The Character of the Place

Transferred from my other blog: The Adventures of Sisterhood. 
First published: 5-21-12 at 11:25 PM EDT

Kylie knows how to say banana now. And umbrella in Chinese. And she knows the possessive word (the 's in English) in Chinese. Her sentences are almost coherent and today when Mom came inside from the backyard with Kylie perched on her hip. I almost thought she looked too big to be doing that. As a teammate pointed out last week, Kylie has grown so much since we moved here to North Carolina. Unlike me, who over ten years of her life in the peachy state of Georgia, Kylie is officially an NC kid.

North Carolina gives me the impression of being hillbilly, if that's a proper word. The Raleigh farmer's market is phenomena. The air is crisp and fresh except when it's hot and stuffy... you know what I mean, at least it's clean. Greenways, paved paths that don't allow motorized vehicles, provide safe ways for recreational exercise to the NC communities. In Georgia, we practically had a library in our backyard. I was never allowed there on my own, for two reasons. One, the walk was apparently too far, though it was less than a mile. Two, it was unsafe. And indeed it was. Despite being located in a well-off, suburban area of the greater Atlanta Area, our community has had multiple encounters with sexual predators.

A close friend's little sister is in 8th grade this year, and was approached in her neighborhood (a pretty expensive, clean, new neighborhood) by a questionable man in a ratty car. He asked her where she lived and other personal questions. The girl, very smart, ignored him and walked to her friends at the school bus stop to the local middle school. Another instance occurred when I had a friend over. We were crossing a small street to go to a local Menchie's and Kroger on a grocery run for my mom. Guys in a white truck slowed and stopped near us multiple times, whistling and yelling suggestive things, as well as asking for personal information.

I'm not implying that Cary will be unsafe. In fact, it's ranked number 43 as the best places to live in America, out of the bazillions of towns and cities we have here. I'm just wondering, what of a town isn't reflected in it's statistics? We've been here nearly a year and everything has checked out. However, we lived in our last house for 5 before anything extraordinary happened. Only time will reveal Cary's character.

-Chichi