FAR FROM PERFECT
Though Floridians are coming, the welcome mat isn't out everywhere.
More people mean more roads, more schools and higher taxes. And that doesn't sit well with some locals.
"The way they're taking all our good farm land for housing, it'll be chaos one of these days," says Tommy Boyd, 58, a Tennessee native who participates in Mule Day. "I'd like for Tennessee to stay just like it is."
That's not likely. Change rolled into Columbia 20 years ago when a Saturn plant opened in nearby Spring Hill, bringing "Yankees," the natives grumbled.
Today locals can grab tacos at a Mexican restaurant as well as enjoy the all-you-can-eat chit'lins at Stan's.
An Islamic center, housed in a small concrete building, sits near a Pentecostal church. Black members of a Baptist church march in the Mule Day Parade, as do the Sons of Confederate Veterans, whose organization is headquartered in a former plantation nearby.
"People here have come a long way," says Jesse Cole, 48, a black man who as a child attended segregated schools in Tennessee. "But they still got a long way to go."
Some black people don't participate in Mule Day because it evokes a time when mule-drawn wagons brought slaves into town for auction, Cole says. And though black people find jobs fixing cars and maintaining lawns, he says it's hard to break into business.
"Here, you have to know your place."
WEATHER CHANGES
The Florida transplants must find their way, too.
"It's kinda hard," Joshua says about being the new kid in town. "They've known each other their whole lives."
In Columbia, friendships form over church suppers and through Bible study groups. "They're a little set in their ways," says Tera Gonzalez, 34, Mowery's daughter. "Church is your way in here."
Though she's happy she moved, Gonzalez misses family -- two siblings remain in Florida -- and friends. No more easy shopping, endless restaurants and entertainment. Tennessee also has something these South Floridians haven't seen in a while: winter.
"It gets cold and nasty here," Tom Williams says. "When you get to be 72, things hurt that you didn't even know you had."
But Mowery doesn't mind the weather. He planted new roots in the Tennessee hills and they've taken hold.
Says Mowery: "If I see a palm tree up here, I'll kill it."