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why move?

Today at the DMV -- excuse me, the MVC (Motor Vehicle Commission) – Dan and I were filling out license transfer forms when a MVC worker came by to make sure we had everything we needed. Okay, first of all? This would never happen in Los Angeles. Is it a city versus suburb thing or a California vs. New Jersey thing? I'm guessing the former.

We told her we'd just moved from Los Angeles and needed to transfer driver's licenses and car registrations. She checked to make sure we had the right forms and then asked, "Why are you making the move? Why New Jersey?" A legitimate question. People here sometimes do seem surprised. Leave the Golden State for this homey place? Why would anyone do that? But we talked for a while and she told us that she likes to ask people coming in from out of state what motivated their move. She's curious. She said she's recently seen a lot of people migrating from California and from the South. Particularly Louisiana and Florida, for obvious reasons. But I asked her what reasons people give for leaving California. She said they say they're sick of earthquakes, sick of flooding and fires. But a lot of times they simply wanted to come home.

Like us. We wanted to come home. So simple, really, when you put it like that.

Comments

Is it a city versus suburb thing or a California vs. New Jersey thing?--

It's a Jim McGreevy thing--because it wasn't this way a few years ago. Going to the DMV in Jersey used to be worse than going to hell.

After we had moved from CA to MA, we went to South carolina w/ a bunch of other families. When the locals asked where we were from, they would tall them, and the locals would, without exception, say "Why on earth did you come HERE?"