Trading O.C. for the Hills of Tennessee
Greetings from the Kirkeys of Lebanon, Tenn. They’d like you to know there is life after Coto de Caza.
Dave and Adrienne are three months out of Orange County and into their new home 25 miles east of Nashville. They found a restaurant where you can get broasted chicken with two sides and a roll for $6.75 and where the owners, Bob and Virginia, bought them dinner one night and wrapped up some pie for them to take home.
The Kirkeys, both in their early 50s, are just two more of the tens of thousands who exit California for various reasons every year -- even as tens of thousands more think of the Golden State as a place you should try to move to.
They didn’t leave Southern California because they hated the place. But like many people wary of the real estate market, they were sitting on a big property and were looking to downsize. And rather than buy a new place -- and then fret about whether they were paying way too much -- they packed up.
“What I saw,” Dave says on the phone, “were people moving every three or four years, taking advantage of the real estate boom and the increasing value of homes and buying up. As soon as that stops, it’s like you’re playing musical chairs and you wonder, has that chair been pulled out behind you?”
Lots of Southern Californians are asking that question, but, unlike the Kirkeys, they didn’t own outright a $2-million home in gated Coto de Caza. Nor can lots of people afford to pay cash for a new home, as could the Kirkeys.
So, the issue wasn’t just about housing prices.
Yes, they knew they’d find an incredible “bargain” by California standards in Tennessee, but they were hoping to find other things too. Adrienne is a singer-songwriter with a country/folk sound and three CDs, and Nashville is a nice place to pursue a musical dream.
But not even that drove them. In truth, Dave says, there’s really no one reason why they moved to a state they’d never lived in.
“I would be the first to say that California treated us very well,” Dave says. “But saying that, it was time for a change. We just wanted to go do something different and in an area where there’s just a different quality of life. It’s just different here. Where we live, when people talk about getting past an intersection by 8 in the morning or there’ll be a traffic backup, you get there and find out there are eight cars in front of you.”
And then there was the big news in Lebanon last week. The townspeople had a welcome-home parade for National Guardsmen back from Iraq, who rode down Main Street on a flatbed truck, complete with official police and firetruck escorts and all the local TV stations.
Pretty cool, Dave says.
The Kirkeys think they’ve found their final destination. Mindful that they’re newcomers, not to mention newcomers from California, they’re easing their way into local society.
“We’re cautious about how we approach people,” Dave says. “In listening to them, they don’t like people who come in from out of town, be it California or other places, and throw their weight around. We want to fit into the community.”
And while some of their new acquaintances ask the Kirkeys why anyone would want to leave California, the couple saw another side of things.
Adrienne, who grew up in Anaheim and remembers as a child smelling oranges in the groves, laments what’s happened over the years. “I wanted to leave since I was 15,” she says. “I knew Orange County was going to continue to be taken advantage of and developed completely.”
Maybe that’ll happen to Lebanon, Tenn., someday.
For now, though, the Kirkeys have no complaints.
“I gotta tell you,” Dave says, “Nashville is not bad at all.”
Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana. parsons@latimes.com. An archive of his recent columns is at www.latimes.com/parsons.
