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Happy First Use of Insulin to Treat Diabetes (1922)! ⚕️💉
Why we live where we do?
- Thread starter coldfeet
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Thanks for saving the day Alan! Probly go good with Bud Lite and Dumaurier light too!
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I grew up on western Long Island in NYS at a time when there were still some small farms. My hometown is Floral Park and I lived on the Nassau county side of the line. From my home I could bike to endless areas where we could disappear into the woods for the entire day. My friends and I would bike or walk up to Alley Pond and spend the day hiking, breaking out our mess kits and making lunch over an open fire, etc., etc., All the things a kid should be able to do. If I really wanted to get lost in the woods I'd ride my bike over to Valley Stream State Park and spend the entire day surrounded by woods. Since my Dad was interested in freshwater fishing I got to spend a lot of time on the eastern end of the Island bass & pickerel fishing on Forge Pond and trout fishing on the Carmens, Nissaquoge & Connequot (not sure of the spellings anymore...sorry). Boy Scouts introduced me to canoeing and it all got put together from there.
While a kid I noticed that the 5 small farms that were near my town were slowly getting smaller. By the time I was 12 they'd disappeared completely. I could never understand why this happened because they were all replaced by essentially the same thing; what we'd call a mini-mall in today's parlance. I also noticed that the small game places my Dad and I would hunt on the eastern portion of LI were getting fewer and fewer. By the time I was 16 I realized that LI was changing and, in my opinion, not for the better.
With the fall of 1971 I began college at a school located on the western edge of the Catskills. Eventually I transferred to an outdoor education & wilderness recreation program at a SUNY school in central NYS. From there I got my first job at the school where I first went to college. After four years there I moved about 20 miles up the road to the college where I still work today. My wife and I have raised two daughters who are now grown and on their own; both living in New England about an hour apart from each other.
The old farm we live on has been home since 1987 and between it's location and my job, we're still quite happy here. The Susquehanna River is less than a mile from our house and it's within a 10 minute drive from my office so I can be on the river at a moment's notice most days. We too can xc ski or snowshoe out our back door and the Catskills are just over an hour to the east if we want to get in some mountain hiking. With the Adirondacks being only 2-4 hours away (depending on where we're headed), it seems to be the optimal place for us to live.
At this point I'm nearing retirement but we will be here for the time being. This last year, after retiring from her job at the college, my wife & I opened a B&B at our place. Between that endeavor and other opportunities, this is still a great place for us to live. Honestly, if we were to move the only logical place would be somewhere near our daughters, son-in-law and grandkids so that would take us to New England; which I think would be just fine as well.
Guess that's all for now. Sorry for being so long winded. Take care and until next time....be well.
snapper
While a kid I noticed that the 5 small farms that were near my town were slowly getting smaller. By the time I was 12 they'd disappeared completely. I could never understand why this happened because they were all replaced by essentially the same thing; what we'd call a mini-mall in today's parlance. I also noticed that the small game places my Dad and I would hunt on the eastern portion of LI were getting fewer and fewer. By the time I was 16 I realized that LI was changing and, in my opinion, not for the better.
With the fall of 1971 I began college at a school located on the western edge of the Catskills. Eventually I transferred to an outdoor education & wilderness recreation program at a SUNY school in central NYS. From there I got my first job at the school where I first went to college. After four years there I moved about 20 miles up the road to the college where I still work today. My wife and I have raised two daughters who are now grown and on their own; both living in New England about an hour apart from each other.
The old farm we live on has been home since 1987 and between it's location and my job, we're still quite happy here. The Susquehanna River is less than a mile from our house and it's within a 10 minute drive from my office so I can be on the river at a moment's notice most days. We too can xc ski or snowshoe out our back door and the Catskills are just over an hour to the east if we want to get in some mountain hiking. With the Adirondacks being only 2-4 hours away (depending on where we're headed), it seems to be the optimal place for us to live.
At this point I'm nearing retirement but we will be here for the time being. This last year, after retiring from her job at the college, my wife & I opened a B&B at our place. Between that endeavor and other opportunities, this is still a great place for us to live. Honestly, if we were to move the only logical place would be somewhere near our daughters, son-in-law and grandkids so that would take us to New England; which I think would be just fine as well.
Guess that's all for now. Sorry for being so long winded. Take care and until next time....be well.
snapper
Just moved back to the town I was born and raised in. My wife is from the same town. We moved back after 30-35 years in the southeast after our kids started college because its home and always has been. Moving back has been a long-range plan 15 years in the making. I've got the Appalachian trail a 15 minute walk away from my house, downtown a 10 minute walk away, and a put-in that will get me on the Connecticut River in half a mile a 2 minute walk away.
Hartwick maybe?
That is a great question Mike. Sad for me to say but I am staying 5 more years in NYC to receive a pension. I love my job teaching grades k-5 science, been doing it mostly 18 years out of the 24 total teaching years, but I can't leave until 62 or I get penalized. Built up to many iou's for children's college and other things so I have to stay, sad when I say that. Pro's and con's of working for a pension in a big city. I told my children to have some type of degree or trade and travel where your heart desires. Son in London/Chicago, daughter finishing college in Ohio moving to Colorado and other daughter with new plans. Looking forward to the future and maybe drive one of those campers and see all the sites you folks keep posting.
Wife & I grew up in the MN Twin Cities suburbs but went to college in southeastern MN. Fell in love with the bluffs and Mississippi river valley, found a place with 40 acres and never left. We too are close to the SPAM capital of the world.
I grew up in Iowa, and I love the place (odd, I know), but I'm allergic to corn pollen. I went to school in Knoxville, TN, right next to the Smokys, and fell in love with mountains. I wandered a bit, doing a few years in western Kentucky, then I got a job in Sault Sainte Marie, MI. I was less than 50 minutes from three of the great lakes. The water was blessedly clear. There were places to backpack and canoe and kayak and wildlife to watch. I was there for nearly 20 years and enjoyed the area immensely. The job changed, and I saw an add for a position in northwest Wyoming. It's in Park Countty, and our county park is Yellowstone National Park. The entrances near us are only open 6 months of the year, but in that six month period, I can decide at 10 am that I want to go to Yellowstone and have lunch, and I can do it. Once I got a sandwich at Subway, drove to a parking area beside the Yellowstone River and ate my sandwich, felt a little tired, so took a nap, and then drove home for supper. When the park is closed, I can still drive the Chief Joseph Highway, over a high pass of the Absaroka Mountains. I eat breakfast looking out the window at the Bighorn Mountains every morning. I have reservations to paddle in the Tetons next summer. It'll take half a day to drive there. I can backpack in the Absarokas, the Bighorns, and the Beartooths in a couple of hours. Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area is only about 45 minutes away. I live in a basin filled with sage and dust and not much else. But if I get in my car... . I do miss all the water I had in Michigan. Both here and Sault Sainte Marie are horrid for shopping. Oh well. Amazon sends me stuff. I believe the real estate saying is Location, Location, Location. Let me know if you're going to Yellowstone.
I do miss all the water I had in Michigan. Both here and Sault Sainte Marie are horrid for shopping. Oh well. Amazon sends me stuff. I believe the real estate saying is Location, Location, Location. Let me know if you're going to Yellowstone. - Joined
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clemency - I've done some part time work for Hartwick over the years but my full time employer continues to be SUNY Oneonta.
Until next time....be well.
snapper
Until next time....be well.
snapper
What I don't understand is why vegans strive to make their food taste like real meat.
There are a number of SPAM Haiku pages - google them
http://web.mit.edu/jync/www/spam/
https://ptolemy.eecs.berkeley.edu/~c...pam-haiku.html
Oh tin of pink meat
I ponder what you may be:
Snout or ear or feet?
Pink beefy temptress
I can no longer remain
Vegetarian
A bulge in my jeans
Is that SPAM in your pocket?
I blush and say Yes
There are a number of SPAM Haiku pages - google them
http://web.mit.edu/jync/www/spam/
https://ptolemy.eecs.berkeley.edu/~c...pam-haiku.html
Oh tin of pink meat
I ponder what you may be:
Snout or ear or feet?
Pink beefy temptress
I can no longer remain
Vegetarian
A bulge in my jeans
Is that SPAM in your pocket?
I blush and say Yes
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SUNY Oneonta was my second guess.
My son got into Hartwick. Beautiful area, and it was my first choice for him. Sadly it was his second choice, so he stayed in the southeast instead of coming north.
Ok, that's just wrong, kinda like mating cats and dogs. Nobody wants a dat or a cog.
These are priceless made my day! In fact I need to start adding to the library already.
Canoe tripping friends
Spam frying on open fire
Powitik delight
Great winter topic! I believe I am where I am partly due to genetics. My parents were from Norway, came over in 1957-58 like a lot of Europeans after the war - for opportunities. My dad grew up in a fishing village by the arcitc circle, Melangen, where he joined the commercial fishing and whaling fleet at 14 to support the family. Same year the Germans invaded.
They settled in a Norwegian neighborhood in Brooklyn, where I was born and raised, but every weekend we packed up the car and went to the Poconos, Catskills or Adirondaks to camp. Summers saw at least on week long trip to a farther destination. In addition, the part of Brooklyn I lived in butted up to tidal marsh, so as kids we swam, caught fish and chased rabbits with slingshots in "the reeds". I was definitely given a desire to go explore new places. I think it's the Viking genetics.
I went to college near Tarrytown, NY then off to Ft. Bragg and the 82nd Airborne doing a tour in the Sinai desert, and other world destinations. I took a job with the Federal Government after that which has had me working the NY, Chicago, Washington DC and in 2 places in Georgia. During that time I've been to every continent except for Antarctica. I am currently in the Chicago area because of the job and I'm 17 months away from mandatory retirement and the pension. My daughters are grown, one in Denver and one in Phoenix.
We live just outside of Chicago, I am close to some small farms where I can hunt deer and Turkey, some streams where we have steelhead and I can be downtown Chicago in 45 minutes without rush hour. The wife is from Waverly, NY and does not want to return.
We both love it out in the Rockies and plan to relocate to Woodland Park, CO in the next few years. 8300' elevation and 320 sunny days a year! Lots of upland and big game hunting and blue ribbon trout fishing all year round. But we will also have a camper and drive around the country with the weather and to explore some more. Can't get it out of my system, I just like to poke around new places and meet people.
PS - Pringles, we call UPS the "Brown Truck of Happiness". I live close to all kinds of shopping and still do a ton online.
They settled in a Norwegian neighborhood in Brooklyn, where I was born and raised, but every weekend we packed up the car and went to the Poconos, Catskills or Adirondaks to camp. Summers saw at least on week long trip to a farther destination. In addition, the part of Brooklyn I lived in butted up to tidal marsh, so as kids we swam, caught fish and chased rabbits with slingshots in "the reeds". I was definitely given a desire to go explore new places. I think it's the Viking genetics.
I went to college near Tarrytown, NY then off to Ft. Bragg and the 82nd Airborne doing a tour in the Sinai desert, and other world destinations. I took a job with the Federal Government after that which has had me working the NY, Chicago, Washington DC and in 2 places in Georgia. During that time I've been to every continent except for Antarctica. I am currently in the Chicago area because of the job and I'm 17 months away from mandatory retirement and the pension. My daughters are grown, one in Denver and one in Phoenix.
We live just outside of Chicago, I am close to some small farms where I can hunt deer and Turkey, some streams where we have steelhead and I can be downtown Chicago in 45 minutes without rush hour. The wife is from Waverly, NY and does not want to return.
We both love it out in the Rockies and plan to relocate to Woodland Park, CO in the next few years. 8300' elevation and 320 sunny days a year! Lots of upland and big game hunting and blue ribbon trout fishing all year round. But we will also have a camper and drive around the country with the weather and to explore some more. Can't get it out of my system, I just like to poke around new places and meet people.
PS - Pringles, we call UPS the "Brown Truck of Happiness". I live close to all kinds of shopping and still do a ton online.
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I have greatly enjoyed reading your stories about where you live. I am insanely jealous of those of you who grew up in rural and woodland areas.
I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and just hated it. Ever since I was small, I wanted to be outside, to be paddling and camping and there was no opportunity from my family, until I finally got to Girl Scout camp and learned to paddle, and took some trips on the Wisconsin River. I went to college in rural Illinois and got absorbed in school and family and work. Moved to Syracuse NY for grad school and got introduced to the Adirondacks. Took up canoeing again. I love the northeast and Quebec. I've paddled in DAKs, NH, VT, Maine, Quebec. Loved it all. One year I traveled to Florida to learn about the Everglades ecosystem and fell in love with the area. It is difficult to say why, except it is a land/water of great subtle beauty, with wide open skies, gorgeous cloud formations, lush vegetation, interesting plants, animals and birds. I stayed because I no longer like the cold weather (used to xc ski, snowshoe, winter camping, etc.) I never thought I would like the south, until I got into the swamps and inland. I met a Florida cracker on the Suwanee River and we now have a cabin and 40 acres in the middle of the swamp, now owned free and clear. I definitely have no interest in moving north, although I plan some summer canoe trips north. If we do move, it will likely be to the little latitudes.
I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and just hated it. Ever since I was small, I wanted to be outside, to be paddling and camping and there was no opportunity from my family, until I finally got to Girl Scout camp and learned to paddle, and took some trips on the Wisconsin River. I went to college in rural Illinois and got absorbed in school and family and work. Moved to Syracuse NY for grad school and got introduced to the Adirondacks. Took up canoeing again. I love the northeast and Quebec. I've paddled in DAKs, NH, VT, Maine, Quebec. Loved it all. One year I traveled to Florida to learn about the Everglades ecosystem and fell in love with the area. It is difficult to say why, except it is a land/water of great subtle beauty, with wide open skies, gorgeous cloud formations, lush vegetation, interesting plants, animals and birds. I stayed because I no longer like the cold weather (used to xc ski, snowshoe, winter camping, etc.) I never thought I would like the south, until I got into the swamps and inland. I met a Florida cracker on the Suwanee River and we now have a cabin and 40 acres in the middle of the swamp, now owned free and clear. I definitely have no interest in moving north, although I plan some summer canoe trips north. If we do move, it will likely be to the little latitudes.
Let me know if you're going to Yellowstone.
Here I am on the Lewis River in 2004, the first outrigger canoe paddler in Yellowstone, according the two long time rangers who took the pictures.
Lovely trip, except for the part when I got arrested by a another park ranger at the take-out for failing to "register", whatever that means. But I talked my way out of it, explaining how rendering unto Caesar infringed upon my freedom of religion, as she was a nice girl originally from Connecticut.
It was in the Yellowstone/Tetons area that I first heard the climate semi-joke: "We have two seasons here, July and winter."
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