Is Charlotte your home?
I heard an interesting question from a newcomer yesterday: When do you start identifying Charlotte as your true home?
When transplants first move to Charlotte, they tell everyone “I’m from Ohio” or California or Pennsylvania or wherever they moved from. And they tell people from other cities, “I’m from Charlotte but I’m originally from.....”
When does that stop happening, and when does it become simply “I’m from Charlotte”?
The upcoming Thanksgiving holiday is a good time to pose this question. Among the hundreds of thousands of transplants in the region are probably a good number of families who have decided for the first time that “having Thanksgiving at home” means having it here in Charlotte.
I’m looking for families who are doing this – people who have decided just this year not to travel somewhere else for their Thanksgiving meals, but instead plan to host it in their homes here, perhaps inviting family members to travel in from elsewhere.
If this applies to you, I’d be grateful if you’d e-mail me at Ldyer@charlotteobserver.com.
When transplants first move to Charlotte, they tell everyone “I’m from Ohio” or California or Pennsylvania or wherever they moved from. And they tell people from other cities, “I’m from Charlotte but I’m originally from.....”
When does that stop happening, and when does it become simply “I’m from Charlotte”?
The upcoming Thanksgiving holiday is a good time to pose this question. Among the hundreds of thousands of transplants in the region are probably a good number of families who have decided for the first time that “having Thanksgiving at home” means having it here in Charlotte.
I’m looking for families who are doing this – people who have decided just this year not to travel somewhere else for their Thanksgiving meals, but instead plan to host it in their homes here, perhaps inviting family members to travel in from elsewhere.
If this applies to you, I’d be grateful if you’d e-mail me at Ldyer@charlotteobserver.com.
posted by Leigh at
11:35 AM
16 Comments:
'Home' is still Texas. 'I'm going home for the holidays' means I'm leaving North Carolina and going where my family is. Charlotte will start being home when I start a family here, and this is where I'll consider home, with them. Until then, home is where my mom and dad are, and I've been here for two years.
My wife and I are moving to the Charlotte area from Southern California. Our builder is so clueless, they scheduled our final inspection one day before Thanksgiving and thought we would be happy about it. That means we get to send Thanksgiving in a hotel room in Charlotte while they make final repairs to our new home.
Probaly not the story you were looking for.
Charlotte will neve be "home" to me.
Home is where the heart is. My heart's back in the Midwest. Charlotte is just a place we live and work, for now.
Huntersville is my home.
Quit calling it Charlotte.
I think today's younger generation moves much more than the ones prior- between college and first jobs, we are rarely in one location for any extended period of time. Therefore, our childhood hometown remains "home" to us. At least until we have children who consider our current area home.
I too don't know if I'll ever think of Charlotte as "home". We've lived here for 4 years now, but my husband and I still always mention that we are from other places when we are asked. I think it would be hard for me to consider a city as big as Charlotte "home". 20 years from now when Charlotte is huge, I'll be looking for a smaller town to call home... maybe even the town where I grew up.
Iowa will always be home, my family is there. I have been here one year now and like to reach out to newcomers and ask them to join my wife and I for Thanksgiving dinner.
I now have a "Charlotte family," consisting of my Charlotte friends. Eventually, this may be home. Only after I have become more established and have kids.
Great idea for a story, many of us newcomers struggle with the idea of where "home" (very relative term) really is.
I've lived here off and on for 20 years, longer than anywhere else, so it's home by default. I'm still not a 'native' in the eyes of many but might as well be considering how many have come here since. I would assume remembering NCNB, Piedmont Airlines, "Channel 36", Eastland being a good mall, and life before I-485 accounts for something.
Danimal
I'm a Charlotte native and have always and will always consider Charlotte home. You shouldn't be able to call Charlotte your home unless you were born here.
Anonymous 3:46 says I shouldn't call Charlotte home because I wasn't born here. I beg to differ.
I've lived here 22 years, seen two daughters grow up and marry here, seen my grandson born here. I've invested a lot of time, energy, and money in the community, and I don't need his (her?) permission to call it "home".
The bottom line, for me, is that "home" is wherever my family is.
My husband and I have both lived in the Charlotte area for about 10 years, and we consider Charlotte "home"- and have for about six years. We travel extensively, and we always feel better whenever we get back within the city limits. I spent most of my life trying to get away from from where I grew up, and I chose to live here. It is where I am comfortable, and it is now my home.
My husband and I have moved seven times in the last 25 years. Seven times starting over in new cities. I have gotten good at it, but never really used to it. My home is wherever we happen to be living at the time. Charlotte has been my home now for for exactly 5 months and 18 days. Even though I still get lost daily, CHarlotte is home.
You know it's funny, but the only place I never really felt at home in was Texas.
I grew up in the Air Force, so I've always been from "nowhere". When my Dad retired, we moved to Raleigh, and I was there for 9 years before I moved to Charlotte. I've actually been here for almost 15 years now... so I've lived longer in Charlotte than anywhere else, but I still identify Raleigh as "home".
Charlotte sucks!!!
Metallica said it best - where I lay my head is home. At the moment it is Charlotte, but I don't consider the DC Metro area where I grew up & lived for 30+ years any more home than I do Charlotte, if I did, I wouldn't be so reluctant to go back to DC for the Holidays.
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