And then there is the flip side. I lived in NYC for quite a few years after college, and I absolutely LOVED my time there. I think it is the best, most exciting city and the entire world, and I am so grateful for the time I spent there. I also think New Yorkers are the BEST. Seriously, I loved living there. However, I used to get some very interesting questions about what it was like growing up and living in Louisiana. No, I did not have alligators in my backyard. Yes, we have regular mail delivery. Yes, most people (children) there do know how to read. Yes, these were answers to questions I was asked.
Oh, but you forgot one: "What's it like going everywhere in a boat?" For some reason, many New Yorkers I met when I spent time there as a kid and young adult had a persistant belief that all of Louisiana was swampland -- they didn't think that we had roads or cars. I think that they were picturing a rural sort of Venice
I grew up in S. Louisiana and regularly spent time in NYC until I finished college, because 3 of my mother's siblings lived there -- mostly in Queens, in the Ditmars area of Astoria. I used to go and stay with them over school vacations. My aunts were private-duty nurses who worked the upper West Side, so I got to experience a really fascinating split in terms of the way that the city works. (And yes, I know that to locals, only Manhattan really counts as "the City.") I haven't spent a lot of time there in recent years because I no longer have family there; that generation have all passed away now.
My aunts' apartment in Ditmars was a second-story walkup in a building that had 20 apartments; five floors with 4 flats on each one. It had a nice-sized backyard, actually, and the younger children in the building often played there, as it was courtyard-shaped, and their parents could watch them from the inside-facing windows. There was also room to play on the roof, which had a parapet about waist-high. I used to babysit sometimes when I was in town, though as I got older I often was reduced to pantomime when I did it -- that neighborhood was Irish in the old days, then Greek, but in the 80's had begun to be increasingly hispanic and asian, so the kids or their parents often were not yet fluent in English. My aunts had a one-bedroom with a good-sized bathroom, a large walk-in closet, and a large living room. Their kitchen was simply one side of the living room -- it lived behind a panel of folding doors. They shared the space easily because it was rare for both of them to be home overnight at the same time.
My uncle lived down the block on the same street. He and his wife lived in a three-story row house with a small backyard that had a single-car garage on the alley. He had a car, and used to do grocery or hardware runs in the LI suburbs once every couple of weeks, because he was a cheap sort, and had room in the basement to store bulk packages. However, the neighborhood did have a full-size supermarket, which I believe has now been sold and has become a large Asian grocer. My uncle's house had a full basement and three bedrooms. His wife's nephews had kids my age, so I knew all about their schools and met their friends. Very normal bunch for the most part, but they were the ones who always assumed that I lived in a swamp. I still got those same bizarre questions about Louisiana from their friends when we were in our twenties, when the girl closest to my age was a student at Hunter.
Because of the work that they did, my aunts also sometimes had live-in accomodations in the homes of their clients; their VERY wealthy clients. I would go and visit sometimes to have coffee during the day if one of them was living in -- it made a convenient pitstop location when I was hanging out in Manhattan. Many times those "apartments" consisted of two full floors of a large apartment building, with a separate entrance for the staff quarters. It wasn't unheard of for the family to occupy well over 3000 sq. feet, which was MUCH larger than my house in Louisiana. There was very often a large terrace somewhere on the premises, and if it faced in the proper direction it might even have had grass. (Naturally, I only got to peek at the family quarters if I was helping out with changing a bed or something, or serving at a party -- the aunts used to get me those gigs if I was in town over the holidays.)
While most New Yorkers don't own cars, many of them do know how to drive, and often will rent cars if they need them for a day or two. Renting when you need one is a much more cost-effective way to deal with a car in a major city.
!) but then I heard that they were still open. Anyone?
