Culture Shock

[DarrenGMiller]

I am in the Myrtle Beach area. Though I am not agnostic, I have some gamer friends who are. Beyond religion, there are two LGS's that should be in the phone book. One is The Dueling Ground, the other is Heroes Hangout. As for as Unitarian churches, all we have is All Souls Wacammaw - which meets at the Hampton Inn at Broadway at the Beach.

If he wants to find some gamers in the area, he is welcome to email me (I tend to get a lot of email from gamers new to the area, as I maintain a website and message board for area gamers) at dgmiller@sccoast.net .

There are two or three gaming groups that use my website. It is a private site with over 20 members.

I hope I can help.

DM

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

I am in the Myrtle Beach area. Though I am not agnostic, I have some gamer friends who are. Beyond religion, there are two LGS's that should be in the phone book. One is The Dueling Ground, the other is Heroes Hangout. As for as Unitarian churches, all we have is All Souls Wacammaw - which meets at the Hampton Inn at Broadway at the Beach.

If he wants to find some gamers in the area, he is welcome to email me (I tend to get a lot of email from gamers new to the area, as I maintain a website and message board for area gamers) at dgmiller@sccoast.net .

There are two or three gaming groups that use my website. It is a private site with over 20 members.

I hope I can help.

DM

Thank you, that's a big help. I'm just hoping to give him a chance to feel less like an alien

 

[Rel]

Thank you, that's a big help. I'm just hoping to give him a chance to feel less like an alien

My advice would be "Don't act like you're alien." Or maybe, "Focus on what you have in common with people rather than your differences. And damn sure don't come in with the attitude that your differences make you superior."

As a 7th generation North Carolinian who lives in an area that has a very large population of folks who have moved down from the north, I've observed the "damn yankee" phenomenon a great deal. The hostility and alienation frequently stems from the fact that northerners move to the area with this notion that everybody here are a bunch of quaint, Mayberry hicks who are stupid, backward and unenlightened.

I can't recall how many times I've seen people new in town say things like, "It's absurd that I can't find a decent bagel shop near my house! And don't people know how bad all that fried chicken and barbecue is for them?! And what the hell is with those nasty collard greens?! How stupid is it that I can't buy beer before 1:00 PM on Sunday? And what kind of idiots vote for Jesse Helms anyway?!" Then they wonder why nobody is inviting them over to watch the Pats play the Panthers on Super Bowl Sunday. :\

If your brother thinks that him being a New England, vegetarian, agnostic, liberal intellectual makes him better than the people of Myrtle Beach then he's probably going to have a rough time there. If he doesn't view those who don't share his personal background and philosophy as inferior then he'll probably settle in and be accepted eventually. It just takes time.

Personally I'm not from New England. I'm not vegetarian. I'm not agnostic. I'm not liberal. And although I like to think deep thoughts on occasion, I'm not sure I'd describe myself as an intellectual. But if he's a nice, fun, friendly guy who enjoys gaming, he'd be welcome at my table. In fact, make sure he knows about the NC Game Days. It's not that long a drive from Myrtle Beach to Raleigh. He might even be able to carpool with Henry.

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

My advice would be "Don't act like you're alien." Or maybe, "Focus on what you have in common with people rather than your differences. And damn sure don't come in with the attitude that your differences make you superior."

As a 7th generation North Carolinian who lives in an area that has a very large population of folks who have moved down from the north, I've observed the "damn yankee" phenomenon a great deal. The hostility and alienation frequently stems from the fact that northerners move to the area with this notion that everybody here are a bunch of quaint, Mayberry hicks who are stupid, backward and unenlightened.

I can't recall how many times I've seen people new in town say things like, "It's absurd that I can't find a decent bagel shop near my house! And don't people know how bad all that fried chicken and barbecue is for them?! And what the hell is with those nasty collard greens?! How stupid is it that I can't buy beer before 1:00 PM on Sunday? And what kind of idiots vote for Jesse Helms anyway?!" Then they wonder why nobody is inviting them over to watch the Pats play the Panthers on Super Bowl Sunday. :\

If your brother thinks that him being a New England, vegetarian, agnostic, liberal intellectual makes him better than the people of Myrtle Beach then he's probably going to have a rough time there. If he doesn't view those who don't share his personal background and philosophy as inferior then he'll probably settle in and be accepted eventually. It just takes time.

Personally I'm not from New England. I'm not vegetarian. I'm not agnostic. I'm not liberal. And although I like to think deep thoughts on occasion, I'm not sure I'd describe myself as an intellectual. But if he's a nice, fun, friendly guy who enjoys gaming, he'd be welcome at my table. In fact, make sure he knows about the NC Game Days. It's not that long a drive from Myrtle Beach to Raleigh. He might even be able to carpool with Henry.

In my family, we have pratically given up on finding things in common with other people anywhere. (It happens ocasionally, but only when we are not expecting it.) We typically are looking for people who can just accept that we are weird. (P.S. he is looking for a good indian restaurant, not a bagel shop. )

He certainly is a nice, fun, friendly guy who enjoys gaming (in my unbiased opinion ) and I indend to direct him to your next gameday. (Then maybe we can arrange a trade, you keep my brother, us "damn yankee's" keep NSUCodemonkey )

 

[DarrenGMiller]

(P.S. he is looking for a good indian restaurant, not a bagel shop. )

He certainly is a nice, fun, friendly guy who enjoys gaming (in my unbiased opinion ) )

Unfortunately, the closest GOOD Indian resaurant is in Charleston, SC AFAIC. Fortunately, after being here for 7 years this time around (I lived here in the 80's too), I have finally found a good Thai resaurant and a good Vietnamese restaurant.

If he fits your description, he can probably find a place in one of our groups. I and another DM run D&D 3.5E games and another guy on our website runs Vampire. Which end of the beach is he on, north or south? I am on the south end (Murrells Inlet), the Vampire Storyteller is in the middle (Socastee) and the other DM is on the north end (63rd Ave. North).

As for being outsiders, I am from New Jersey, my wife is from Buffalo and Florida, two in are group are transplanted New Yorkers, one is from West Virginia and the Storyteller is Canadian, so we have diversity. We also have religious diversity, as there are Christians, a Jew, Agnostics and a Wiccan on our site. Religion really almost never comes up and it never comes up in a hostile way. We mostly just love playing the game and the majority of us just enjoy hanging out together (though with the number of people who are members of the site, we don't all share each others viewpoints on everything and don't all enjoy each other's company all the time). Some of us get together to trade mini's, play the mini game, play video games, go to dinner, movies, or whatever. The youngest person on the site is 19 and the oldest is 38, so we have some age diversity too.

DM

 

[Rel]

Then maybe we can arrange a trade, you keep my brother, us "damn yankee's" keep NSUCodemonkey

Those are mighty big shoes to fill.

 

[reveal]

And what the hell is with those nasty collard greens?!

Mmmmmm... Collard greens...

MavrickWeirdo, you pretty much described my father-in-law except he's not a vegetarian and he's an atheist. He moved to the Charlotte area from Alaska about 5 years ago and he loves it. He never did stupid things like Rel described. He knew people were different and had no problems with the "strange" ways of "those rednecks." Just accept it and take advantage of the hospitality and the great food (although Texas BBQ is better ).

 

[Shemeska]

As for being outsiders, I am from New Jersey, my wife is from Buffalo and Florida, two in are group are transplanted New Yorkers, one is from West Virginia and the Storyteller is Canadian, so we have diversity. We also have religious diversity, as there are Christians, a Jew, Agnostics and a Wiccan on our site. Religion really almost never comes up and it never comes up in a hostile way.

Indeed. Among my own group here in NC, I'm originally from New Jersey, and one guy is from canada. For religion we've two catholics, two agnostics, a wiccan, and myself raised a mix of orthodox and protestant. We've got two right libertarians, a republican, a left libertarian, a democrat, and the canadian who cannot vote but gripes about politics anyways. None of these things become hostile issues in the least.

To the OP I will say one thing though. There's no quicker way to alienate yourself in the eyes of folks in the south than to move into the area with the presumption that the people down here are all a bunch of dumb rednecks who are not enlightened or progressive as you might define it. The fact that 'Intellectual' is up on that list implies that you don't expect to find such people outside of where you've moving away from. Not good if that's the way you expect people in the south to be, and I'd advise against holding such a naive, and frankly insulting, point of view if you move down here. If you do, it'll just justify the stereotype that yankees tend to get in some areas, and it'll be held against you when otherwise nobody would.

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

To the OP I will say one thing though. There's no quicker way to alienate yourself in the eyes of folks in the south than to move into the area with the presumption that the people down here are all a bunch of dumb rednecks who are not enlightened or progressive as you might define it. The fact that 'Intellectual' is up on that list implies that you don't expect to find such people outside of where you've moving away from. Not good if that's the way you expect people in the south to be, and I'd advise against holding such a naive, and frankly insulting, point of view if you move down here. If you do, it'll just justify the stereotype that yankees tend to get in some areas, and it'll be held against you when otherwise nobody would.

First, I am not planning on moving to the south. I did live outside of Houston Texas for a while where my complaint was "It's absurd that I can't find a decent bookstore near my house!" (I know that Texas is not South Carolina but they are more similar to each other than either is to Massachusetts.)

Second I am using the word Intellectual to mean someone who is intellegent but not pratical (studies like Art, Literature, and Phylosophy enrich the soul more than the pocket). I am sure that the south has it's share of people like that, but they do not seem to be the majority anywhere (including New England). If you want to feel insulted that I believe that Massachusetts may have more impratical people than South Carolina that is your prerogative.

 

[Rel]

Mmmmmm... Collard greens...

Personally, I don't like them. It's mostly the gritty texture that puts me off.

But I DO understand them for what they are: A vehicle and excuse for consuming a lot of really yummy pepper vinegar.

I prefer green beans (boiled to within an inch of thier life in copious ammounts of bacon) for that purpose.