Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Rural me in New York

This is the real bulk of New York State


Looking at a page on Facebook that contains pictures of New York City people, I started remembering what the real bulk of New York State is made up of.  While the New York city people are lovely and the City contains diversified cultures you can get in few other places, I, for one, grew up in the rural section of this state.  The City also contains crowded everything, ghettos and a fast paced way of life I do not care to keep up with.


A house near where we live


I even moved to a large city, living there for 7 years, but when it came time to retire, my husband and I chose rural New York, again.  The Finger Lakes area of New York offers wide open spaces, a slower way of life, gardening, a landscape to die for and few crowds.  

When I lived in Lafayette, IN, people I worked with would assume I came from New York City.  I imagine them picturing all of New York as being NYC.  Why?  I cannot tell you why, I have no clue.

Growing up in a very small town was very nice, back then.  We lived on a five acre plot that wasn't exactly a 'farm' but it was to my Dad.  Sitting on the steps of our house, as a kid, there's nothing like listening to metal milk cans clanging together on a conveyor belt moving along at our local milk plant.  We had an Agway store where people bought feed and flour and they all came in sacks that were colorful with lovely prints of flowers and birds on them. My Mom would sew my sister and I clothing made from the sacks.  

The sacks flour and feed used to come in

This is what could be made from sacks.


I attended a small, rural school (NO not a one room school house, that was before my time) where we all knew each other and most of our parents were neighbors.  My sister and I could ride our bikes for an entire day on weekends and no one got worried.  We would cash in soda bottles at our local mom and pop store and purchase another six pack of Pepsi or Coke.  We could buy penny candy and sometimes an ice cream soda for 25 cents.

While NYC is the city that never sleeps, there's a lot to be said for hearing crickets from your bedroom window and actually getting some sleep.  

One of the parks in Penn Yan

The views and landscapes in rural NY are spectacular.  I cannot 'interview' the rural buildings like the NYC guy interviews his humans, but I'm sure those buildings would have no less of a tale to tell me.

 This is the heart of New York, the backbone




This old building was a small store when I was a kid


Winter in rural NY




Interviewing the bike:  "So tell me, Bike, where have you been and what have you seen?"

Answer:  No answer because bikes don't talk.  But I'm sure this vehicle could tell me lots if it found its voice.

So while living in NYC with its diversified population is exciting to many, I also think that in the case of a run on the grocery stores, the food would be depleted in no time at all.  We have farms here and more food to choose from.

We even thought of moving to a larger city, and we probably will sometime, but for now, we can grow our flowers and our landlord says we can have a vegetable garden, we are fine here for the time being.  Some of the happiest times I've known have been spent in the garden.  So NYC, for me, is fun to visit, but rural NY State is the heart and the mainstay of NY. 


Ornamental grass we grew from seeds this year




You don't get this in NY City



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