Howdy East Texas Board,


There is a possibility that my wife and I will be moving to the Sulphur Springs area if all goes well in the interview process for a job a really want.

I am from Bryan and she is from Round Rock. Can any of you give me an idea of what SS is like?

Good parts of town? What are the schools like? Anything to do, or will we have to drive to Dallas to do anything? How's the housing market?

While I've looked on the internet at the areas websites, I juse wanted to get answers from people that are actually there.

Thanks for your responses.

I've been there many times, but don't have intimate knowledge of the place. My information comes just from driving through on my way home and from what the people in Paris say.

Not much is going on there. SS has a fairly large cattle auction. I think they have a Chili's now and a TaMolly's Mexican restaurant.

I think they have some sort of crappy little outlet mall (I mean seriously crappy).

Don't let this stuff scare ya though. That part of Texas is full of nice folks and cheap property. You can do like I did and drive to Dallas about once every couple of months to shop or eat at a nice place. It should be easy to get there since SS is right on the interstate.

I know this doesn't help much, but I don't know many details about SS.

My brother lives there. I think it's a complete craphole. Chili's or church is about your only social and/or cultural outlet.

That small strip mall is crap. The best store is Van Heusen followed by Lee Jeans. Awesome.

There is a barbecue place there in a rundown shack that has one of the best chopped brisket sandwiches I've had in years. That's about the only positive I can give it.

If you are going to take this job you need to live in Paris and commute. Paris at least has some bars you can go to.

[This message has been edited by YouBet (edited 11/13/2007 1:07p).]

I'm almost tempted to live somewhere between there and Dallas, or there and Tyler.

Any suggestions where I should live (I don't know if I want to live in Paris)?

You don't want to live in Paris. It's probably just like SS but further from Dallas and the rest of anything interesting.

If you're going to live where you have to commute, maybe Greenville. It's probably about the same, but closer to Dallas.

Thoughts and Prayers if you end up in SS.

You might check out some of the lakes. I believe one is Tawakoni and Lake Fork are fairly close.

Commerce has the university(Texas A&M-Commerce) and is close to Sulphur Springs.

Do not live in Paris and commute to SS!

Not worth the gas and not that much better of a town.

Forget Commerce too.

I say either SS or Greenville (if I remember correctly, the drive is about 1 hour).

Thanks guys.

The wife and I are really taking a good look at Greenville now.

I haven't been up there in a few years, but Greenville, at the time, early 90s, had a mall.

Sulphur Springs = suck

I think they have a Dairy Queen, that's all you need.

Somerville has a DQ and you'd have to pay me an awful lot to live there the rest of my life.

While Paris is indeed a craphole, it is still a leg up above SS. One of my best friends lives in Paris and they at least have some chain restaurants and bars.

I've lived in Tyler. It's a great town but it's kinda far from SS. It's a tough drive from Tyler to SS, lots of small towns with stop signs. I've done it. Dallas would be closer and easier to get to.

SS would probably be good if you had kids and wanted a small school and a slower lane in life.

Greenville is a little more of a step up in size and amenities from SS. It's got a few more chain stores, but not many more.

If you are younger and wanting nice restaurants, I'd look at Rockwall, maybe the north side to make your commute easier. Rockwall is growing by leaps and bounds. There's lots of new stuff there. They've just built a new shopping plaza by the lake. They've got a lot of the chains and adding more daily. From Rockwall, you'll be about 30-40 minutes from the heart of Dallas for the Arts, eating, partying and etc. I would think the commute from SS to Rockwall would be easy since it's mostly interstate and you would be able to go 60-70 most of the way. Rockwall is probably about 50 miles down the road, but on the interstate it's a quick trip.

If you and your wife are very outdoorsy, there's several lakes close by. You may want to live near the water.

It would just depend on how much of a daily commute you want and what you and your wife want to be near.

It all depends on what you need to be happy. If you like the outdoors and people who are genuine move to the country around Sulphur Springs. I grew up in Plano during the time it went from a small town to what it is today. I moved near Quitman (25 miles from SS) in 1990 because I wanted to be near Lake Fork and an hour and 40 minutes to the mountains and trout fishery in SE Oklahoma (and because I could buy 31 acres with timber and a creek for less than a featureless lot in Plano). I would never go back to the Metroplex. I have two daughters in Elementary school in Quitman and we have been very happy with the education and the faculty. There is a fairly large Aggie contingent in this area also.

If you need different restaurant every night, clubs and bars and big malls close by, then you won't like it, if you like seeing trees turn in the fall, Dogwoods in the Spring , the ability to go hunting or fishing after work, friends and neighbors who care about what kind of person you are instead of the car you drive, can drive an hour to Rockwall or Tyler or Longview to go shopping (or 30 minutes to buy beer, wine or whiskey), and want your kids to grow up in real home town then you will think it is great.

One thing I have learned having lived in Plano, College Station and East Texas over the last 42 years is you make your own happiness no matter where you are.

Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions (contact information is on the website listed on my profile)

I interviewed for a job there about 5 years ago.
I also grew up in the Tyler area.

You would have to pay me REAL BIG $$$ to live in SS.

SS is in a different geographical area than most of East TX. Its in the plains region like Dallas. It also reminded me of a typical small interstate town....where people stop to take a leak then leave.


Sorry to not paint a good picture for you but maybe you can make the most of it by only working there for 8 hrs/day and commute to a better home.

Greenville is a fairly nice place. I've always felt like Tyler was the best place in East Texas in terms of amenities, jobs, etc. There are several other smaller towns that are suitable as well. Good luck.

Thanks for the responses ladies and gentlemen.

I'm still waiting to hear about the job, and my wife has already applied for positions in Greenville and Sulphur Springs.

I'm not sure what is going to happen, but if my wife gets the job in SS, then it would be pretty economically unsound for both of us to commute from Greenville.

The way some of you have described SS makes me hope that she gets the job in Greenville.

Thanks again.

i moved to ss the summer before my senior year of high school.. i loved it there for my senior year.. my parents ended up living there for 7 years.. still own a house there and rent it out.. my dad was a football coach and the high school principal and my mom was a teacher so our life pretty much revolved around the school.. needless to say we didn't do fancy dinners or shopping sprees.. so it worked great for us.. it definitely has the small town atmosphere.. the good and the bad.. the gossip mill, the camaradarie, and the pasture parties.. other than a few high profile families, i dont remember many "jones competitions".. i wont say "most" people that graduate from there stay there, but quite a few do.. some of them were born and raised there but some of them just dont branch out.. i graduated in '99 and there are quite a few successful people all over the country now..

i have no desire to be back there right now, but i would have no problem raising elementary children there..

out of curiosity, what job are you interviewing for? i am in consulting so i cant really see a career in a 15,000 person town for me but if i were to switch to industry, who knows what could happen..

if you are looking for 'hip' dont look to ss, paris, or greenville.. but if you dont need elaborate you could live a pretty comfortable and enjoyable life there.

I'm not looking for "hip", unless "hip" is a Target and a movie theatre with more than a couple screens.

I'm waiting to hear about a management position at a factory near there.

I think the closest Target might be in Rockwall. SS and Greenville, you'll be stuck with Super-Wal-Mart. The movie theater in SS has 6 screens, I think (I've only seen it on the Interstate when driving by).

I grew up in a small town (SS was in our HS district) and wouldn't move back to the town where I grew up now for anything, but could see living in SS - schools are pretty good from what I've heard. The only thing you'd get in Greenville that SS doesn't have is a closer drive to Dallas, and a few more people. Not much difference in the two IMO - the mall in Greenville might be a bit better, but not significantly.

SS is the epitome of the small country town. Everyone knows you and you know everyone else. It has gotten a bit bigger, but still feels "small town." My family has deep deep roots there, and while I haven't lived there per se, I have spent an inordinate amount of time there. My hunting ranch is about 20 minutes out from SS, and that's why I spend the most time there. As far as what is there, they do have a Chili's and a couple chain places. Definately a few good mexican joints, with Tamale's being the best. It's an old dairy town, and there really isn't too much to it other than that. Would I live there? Not now in that I am too fast paced for that town, but once I get to the point of settling down and raising a family, it wouldn't be too horrible.

I grew up there and my mom and sister still live there. Everyone is right, there is not much to do but the people are nice. Being on I30 you can get to Greenville pretty quick.Greenville has more places to eat and a mall. Good luck.

I live in Greenville, and it's not too bad. We're getting all kinds of stuff like a Starbucks, ChickFilA, Lowes, etc. A lot of I-30 is developing rapidly. I'm pretty sure that Sulphur springs has a really good high school. I remember them whipping greenville in a bunch of academic meets.

Thanks for the info AggiesWin and others.

My wife and I have already been looking at houses in Greenville (online), but I won't know if I will be working in SS until after the new year.

AggiesWin is spewing misinformation. SS does not have racism problems like that. Total misinformation on this topic!

While the things AggiesWin are probably not 100% true, there is a kernel of truth in many statements made.

A month ago I spoke to my wife after she had a chance encounter with someone from Greenville and asked about the area.

She was told that she won't have any problems teaching since there aren't many "insert word that rhymes with 'triggers' here" in Greenville.

I'm sure it's not just SS and Greenville with their share of highly-opinionated individuals, but I won't completely discount AggiesWin's statement.

While I find that hard to believe, I'm not going to discount AgsWin statement either. That place is as backwards as any I've ever been to. And I grew up in East Texas!

I will completely disagree with AggiesWin. I wont say that the Walmart story did not happen but I will say that if it did, that was not a true representation of the town.

I have lived all over Texas... Hillsboro, Hallsville, Longview, Commerce, College Station, Houston, The Woodlands (Clifton, Cameron, and Temple also, but before the age I can remember). If Sulphur Springs is overwhelmed with racism, then so are the rest of those. I have friends of all races, ethnicities, social and economic statures and through these relationships I honestly believe that your experience was an isolated experience. Yes, money can = power, the "N-word" can start a fight, and a bad seed can misrepresent. That is true in any town.

Out of curiosity, how did Wal-mart management respond when you brought that incident to their attention immediately?

And no offense to any of the hard-working individuals that work for Wal-Mart, but do you really base your opinion of a town based on your interpretation of a random patrons comments or a cashier of Wal-Mart's comments?

Believe it or not, Sulphur Springs ISD ranked in the top 20 "Best School Districts in Texas for African-American Students"... I know, it sounds like a statistic I made up. But believe it or not TAMU conducted the study.
http://teep.tamu.edu/BlackRankings2002-2005.pdf

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Sulphur Springs is by far your worst opiton IMHO

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Seriously? That is pretty unbelievable. Sulphur Springs High School won 24 straight District titles in the UIL Academic competition. They came in second to Lindale last year for the first time since 1982. Of course that shouldn't convince you to move to Sulphur Springs, but if racism was so bad, how is SSISD one of the best schools for African Americans and so good at academics? If the walmart cashier and the belly showing man were a true representation of the town, the school would not do so well.

Humorous, my wife and I have lived in S.S. for 11 years now. We moved from Ft. Worth because we wanted to live in a small town to raise our children in a safer more close knit community. Our experience has been wonderful, the schools are excellent and the people are genuine and not pretentious. The town is very Christian oriented and family based. We have seen very little evidence of racism in our experience not saying it couldn't happen just like in any other community.
If your life revolves around shopping and eating out as well as sitting in traffic in the metroplex, SS is not for you. If you enjoy a slower paced life and a safe enviroment for kids SS may be the place, but to each his own.

BTHO Penn State Gig em! Ags

Thanks to everyone that gave good insight about Sulphur Springs.

Unfortunately, I was informed Friday that there is a very high possibility that the company I want to work for will not be able to take me on due to budgetary constraints, and that I should pursue other options.

AggiesWin....You ARE spreading misinformation. I do not doubt that there are some folks there who are racists. However, isn't that true of any town? I definitely know it's true in Greenville! It certainly is here in Corpus! We have ingorant people of all colors (white, black, brown, etc.). I'm betting you have some type of chip on your shoulder for something.

I live in Corpus Christi now, but grew up in Sulphur Springs (grade school, middle, high school- 20 years ago). I'm white and I had many many black and hispanic friends...and we all mixed very well. I still have nephews, sister, other relatives, friends, etc. who live there and what you are saying certainly doesn't represent them. Greenville...however...has had a very long history of being a rough place for racism. Search the internet and see what turns up.

I would encourage anyone who enjoys truely friendly genuine "country type" people to live in SS. Good folks. We still visit a couple of times a year to see relatives. If you like the "fast lanes" live in the big City. SS (and other small towns) aren't for everyone.

P.S. Humorous - I'm betting the factory job that you were looking at was Ocean Spray.

[This message has been edited by Salty Aggie 93 (edited 1/8/2008 12:02a).]

It was for a door and window manufacturer.

I really want/wanted that job.