What was surprising and different when you moved to a new town?

I remember when I first moved to Maryland as a child we were shocked kids played in the street in front of the houses. We had moved from the suburbs of New York City, and we always played in a playground in NY. I could tell it made my mom uneasy. In Maryland we also couldn’t help but notice a lot of blondes.

When I moved to Michigan for college, 95% of the cars there were American. That shouldn’t have surprised me I guess for obvious reasons. Where I had lived in Maryland it seemed like the majority of cars were foreign, but I don’t know the actual statistics. I was driving a Nissan at the time. Also, it was hard to miss the abundance of redheads. Lots of blondes there too, even more than Maryland.

In Tennessee what stood out was potluck dinners. Lots of potluck dinners with friends.