Just the thought of it brings back many happy childhood memories.
Sorry, not from Neenha, but my dad used to take me fishing there when I was a kid.
Anyway, lived in the midwest all my life. Now living in Minnesota. You get used to the cold. Anything above 30 degrees is a nice day.
Good luck.

-jasper

We used to live in Neenah. Loved it there. Let me guess, is it with KC or Menasha Packaging?

Imagine our shock (due to the cold weather that seems to last forever) coming from Los Angeles moving to Neenah. Good thing we moved in the summer, so we slowly acclimatized ourselves, but boy, was it cold.

Neenah is a safe place, so you can't really go wrong. And people are friendly. Although the more desirable areas are in the southeast side (I'm biased). We used to live in the Mahler Farm subdivision, very nice area. Prices vary from 250's to 400K. There's also a new subdivision in the west side, Nature Trail, which is also nice.

If you go to the town of Neenah, property tax is lower, and to me , looks more like in the country, still with cornfields, barns, more open space, but still few minutes from the freeway. Where we used to live was in the City of Neenah, we're close to the groceries, restaurant, hospital and the tiny downtown.

I think the posh address is the E. Wisconsin Ave, next to downtown. The houses there are old, character homes, ang huge! Most houses were built in the early 1900's, big, big yard. Forest Ave. is another street where the rich paper people made their home long time ago.
You can go to www.ci.neenah.wi.us/ and check it out. Sorry, don't know how to post a link:(

E-mail me if you need more info.

It depends what you mean by "close" - we're in SE Wisconsin.

Neenah is one of the "Fox Valley" cities - a chain of communities that follow the Fox River. Oshkosh, Appleton, Neenah, DePere, and Green Bay...there are more, too. It's a booming area in Wisconsin, and people are great up there.

How do you deal with the cold? I'm not sure how to answer that, since I grew up here. Warm coats, hats, mittens, etc. It'll be time for a snowblower, too. Seriously - it tends not to be that bad, but every once in a while we'll have a cold stretch. That usually hits in January - we'll have a week of sub-zero temps. It's cold.

We used to live in Menasha, right by Neenah, about 9 years or so ago. We were apt. dwellers at the time, but the area is great, and it's really growing. There is lots of boating and fishing avalible. We were from WI, but moved there from CO, so getting used to the cold was something we were already famailar with.

People are very friendly. For a fun day, you can go to Lambeau Field in Green Bay, and that's only a half hour or so away.

I continued to go there every three weeks even after we moved from the area, and there are so many new housing area's popping up. Some are a little rural and quiet.

I'm a life long midwest resident, currently in SE WI. I haven't been to Neenha, though I've heard it is nice. But, I feel qualified to address the cold issue. Besides a cozy home and appropriate outerwear, I consider a garage (esp. if attached and insulated) to be a great blessing. The garage isn't nearly as cold as the great outdoors, and you don't have to clean the frost, snow or ice off the car in the morning. I hate scraping the car to go to work, but somehow scraping the car to leave work is not so bad :). I also schedule a warm wether vacation during or shortly after the coldest part of the year (statistically about the third week in January in the Midwest, I believe). Learning to love one or more of the local winter sports helps, too. Cross country skiing, snowmobiling, ice skating, ice fishing, etc give you a reason to look forward to the cold weather.

My husband grew up in Appleton, his dad worked for KC in Neenah. They lived there from 1977-1984.

My mother in law said it was the worst place she'd ever lived, and that she couldn't stand the cold, the dark, and the isolation. THey had moved there from California and previous to that Virginia, so I bet it was a big change.

My husband's memories there as a kid/young teen was that the schools were very backward and there was little to do there besides play in the cornfields.

They moved to Atlanta in '82 and everyone's a lot happier, and still here.

If you do decide to go, rent first until you know you'll be happy there so you're not trapped.

My sister and I were born and raised in Fla - I am still in Fla, but sis moved to Wisconsin 20 or so years ago. I have visited her in Madison, and also in Appleton where she now lives. It seems like a nice small city to me, lots of restaurants, shops, etc. Also a drama college and the Houdini museum. There is lots of water around the Fox Cities - lots of neat old homes, too. The downside besides the cold is that it is NOT diverse at all - these towns are about the whitest of the white - I am not used to that (I am Latina and and in Fla. we have a huge mix of cultures. So if this is something that would bother you, I would urge you to check it out before you move.

"She couldn't stand the cold, the dark, and the isolation..."

You home is what you make of it. I don't think the state has much to do with isolation, and as far as minutes of light per day, we're not much higher in latitude than the rest of the country. Cold? Sure, it's cold, but I haven't felt isolated ever. Take a look at those nuts in the end zone of a Lambeau Field Packer game - do they look cold, dark, and isolated?

[Instead of those games, however, I would recommend a football Saturday at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, which was rated the #1 College Sports Town by SI (see http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2003/sioncampus/09/10/top_ten0916/index.html)...none of those stupid cheeseheads to be seen.]

"...schools are very backward and there was little to do there besides play in the cornfield."

It may come as a surprise, but there are very few cornfields within the City of Appleton proper. As far as things to do, there's football, basketball, swimming (my former sport), hockey, soccer...everything! Appleton has a great minor league baseball team with a great stadium (http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/app/index.jsp?sid=t572 ). Further to the south (about an hour) is Milwaukee, home of the largest outdoor music festival in the United States, Summerfest. A hour further is Chicago, which makes for a great weekend trip. An hour north from Appleton takes you into the Northwoods, home of some of the best fishing, hunting, etc., in the US.

As far as the schools being "backward," I guess they are when you compare them to Virginia and Georgia. Wisconsin is consistently in the top 5 states for both SAT and ACT scores, while both Florida and Georgia are in the bottom 20.

Thanks,
Wisconsin Shill

I'm not going to argue with you, Wisconsin Shill.

These were my MIL's impressions and feelings, and as such, are valid and cannot, therefore, be argued with.

The school my husband was in was TINY, and their answer to a 'gifted' program was to place him with kids 4 years older than he was.

Things certainly may have changed. When they moved to Georgia he was in a system ranked top 10 in the NATION. While Georgia certainly has more than its share of poorly performing schools, it also has several stellar ones.

The OP wanted opinions, this was ours.

I didn't want to come across as harsh, but us folk from Wisconsin always here the same stuff about our state. Granted, the cheesehead thing is mostly our fault, but we as a state place the blame for that on those nuts at the Packer Games...shirtless...in 10 degree weather.

My husband and I moved to SE WI 9 years ago for job reasons. He grew up outside of Pittsburgh, I grew up in northern Jersey; we both went to school in Philly. So coming to the Midwest was a big change for us and I thought for sure we'd be here 4 years max then move back east. All our friends thought we were crazy to come here but it's 9 years and 2 kids later, we don't have plans to move anytime soon. IMHO you just can't beat the quality of life. Cost of living is reasonable, schools (Madison area) are excellent, people are super-friendly, and we live in a safe, family-oriented neighborhood. We feel lucky that we're able to provide this lifestyle for our children. True, it is cold here in the winter time but as others have pointed out, you get used to it and it's really not that bad. I admit there isn't much diversity and we miss authentic Asian foods but Chicago is just 2.5 hours away. Overall, we're very happy here in the Midwest so don't be scared away by any preconceived notions!

Funny you guys mentioned the school. We were watching the news one night and they mentioned the smartest states. And Wisconsin was number 8, just like last year. And CA was 46th. My son said, "We should really move back to WI. Look, CA's in the bottom (again)."

One of the reason why property tax is high in WI is because of the school. I guess you get what you pay for:)

It's getting diverse now, at least, in Appleton. I've seen a lot of Hispanic people, and lots and lots of Hmong. I'm Asian, from Los Angeles, so I missed mingling with different cultures. It's true that most of the people there are white. In my kids' school alone (parochial school), we were the only 2 Asian families. The rest are caucasians, and one hispanic family. But everybody was friendly and nice. Really a great place to raise a family. They have your typical 4th of July and memorial day parade, community fest etc. What I really liked is that it's a small town that you get to meet and know a lot of people. How funny, last year when we came back from vacation, there were 2 other families in the same airplane with us! Both were from my kids' school.

There are new subdivisions everywhere, and if you go further west, Clayton is right next to Neenah, with lots of new houses. But I suggest you rent first, that's (almost) always a wise thing to do:)

I grew up in Central Wi, moved to Boston, Chicago -- then came back. We've been in the Neenah area 12 years. If you are a young single person -- looking for night life, may be boring. If you like lots of water, biking, trails - nice area! If you have a young family or even older kids -- it is a great place to live. As for the "Fox Cities" -- I see advantages to living in a 1 high school town, as you get to meet other parents/people in the community easily through your kids. We live on 10 acres, with a prairie, nice house ~ 6 miles west of Neenah, butts up to a bike trail. We are thinking of selling. If you are interested in discussing anything about Neenah feel free to email me.