(02-02-2021, 08:20 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: Just sharing this here because I know there are a lot of ties to the area on this board.

https://www.thepreferredrealty.com/real-estate/1484324/483-kreinbrook-hill-rd-bullskin-twp-pa-15666/

This is my uncle's house. He passed in August and I'm handling the estate. We just put the house up for sale, yesterday. He built it all himself with some help from family, including my father doing all the wiring (he was an actual electrician, don't worry) and me helping out.

I looked at the map SW of Pitts and NE of Morgantown means this place isn't FIRST in Penn - it's first in Appalachia, which makes it redneck city.  I left Appalachia running.  Good luck selling it.

(02-04-2021, 04:11 PM)masonbengals fan Wrote: Saw a clip on the housing market earlier this morning. Houses sure not staying on the market long nowadays.

Here in CT it was nuts. With all the people leaving NYC houses were going contingent the same day, many times for tens of thousands over asking price. I'm sure the same must have happened in PA. I wasn't intending on moving, but the way the market was, it was a great opportunity to unload my starter home that needed significant work for more than I bought it for. 

(02-04-2021, 10:23 PM)Stewy Wrote: I looked at the map SW of Pitts and NE of Morgantown means this place isn't FIRST in Penn - it's first in Appalachia, which makes it redneck city.  I left Appalachia running.  Good luck selling it.

As a proud Appalachian, born and bred, with ancestors that were a part of the movement from which the term redneck originated, I wouldn't be anyplace else.

(02-03-2021, 10:11 PM)HarleyDog Wrote: Holy Schnikies. Thats like watching an episode of something on HGTV. Young couple starting out, baby on the way. They visit a house for sale and its 1 bath, 3BR and a simple living room. Pricetag: 9 centillion dollars. We'll take it. 

In my town, you get the same house for 45k.

When I lived in Cincy, I couldn't understand at all seeing those shows and the little houses with huge price tags.  But when I lived in northern California I understood.  In 2012, I bought a 3-bedroom 2-bath house, large yard, orange trees in the back, in a nice suburb northeast of Sacramento for about $180k.  I ended up selling a year later because we moved to southern California.  But there were so many offers in on that house when I was selling, and all of them coming from people who worked in San Francisco.  They were willing to commute 2 hours each way (and honestly more because of rush hour traffic) because they could get a house that was affordable.  By then, my property had already increased to about $250k (it's worth close to $500 now, and I still kick myself for not just renting it for some years and then selling it...), but the average price for a home around SF was $800-900k, and was older, smaller and on basically no lot.  Home prices there are now well over a million dollars, and people are still moving a couple of hours away to try and get something "affordable."  NYC is like that, too.  So was DC when I lived there.  It's crazy how the market varies around the country, but a lot of it is tied to average salaries.  The only way to take advantage of a higher salary and lower housing cost is to do remote work, so you can charge NY and CA prices but live in affordable part of the country. 

(02-05-2021, 09:19 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: As a proud Appalachian, born and bred, with ancestors that were a part of the movement from which the term redneck originated, I wouldn't be anyplace else.

We are obviously not from the same type of Appalachia.  As a matter of fact I know we're not.  There was very little to be proud of in the part of Appalachia I was born and raised in.

But I have heard the Pennsylvania Appalachia isn't the same same as WV/Ky, though.

*shrugs*

(02-05-2021, 03:35 PM)Stewy Wrote: We are obviously not from the same type of Appalachia.  As a matter of fact I know we're not.  There was very little to be proud of in the part of Appalachia I was born and raised in.

But I have heard the Pennsylvania Appalachia isn't the same same as WV/Ky, though.

*shrugs*

That's funny... I've been all over the world and couldn't imagine living anywhere else. 

(02-05-2021, 04:02 PM)Synric Wrote: That's funny... I've been all over the world and couldn't imagine living anywhere else. 

Where I am from, ignorance, lack of ambition, lack of enlightenment, bigotry and racism are rampant on top of most of the schools being sub-par.  My wife and I are both from WV Appalachia and neither one of us wanted anything to do with raising our daughter where we grew up.  It also kept us and our daughter away from our families which were/are Jerry Springer shyt shows.

(02-05-2021, 09:19 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: As a proud Appalachian, born and bred, with ancestors that were a part of the movement from which the term redneck originated, I wouldn't be anyplace else.

Absolutely...

(02-05-2021, 04:45 PM)Stewy Wrote: Where I am from, ignorance, lack of ambition, lack of enlightenment, bigotry and racism are rampant on top of most of the schools being sub-par.  My wife and I are both from WV Appalachia and neither one of us wanted anything to do with raising our daughter where we grew up.  It also kept us and our daughter away from our families which were/are Jerry Springer shyt shows.

I feel like it has less to do with one region over another, and is more of an overall thing that can happen anywhere.  I was born and raised in Cincinnati, left when I went to college.  Since then I've traveled to 46 of the 50 states and lived all over the country.  I didn't hate Cincy growing up, but I really don't like going back now for more than a few days every couple of years.  Why?  Because I've had the opportunity to see so many places and meet so many different people.  I can see things through various perspectives.  People that never leave a region tend to have more tunnel vision.  And that's what I see in the family I still have back in Ohio.  It's like a time capsule.  Nothing ever changes.  I've driven 18 hours to visit just to have family members refuse to come visit at one person's house or the other because they don't want to cross the great divide from eastside to westside or vice versa.  

I think if you've had the opportunity to experience life a bit more outside of the bubble into which you were born, you're more likely to see the flaws and areas for improvement.  And that's been the case for literally every place I have ever lived or visited when you meet locals who have lived there all their lives and never seen anything else.  

I also think that you see where you're from Stewy as a place of challenges.  That in order to grow or be the best you needed to get out, you needed space, you needed to start fresh.  I think someone like Belsnickel sees history and culture and is able to live in that and enjoy it because they're looking at the journey that led them to that moment.  Totally different approaches, most likely the result of completely different family lives, friends, etc.  I can't ever see myself moving back to Cincinnati, but the rest of my family (immediate and extended) living there?  They can't imagine being any place else.  People are funny and very different, but there are similar patterns no matter where you live.  

(02-05-2021, 05:09 PM)MileHighGrowler Wrote: I feel like it has less to do with one region over another, and is more of an overall thing that can happen anywhere.  I was born and raised in Cincinnati, left when I went to college.  Since then I've traveled to 46 of the 50 states and lived all over the country.  I didn't hate Cincy growing up, but I really don't like going back now for more than a few days every couple of years.  Why?  Because I've had the opportunity to see so many places and meet so many different people.  I can see things through various perspectives.  People that never leave a region tend to have more tunnel vision.  And that's what I see in the family I still have back in Ohio.  It's like a time capsule.  Nothing ever changes.  I've driven 18 hours to visit just to have family members refuse to come visit at one person's house or the other because they don't want to cross the great divide from eastside to westside or vice versa.  

I think if you've had the opportunity to experience life a bit more outside of the bubble into which you were born, you're more likely to see the flaws and areas for improvement.  And that's been the case for literally every place I have ever lived or visited when you meet locals who have lived there all their lives and never seen anything else.  

I also think that you see where you're from Stewy as a place of challenges.  That in order to grow or be the best you needed to get out, you needed space, you needed to start fresh.  I think someone like Belsnickel sees history and culture and is able to live in that and enjoy it because they're looking at the journey that led them to that moment.  Totally different approaches, most likely the result of completely different family lives, friends, etc.  I can't ever see myself moving back to Cincinnati, but the rest of my family (immediate and extended) living there?  They can't imagine being any place else.  People are funny and very different, but there are similar patterns no matter where you live.  

I have to admit that if I had grown up in the area where I was born, I would probably have a different attitude. My family moved out of SW PA when I was a year old because of the lack of opportunities for jobs. I grew up in the Shenandoah Valley, bordering West Virginia, but just better off economically. I still have pride in the folks in my area. Reading the history of the area my family is from is a great time and I appreciate what I come from. When I have been out in the Midwest the culture is just so bland to me, same for the west coast. I've traveled a good bit around the country, I just always come back.

I love our mountains. They may not be the Rockies, but they once would've made them look small. Our mountains are older than bones (literally, they formed before creatures with bones had yet evolved) and the stories they have to tell are amazing. I don't ignore the problems in Appalachia, but I also know it is much richer and more diverse than a lot of people tend to realize.

Anyway, I'll get off my rant about Appalachia.

(02-05-2021, 07:09 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: I have to admit that if I had grown up in the area where I was born, I would probably have a different attitude. My family moved out of SW PA when I was a year old because of the lack of opportunities for jobs. I grew up in the Shenandoah Valley, bordering West Virginia, but just better off economically. I still have pride in the folks in my area. Reading the history of the area my family is from is a great time and I appreciate what I come from. When I have been out in the Midwest the culture is just so bland to me, same for the west coast. I've traveled a good bit around the country, I just always come back.

I love our mountains. They may not be the Rockies, but they once would've made them look small. Our mountains are older than bones (literally, they formed before creatures with bones had yet evolved) and the stories they have to tell are amazing. I don't ignore the problems in Appalachia, but I also know it is much richer and more diverse than a lot of people tend to realize.

Anyway, I'll get off my rant about Appalachia.

That's awesome to be able to see.  And I think people can understand and appreciate and embrace their history and culture more when they've been separated from it.  When you're just living life day to day, you don't see that.  My Ohio family doesn't look at history or culture of their families.  They don't see value in that.  Things just are what they are.  There's no pride of tradition or history that's passed down.  If you live in a challenging place and your experience is so focused on getting through the day that there's no reason to look at the past (which all just feels the same), I think you'll come out on the other side without much appreciation.  

Funny you say the places outside of the Midwest have felt bland to you.  The South is loaded is with a rich history of food and culture.  So many different countries have moved through the southern US over the last few hundred years, each sowing their own seeds of influence.  The West is the story of the pioneer, people taking chances and boldly setting out to break out of traditions and establish their own.  To our modern experiences of the history of the US being based on European settlers and beyond, the history of the West is very "new", but there is much very old history from Native Americans.  The dry weather in parts of the West have preserved many of these hieroglyphs and dwelling places.  Of course the East Coast is full of colonial history and the birth of the United States.  Even the comparison of Pacific coast to Atlantic is something I love.  The sharp cliffs and violent surf along the Pacific coast, the influences of Asian countries on the cuisine and their use of seafood, and the additions of the Mexican influence (which interestingly is more prevalent in parts of norther California than southern).  On the Atlantic coast there's more of a southern influence to much of the coastal cuisine, and the beaches are more gentle, rolling hills and marshes leading out to the ocean.  Both coasts on the southern parts in particular with influence in architecture from the Spaniards tying them together.

I love seeing the country and experiencing each place for itself.  I don't feel drawn to any one area as "home" any longer, but rather see the country as a whole as my home, with so many awesome places to visit and make friends.  I'm constantly learning.  I love reading about different regions.  I recently finished a book called "Night Comes to the Cumberlands" by Harry M Caudill.  It was a really fascinating exploration of the history of eastern Kentucky and the coal boom.  

I could talk about culture and history all day.  And I love when people are passionate about their personal history.  So share away about Appalachia!