Jun 12 2008
Recessions Are Bananas
I come from a very small town in Upstate New York. Most people not from the area seem to think that the entire state is just like The City - full of jobs and people and buildings and so on. Nothing could be further from the truth. Upstate New York is a barren wasteland devoid of jobs, culture, or style.
Pardon my hyperbole. The truth is, upstate is mostly rural, with many small towns and a few small cities. There are a lot of cows and a lot of trees. I spent my childhood riding my bike, playing in the creek, and exploring the woods. I was always home by dinner, and my mother always knew where to find me (and could usually yell loud enough for me to hear her no matter where I was).
It was a good way to grow up, but once I was grown, small-town life started to feel very suffocating. There is no growth, not in the housing market or the job market; it’s tough enough even to maintain the status quo. I would have loved to have stuck around and tried to make things better, but how could I have managed that when all I could find to do was eat, sleep, and work at Radio Shack?
Yes, Upstate has its own unique history and culture that I admittedly belong to. I get very snobby during these mild Maryland winters, let me tell you! It is a part of who I am, and I’m okay with that. That being said, just because it’s where I was born doesn’t mean I can’t ever leave.
As the man said, “There are two ways of getting home, and one of them is to stay there. The other is to walk round the whole world till we come back to the same place.”
