re: Anybody else truly love the south?

Having recently moved from the South to the upper Midwest I'd forgotten how much nicer Southerners are in every day interactions. Midwesterners aren't terrible, they're just curt and to the point making me miss the welcoming and friendly attitude most Southerners have toward strangers. Sometimes it would be annoying, I wouldn't always want to have a long conversation at a checkout or something, but it was nice compared to how people in the Midwest will try their very hardest not to interact with, and thus bother, strangers.

The South also has some real beauty and stunning sights. I particularly liked parts of East Tennessee and North Georgia as well as Central Mississippi/Alabama. On the other hand there are large swathes of the South that harbor neglect and decay far worse than anything I've seen in the Rust Belt...then again I've never been to Flint or Cleveland.

The food is also amazing.

What I don't like is the heat and crime. I have a weird perspective on it because in the South I always lived in larger cities like Columbia or Atlanta while in the Midwest, outside of Madison, I've never lived in a city larger than 15k. That's created this idea in my head that the South is crime-ridden while the Midwest is relatively safe but in reality it's just a rural/urban thing.

I like the South, if it weren't for the heat and my family I'd probably move back down.