Is that Union-NY or Union-Richmond (another great southern area, to keep things on topic)? My dad graduated from the latter. Met my mom when she was attending PSCE there. She also has worked as a librarian at Union-PSCE and Columbia, where I have had quite a few friends attend. The only Princeton grad I've known was my church's associate pastor. Another associate we had graduated from Austin. I'm a big Presbyterian PK nerd, in case you couldn't tell. ;)

Union in Richmond, of course. ;) My wife went to PSCE (before it became Union-PSCE). My grandparents and my uncle and aunt were also Union-PSCE couples. I'm not a PK, but only because neither of my parents were ministers. (Both elders, though.) As one cousin put when asked why he bacame a mininster, the whole family is so lousy with ministers, he didn't know until he was a "big boy" that there was anything else to do.

To get back to topic, I still have to pull for NC.

Hopkinsville, KY or Bowling Green, KY

i think you'd get a better feel for the South from a mid-sized town. i grew up in Hoptown and went to WKU in BG. they're both centrally located. you can get several major cities in short drives. some people commute for work, others for fun.

I was asked to give an update on my move.

At this time, we have yet to relocate and have spent a large part of summer travelling to various cities all over the south. I knew it would be difficult, but I didn't know just how difficult it would be. It will take a bit more time to make the decision, but I would really like to thank all of you for helping me and sharing your thoughts.

I am still open to any suggestions.

West Little Rock is a great place to live (I think there's at least one GC'er from there). Memphis is not, but if you live on the outskirts it's great. Marion in Arkansas is a small town but where all the white, rich Memphisians live. I would suggest the DFW metroplex where I'm going to be living in the Spring most likely. Not Plano, because it's all trash but Fort Worth or another outlying suburb is great.

Who ever said that they had anticatholicism in Louisville-
this is a VERY Catholic town... even on Wikipedia it says how large the Catholic population is here. It's mostly due to the fact we have strong Irish and German roots. There are 28 Catholic schools here even. I would be shocked if people were rude about religion here.

Also- I have to say a negative to Memphis. As well as Birmingham Alabama....
However I lOVE CHarleston SC

If you're still looking for a good city, I would suggest Austin, TX. I think it has all the benefits of a big city, which still preserving a lot of small-town southern hospitality and charm. It has great school, good jobs, and it BEAUTIFUL. It was also recently rated as the #2 best city to live in the U.S.! It's not as traditionally southern as SC or GA, but it has a great mix of everyone and I plan on raising my own family there.

We're thinking moving to Huntsville...

I was surprised when I encountered it firsthand as a Catholic by one of my coworkers at a major bank. I didn't think I would bump into it in L'ville for precisely the reasons you state but I was wrong. This was back in the 80s and my coworker did not grow up in L'ville, but was raised in Appalachia. Not that her origins gave her license to spew her rhetoric...

Exactly. One might be discriminated against for NOT being Catholic in Louisville, but Louisville was, and is, so inbred Catholic it hurts. This is coming from someone who grew up there, left for Boston and Hartford, then moved back for about 10 more years! I also endured an Archdiocese of Louisville education for 13 years (yes, including pre-school.)

Southerners
 

:)Nashville, Huntsville, or even Birmingham! All three of these have a great location, great schools in certain areas, and plenty of activities for families.

Just got back from Huntsville. It seems like a big yet small city, esp. compared to Atlanta.

Went downtown Friday and Saturday nights...both were practically deserted. Good that there weren't traffic jams, lol. Didn't seem to be much shopping.

Granted that we didn't go into a lot of residential areas but most houses we saw were ranch-style, built in the 60-70's. Scary that a lot had burglar bars on them.

Drove out to Madison, AL and loved it!! Could see myself living there.
Decatur and Athens were okay...

Checked out Cummings Research Park area..nifty looking company buildings.

Back to Huntsville...other than the historic districts downtown, I didn't see any cute boutique, hang-out type parts of town like the Virginia-Highland pat of Atlanta.

http://www.virginiahighland.com/

I live in Raleigh, well actually...in the suburb of Cary. I grew up here and I can't imagine calling any other place home!!

I have a question after reading this whole thread. I told my mom that I was thinking of moving "to the South" (yeah I don't consider El Paso the south, I barely consider it part of TX...lol) and she cautioned me automatically.

I guess my mom's had some bad experiences (of course this was back in the late 70's, early 80's) traveling in those areas.

I'm like my grandmother---i'm more open to visiting places i've never been. My mom told me that she and my grandmother visited Louisville (i wanna say it was in the mid- 90s, but I'm not sure) and my grandmother wanted to take the bus & just ride it to see where it took her. The front desk person told her it wasn't safe.

Call me naive or whatever, but is it still like that in many places? I know all cities have their bad areas, but I'm used to a city that, even in the "bad" areas, you can still walk around and feel relatively safe.

I mean, any city/state has its bad places.

But I'd feel much safer in the Delta of Arkansas than I would in any borough of New York.