Hello Steve,

I know just how you feel, I used to live in the, I-270 Corridor first in Germantown, MD, then in Frederick, and it is the same problem you are describing, indeed it is truly a sad situation, when there is little sense of community spirit to latch onto.  If Oklahoma doesn't work out, I think you would find Warren, or Youngstown, Ohio just as appealing as Oklahoma!  Friendly people, lower pay,  low gas prices $0.99 for Regular Unleaded, and lower stress and lower cost of living.  Mostly small town living, a good place to raise kids, since most of the steel mills are gone, and diverse business has started really filling in the gap (they are still working on it, but have a unhealthy fixation with wooing GM Assembly Lordstown, and Delphi-Packard Electric, both are part of a slowly dimming industry, instead of concentrating on bring in high tech electronics industries.  I lived in Germantown, MD for 2 years before any of my neighbors really stopped and said hello in the parking lot one day.  It turned out that person had just moved in and was from Cleveland, which explains the friendly behavior.  Like me, he moved back and is much happier for it, and we are friends to this day!

Ron Leckfor



-----Original Message-----
From:   Stephen R. Gregory [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Wednesday, June 30, 1999 9:49 PM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Re: [TN] Re : just wondering

In a message dated 6/29/99 9:41:41 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> HELLoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooou ?
>
>  Closing applications for process eng. next week ; how's your barge floating
>  ?
>
>  Yo' still talking to me ?
>
>  paul

Hi ya Paul (and all the other Technetters)!

First, I wanna apologize about being so quiet this past month, changing jobs
and relocating can be a handfull...not to mention all the bloody stress that
goes along with it...(geeze, I wonder how many ulcers I've given myself?)

But, I gotta job! YAY! It's gonna be in Tulsa, Oklahoma with a company named
LaBarge. So now I'll be a "Okie" (GRIN). Not there yet, still got the fun
stuff of packing-up and loading a "U-Haul" to make the 1,800 mile
trek...figure it'll take me about 5-days to get there.

Really looking forward to it, relocating that is. VERY happy to be leaving
"Silicon Valley" for a whole bunch of reasons. One big reason is purely the
"quality of life" out here. Heck, it might sound like a good deal when a
company says they'll pay guys like us (Manufacturing/Process engineer dudes)
50-70K a year, but when you wind-up paying $885 a month for a studio
apartment (like I've been doing), and have to deal with the gridlock of
traffic anytime you wanna go anywhere, plus pay a $1.80 gallon for gas, that
50-70K a year don't seem so hot. Also (I know not all people are like this
out here) most people would think you're strange if you tried to introduce
yourself to your neighbors in the apartment complex you lived in...that's the
way it is. I've lived in my complex for 4-years and don't know the people
living on either side of me, sad.

Anyways, I just wanna say that it really feels good to have people like you
ask questions about what happened to me...really means something to me.
Thank-you very much! Just gimme a few more weeks and let me get settled in
out in Tulsa, (provided I don't git sucked-up inna tornado!) and I'll be back
with my usual banter...hehehe.

-Steve-