huge amount of newcomers, but not much progress. The area is being strangled by its own unwillingness to experience progress I think. There is 'old thinking' everywhere and they fight to hold onto it!

A Progress Association recently started and I was hopeful about that. Gawd, I don't think I could explain my dissappoinment with that one. Anyone with any new ideas or long term experience with things is just shunted very quickly. The group is about status building, I think. There is a guy out here who introduced recycling to Victoria. He designed and built the process equipment and installed the kerb-side system. He is "just different" too. Not skilled, not experienced, not willing to share - just different!

It is all very frustrating when I move beyond my bottom gates. I think it may be better to just become a flipper wearing hermit.

[Stonehead]

Can somebody explain this weird behaviour? I cannot for the life of me cognitively negotiate it. I fear I have settled in the land of Mr Potato-heads.

Well, it depends on how far out in the boonies you live, how in-bred the locals are and what kind of bonkers-ness ( ) prevails. I've lived in a few outback towns in Oz and there are places that make the people in Deliverance look tame...

For me, the key thing has been whether the "locals" are happy enough to rub along with "outsiders" or not. If they can, then I can accept quite a high weirdness quotient.

If, on the other hand, they're the sort that are determined to get rid of the outsider by any means, if they're downright mean-spirited or if they are a bunch of psychos (and I can think of two outback hamlets where this was definitely the case), then get out of town sharp-ish!

It's the same where I live now - most of the genuine, long-term locals are pretty friendly even if they think we're a bit mad and vice versa. So, we all just get along. However, some of the suburban blow-ins are a bit much but as I can usually avoid them and they're not popular with the locals either, it's tolerable.

At the end of the day, only you can decide - but don't forget, three years is very short term in a country town. Take the farmer opposite us - his mother is in her 80s and still lives on the farm her grandfather had; his aunt and uncle used to own and work our croft; his extended family own a number of other farms hereabouts; and their roots in the area go back at least 150 years.

Then there's the village blacksmith - he's fifth generation in the smiddy (smithy) and his sons are smiths and mechanics too.

Same in Oz - my family's roots in the Hartley/Hampton area go back to the 1840s and I'm related to so many people that almost all the long-term locals are my cousins in one way or another.

Time also works differently in country areas and most are well behind the cities and towns. But never forget, there's always a lot more going on under the surface than first appears. I know umpteen stories of dodgy goings on in my own extended family that often only surfaced years after the event and put urban myths firmly in the shade!

I don't know if this helps or not, but remember "country folks is different".

[tomtom]

Different is good.
edited to add: ie. Different as in you're different as opposed to 'country folks is different'

[digiveg]

I used to live in a small village in the Lake District. While the locals were friendly enough, I knew that as an 'offcomer' I wasn't told very much of what filled the lives of my neighbours - local gossip! Generally, that was just fine by me. However, we had a resident shepherd, Old Tom, who was then in his 70s and thought to not have quite enough sandwiches for a picknick. He told me that the furthest he had every travelled in his entire life was to Lancaster - just once - which was roughly 15 miles away. He spent many an evening sitting by my fire, telling me in great and laborious detail ALL the rumours current on EVERYONE in the vicinity.

The thing is, it was impossible to a) shut him up or b) get rid of him before he was ready to go!

[Mancblue]

Bloody nora Boots,

How on earth do you stay sane, if someone told me my children were different because they were confident .......well i'd probably go ape all over there ass.

Maybe you should start a petition to evict all the (non different) people from your area and everyone on SSF'ish could sign it

Or maybe send them to this site, if they have internet. The following is for the "normal" folks where you live.

Hello my name is Colin and i'm proud to be different

[Shirley]

Bloody nora

Colin... you just brought tears to my eyes... that was my dad's favourite saying... a Manchester lad he was too!!

[shiney]

I live in a weird area too, there's a lot of relatives if you know what I mean? I would love to up and leave, but I don't own my place and couldn't afford to get somewhere more suitable. (like with no neighbours within a mile)

Don't get me wrong. I love being a sociable person but with people who are a little more like-minded. It's hard being a little 'different'!

[Shirley]

come and move up here Shiney - we could set up a commune