Here are some musings of mine, recently rejected for the My View column. (adapted to take a slightly more bloggy tone…)
As most of you know, I moved to Buffalo five years ago from a small town in Pennsylvania. For any newcomers, yes, you read that right. I moved to Buffalo. I can�t begin to tell you how many times I�ve had to explain to people from my hometown why I would move to Buffalo, and how many times I�ve had to explain to Buffalonians why I would want to stay here. I think, in any place, it�s easy to take for granted the good things you have. Yes, it snows here. Yes, the government is in disarray. Even so, there are plenty of good things that should be noted.
Whilel I was home over the holidays, I started thinking about all of the things I like about living in New York in general, and Buffalo in particular. Here are just a few of them.
First off, there�s No smoking in bars and restaurants. Each and every time I go back to Pennsylvania to visit, I find myself thankful that I live in a place where I can enjoy a meal, a drink, or a concert in a smoke-free environment. At Thanksgiving, my cousin wanted me to come out to one of the local watering holes. I politely declined, citing my advanced age of 31 as the reason, but truthfully, I�ve lost my patience for dealing with the smoky clothes, smoky hair, red, itchy eyes and inevitable asthma attack that would come from spending an evening in a bar. And that leads me to�
The ability to buy beer at the local grocery/corner store. My brother was trying to figure out where to buy a six-pack of beer, because in St. Marys, there are two places you can buy beer. You can go to the distributor and buy a case, or you can go into a bar and buy a six pack. (Or two, but no more than two. In some areas, there are designated �beer stores,� but in our little town, you�ve just got the state liquor stores and beer distributors.) Life is just so much easier when you can pick it up at the grocery store. And speaking of the grocery store�
Wegmans. Rand and I went out on Christmas Eve-Eve to pick up some things at the grocery store. St. Marys has two major grocery stores: BiLo (a Penn Traffic company), and the Wal-Mart Supercenter. We went to BiLo. I had been charged with the task of picking up several deli meats and cheeses for an appetizer my aunt wanted to make. To make a long story short, the person waiting on me didn�t know what a third of a pound was, the deli was out of sandwich pepperoni, and the whole experience was so painfully S-L-O-W that I wanted to scream. I had to buy potatoes in bags, because only �baking� potatoes can be purchased in bulk. We had thought about making an appetizer that would have required a French baguette, but there were none to be found. I thought about buying some brie. Again, none to be found. �I miss Wegmans,� I whined. I didn�t think it was possible to become so attached to a grocery store. And as long as we�re talking food�
Mighty Taco. Some people in this town don�t know how good they have it! Before I discovered the wonder that is the Mighty, I wouldn�t have dreamed of eating fast food Mexican. I don�t understand how that other place even stays open in WNY.
Small things? Maybe. But these small things go a long way toward making me feel at home here. 🙂
