The Snowbirds are definitely back!

[greensinestro]

I can give everyone the signs that they are back, just based on what my wife I and dealt with yesterday:

* I went to the Super Target, and literally everywhere I was (in the grocery department, that is), I could hear nothing but bitching and complaining, from "The weather is too hot!" to "I hate the traffic here" to "everything in this store is expensive!" It must be pointed out, however, that anywhere not in the grocery section contained none of these people.

* My wife was at the local Publix, at the deli (where much of the trouble happens), and had to wait for two people ahead of her to "taste test" their kosher salami, or turkey, or whatever, before they agreed to buy it. "I'm not buying that until I've tasted it first!", and we're talking those with thousand dollar rings, shoes, clothing, and drove up in their late model, shiny and new expensive cars.

* In traffic, you get behind the Mercury Grand Marquis (since that seems to be the most popular car of choice for these people), and they do exactly ten miles below the posted speed limit, in the left hand lane to boot. And, just as you are about to pass them, they decide to also change lanes without signaling first, while waving their hands and pointing at something in the air.

* On the highway, like I-95, if you happen to see car carriers loaded with shiny, new, expensive cars, that's the sign that the ones who haven't arrived yet are at least on their way. They have their cars delivered while they buy their first class plane tickets to fly down here so they can reside in their five million dollar condos on the ocean.

And it's only November. We still have at least five months to go of this.

[mharbourgirl]

Hey, I wondered why grocery shopping was unusually quiet and annoyance-free yesterday!

Woo! They're leaving!

Sorry, couldn't help myself, they live here in the summer.

[ditchdj]

That's EXACTLY why when my wife was talking about how "nice" it would be to move to FloriDUH I was like "Uhhhhhhhhhh......NO!"

[XCashier]

Former Zonie here. Yeah, we had snowbirds. Clogged up the streets and stores, voted in our elections on issues we had to live with year round and only affected them for 3-5 months, talked about seeing "sag-you-arrows" and ordered "fuh-jie-tuhs" at the local Mexican restaurants. They were the butts of loads of jokes around Phoenix, and bumper stickers reading "Welcome to Arizona, now go home!" and "If it's tourist season, why can't we shoot them?" were a very common sight.

Nope, I don't miss them.

[greensinestro]

More signs of their return!

** I stopped at Burger King last night, and there was one in there giving the cashier a hard time about the prices. On one wall was the dollar menu, and on the counter in front of him was another menu with some deals. This guy continued pointing to each menu and grilled the cashier on why one price was different from the other. "This says small at $1.49, yet your dollar menu says it's $1. Why are these two different?" Then, after he placed his order, he was doing the math in his head, getting after the cashier that the total was wrong. "I ordered a burger for $1.49 and a drink for $1.29. That should add up to $2.78, not $2.97!" The cashier explained that he was correct on the $2.78, but that it came to $2.97 because of tax. I've seen this before. For some reason, it's always a surprise to these people that food and other items in Florida have sales tax attached to them. Maybe sales tax doesn't exist in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, etc?

** At Publix the other day, I bought our Thanksgiving turkey. This woman was also there, looking at the turkeys, but not causing trouble exactly. She needed me to help her get one that was too heavy, which I was happy to do. It's what she said next that was odd. "Oh, young man, would you mind getting one of them from the bottom? They're fresher down there." This is something I've heard before. The freezer was full of turkeys that came in most likely on the same truck and were put there at the same time. It took me three turkeys before this woman felt I had picked the right one for her. Goes to show how wonderful it is to help someone.

I'm going out later for more Thanksgiving items and to do some more Christmas shopping. I'm sure I'll have more stories to tell.

[EvilEmpryss]

I think the fresher comment comes from teh fact that the turkeys on top can sometimes thaw and refreeze, causing spoilage. My wonderful dinner last year was almost ruined because of that situation. I had to run out on Thanksgiving day to find a fresh (never frozen) turkey to cook.

I would have said thank you for helping me get one from the bottom, though.

[South Texan]

Oh dear, merciful heavens I do NOT miss living in the Rio Grande Valley.

Around the first of November, the first of these type arrived. Usually, their adult child drove them down as they cannot drive - then left them the car to use while they were there. They could not read street signs like "ONE WAY" and yelled at all the other cars who honked at them while trying to avoid a head on.

They showed up at least two to three hours early for everything (My mom once held an open house for our church at our home. It was to start at 3:00. The first people arrived at 10:00 a.m. and stayed until it ended at 9:00 p.m.). They hogged all the tables at restaurants and crowded out the locals at any special event in the city. They often were entering dementia, and therefore were confused about things which lead them to yelling and getting angrry at clerks and cashiers. They demanded any discount they could get and complained if the business did not offer any.

Most were racist as could be and openly bitched about anyone who spoke Spanish (the dominant language down there) and treated anyone with dark skin as their servant.

At one time, the Valley had welcomed them as they were a boost to the ecomony. Now most business would prefer they stay up north as they spend as little as possible and cause more trouble for the employees.

[kendiara]

There are several states that actually don't have sales tax, so that part can be confusing. Of course its just as confusing the other way around too

[Antisocial_Worker]

I don't know what you'd call them here in North Carolina, because they're usually Floridians who spend the summer here in the mountains where it's cooler.

In a nutshell, take your snowbird experiences and place them in Appalachia where, as an added bonus, the concept of a straight road or a street grid has no meaning because the roads follow the mountains. I've seen little old drivers piloting Buicks and Oldsmobiles big enough to affect tides using their turn signals to indicate that, yes, they will indeed follow the curve in the road rather than, say, plowing straight ahead and blazing a new trail straight through the woods perhaps. Our newspapers have written up numerous stories about retired drivers hitting the gas instead of the brake and smashing into stores or, worse, running over people in parking lots. I've had a Winnebago the size of an aircraft carrier bearing down on me as it sped the wrong way down a one-way street, horn blaring and the wizened driver making extremely rude gestures because, obviously, I -- and all the cars behind me -- must be going the wrong way. It couldn't possibly be him.

We get another wave of them when the leaves change in the fall. That's even more fun because it's not at all uncommon for a car with a Florida license plate to be driving along in front of you and suddenly screech to a dead stop. Why? The driver and passengers have spotted a lovely vista and want to take a picture of it.

What is perhaps worst of all is that a few communities around here have made the major part of their economic fortune out of enticing these folks to move here from Florida. That's when you start to see bitter editorials by the score in the local papers, letters that advance the notion that children should be born but not otherwise encouraged, letters that ask why the retirees should have to fund the school system when their children went to school decades ago in another state, and all the other fun ideas that get thrown out when you have a majority of citizens believing that a community exists solely to amuse them for the last few years of their lives.

Oh, it's great fun.

[greensinestro]

There are several states that actually don't have sales tax, so that part can be confusing. Of course its just as confusing the other way around too

That may be true, but that might apply to tourists who only come here for a few days or so. These people spend six months in the upper states, and another in Florida. Yet, it all seems brand new to them here when they know everything that goes on up there. That's why you always hear about how much better things are there.

[Pagan]

Oh dear, merciful heavens I do NOT miss living in the Rio Grande Valley.

Which part? 'Cause there's a lot of it.

They often were entering dementia, and therefore were confused about things which lead them to yelling and getting angrry at clerks and cashiers. They demanded any discount they could get and complained if the business did not offer any.

We get the ones that, for some reason, seem to think that their insurance works differently here. Insist that they never paid blah$ for their prescriptions at "home". However, if they've always been filling with our particular store, we can look at all of their fills and what they paid for it. Lo and behold, it's the same damn price they've been paying for a year.

We get another wave of them when the leaves change in the fall. That's even more fun because it's not at all uncommon for a car with a Florida license plate to be driving along in front of you and suddenly screech to a dead stop. Why? The driver and passengers have spotted a lovely vista and want to take a picture of it.

We get a variation on that theme with balloons in October. Even to the point of PSAs on the local channels.

[sixums]

Maybe sales tax doesn't exist in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, etc?

Nope, they're just sucky. Every state that I know of in NE and the upper Mid-Atlantic has sales tax, except for New Hampshire. There's no sales tax in NH, but there is a food tax on prepared foods. That means if you go to a restaurant like BK, you're gonna pay a little more than what it adds up to. I would almost guarentee you that that person doesn't even think about it when they buy here, if they live here. It's as soon as they leave that it's such a big deal. If they don't, they're just a jerk.

Also, thank goodness the snowbirds are leaving. More snow for me.

[greensinestro]

Well, if sales tax does exist up there, why does it always seem to be a total shock when they have to pay it here?

I remember years ago, when I worked for Bellsouth, there was always shock about charges they had to pay when putting their phones on vacation to return up north in the spring. We billed a fee to do this, plus we had to recap to them the fact that while the phone was on vacation, they had to pay a monthly fee, which was half of the basic rate, and the reason was so it would reserve the facilities and their phone number for them upon their return. After that it was always the same argument. "What? But I've never paid that before! Why should I pay a bill when I'm not there?" And you would see notes on these accounts where reps had the same conversation year after year with them. Then later on, when the bill arrived at their northern residence, they would call in an argue the charges again, much of the time getting the one time fee waived just to get them off the phone.

God, how I love it when spring comes!

[Chromatix]

You know what they say - money can't buy happiness.

[protege]

We get another wave of them when the leaves change in the fall. That's even more fun because it's not at all uncommon for a car with a Florida license plate to be driving along in front of you and suddenly screech to a dead stop. Why? The driver and passengers have spotted a lovely vista and want to take a picture of it.

They do that shit here in SW PA as well. Yes, the leaves turn colors. It's been doing that as long as I can remember...and then some. Last time I checked, the leaves look pretty much the same every fall, so I don't understand the fascination with them. Still, it doesn't stop idiots from other states coming here, driving 40 miles under the speed limit, and randomly stopping wherever they feel like it.

I think I speak for the entire region when I say... Learn to drive, or get the fuck out. Seriously, the pittance you put into our economy isn't worth tolerating your antics. Go home!

That's when you start to see bitter editorials by the score in the local papers, letters that advance the notion that children should be born but not otherwise encouraged, letters that ask why the retirees should have to fund the school system when their children went to school decades ago in another state, and all the other fun ideas that get thrown out when you have a majority of citizens believing that a community exists solely to amuse them for the last few years of their lives.

Sadly, that attitude exists everywhere, and it's not just the retirees either. Many people (locally) seem to think that once their children are grown up, and out of school...that they should no longer have to pay school taxes. Never mind that they didn't pay school taxes when *they* were in school