JenM
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2007
- Messages
- 2,275
My nephew grew up in an affluent, white neighborhood in CT. (not that there is anything wrong with that). After college he moved to NYC.
Guess what he told me? I GREW UP IN A BUBBLE.
I'm not disparaging anyone here, but I truly believe it seems like a lot of posters here are in that "bubble", or at least a little soap sud, lol.
When some of us try to explain that it's not like that everywhere we are told we have a problem. We just have a different reality.
It's true. And that's not meant as an insult at all. But I was born in NY, I grew up in NJ. The difference between my town in NJ and here in NYC may as well be two different universes.
I have Jersey friends who hate coming here. It's too fast, it's too busy, it's too loud. Sometimes I hate when they're here because they walk too slow and think an Italian restaurant is that Olive Garden in Times Square.
It's just a totally different atmosphere. When I was younger, in the 80s, when Times Square was much more dangerous, my dad used to make the same joke whenever we drove into the city: as soon as we got out of the tunnel, he'd say "Welcome to NY!" and hit the power locks. I used to have to keep my wallet in my front pocket to make sure it didn't get stolen. I keep my backpack in front of me on the subway so no one can reach into it from the back where I can't see.
It's all these little things that make up our NY guardrail. Unfortunately, the catcall situation is one of those things. More often than not, people are really rude about it, so we'd rather not deal with the unwanted conversation.