German Geography Cookie Unit: Fill & Download for Free

I grew up in a place called NORMAL, Illinois (USA).2. I am a Star Trek fiend! I have been watching the original series since I was 1. I can beat my entire family of 7 in a single turn sometimes.3. I grew up in tornadoville, Illinois, and saw many tornadoes, but was never actually in one until I moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. It was in or around 2000.4. Worked at the Family History Library from 1998–2013 and many interesting experiences besides thee tornado. Once a madman came in and shot the place up, killing several. I and my floor were spared a visit from him on our floor by a quick-thinking employee.5. I have definitely (and potentially) escaped death around 30 times in my life.6. I love dogs! We had to give ours up, but once I was walking in an old neighborhood about 5–6 years later, which we used to live in, I saw a dog on a porch. I looked at him for a while and he at me. We had recognized each other. We ran toward each other and he jumped on me, smothering me with kisses and I gave him a big bear hug!7. I met the whole Star Trek (TOS) cast at a huge convention in Chicago as a kid once.8. I camped out all night on a cold Chicago sidewalk once to see the rare King Tut exhibit. Saw it again many years later at BYU, Provo, Utah, USA.9. I’ve been to Europe 6 times (and the Middle East once) in my life. I have been to more countries in the world than states in the United States.10. I was in East Germany in 1988, while the old regime was in power. Creepy! I was also there in 1990 after everything had fallen apart. I bought some pieces of the wall and an old DDR flag.11. I got to see and follow every bit of communism in Eastern Europe. I used to pray as a teenager every night that they would become free and would often wet my pillow with my tears. I am a genealogist and later discovered I had East German ancestry.12. I think the most beautiful country I’ve ever been to is Slovenia. Pure limestone makes the Julian Alps (put the CH Alps to shame, sorry) look snowcapped and the rivers coming out of them were clear with an aqua-colored glow 10 cm off the water, which I’ve caught on camera.13. I can turn my feet 180 degrees backwards.14. I am a professional computational linguist with MA and speak German, French, and Dutch fluently; Danish, Norwegian, Spanish, Italian semi-fluently; and Czech and Russian passably; others to a lesser extent. Worked with 40 languages at work over the years.15. I am a professional genealogist in Czech research and can qualify to take tests in many other areas.16. Am a professional library cataloger with certification comparable to an MLS plus 15 years of work experience.17. Was once told in a job interview “I don’t trust anyone who claims to speak 2 languages fluently. I think you’re a jack of all trades and master of none”. How rude, I thought. I was feeling cheeky, so replied, “I’m actually a jack of all trades and a master of 3. Since I’ve been 12, I’ve been studying constantly, while you were playing with your dollies and playing golf! Needless to say, I didn’t get that job.18, In high school I scored first on thee National German test, 5th in the nation on the French test, and a Superior rating on the Spanish test.19, Most language study self taught. After studying German on my own for my freshman year, my high school teacher suggested I take a college night class of 3rd year German. At the end of class, the professor came to me and said, “I’m not supposed to do this, but I wanted to tell you that after your final, you scored higher than any other student at the university”.20. I have done genealogical research since I was 12 for myself, clients, and friends.21. With my wife and me together, we have ancestry from (and I’ve researched tens of thousands of names in all areas) New Zealand, the US, Denmark, Norwegian, Sweden, Germany (Eastern), England, Wales, Scotland, Isle of Man, Austria, the Czech Republic, Iran (yes, I learned how to data enter in the Arabic script), and Turkey.22. Am slightly bipolar.23. Favorite food in the world is Khoreshte Ghormesabzie from Iran. You’ll eat 10 plates and feel like you’re in heaven.24. I LOVE to bake. At 15 years old I began to work on a chocolate chip cookie recipe, which I had finally perfected by 27. Those who try it say it’s better than Mrs. Fields.25. As a kid, I used to visit the older people in the neighborhood, talk to them for an hour or two and bring them a plate of cookies.26. Made up a language at 15 with my brother of 5. No one could understand it, but in case someone did crack a word, we would change it to something they would never understand again, say the Russian for book, Knyiga (книга) or the Hebrew for watermelon, Avatiach (אבטיח). I tried to teach it to my wife and kids, but they all gave up in frustration. It’s evolved into something too tough. For example, the words for “good/well” can vary, depending on the context: giðæt’ (+ time), diaddes (adj.), diaddesest (superl.), diad (av.).27. Drove 10000 km around Europe, after which I got a horrible case of mono and strep throat. Spent the next 4 months of vacation in bed in Vienna, Austria and Třeboň, Czech Republic.28. Hold the highest ham radio license in the US, Amateur Extra. To get it, took the insane 20 word per minute Morse code test.29. Hold all commercial radio licenses available in the US, including General Radio Telephone, General Radiotelegraph, GMDSS/maintainer/operator, radar endorsement.30. All 7 in our family hold ham radio licenses in our family except my daughter! 2 Extras, 2 Generals, 2 Technicians.31. LOVE watching movies. Have an excessive number of discs, over 7000.32. My favorite movies are 1) Frequency; 2) The Fugitive; 3) The Cokeville Miracle (I personally know many of the people this happened to); 4) Imprint33. My favorite thing is my family.34. My 2nd favorite thing is going to our cabin at Thanksgiving in the snow!35. I love snow, rain, ice storms, tornadoes (as long as they stay away from people), and all manner of wild weather.36. I am learning Lakota (Lakȟótiyapi) with all my sons currently.37. I love electronics and doing electronics projects.38. When I was 15, I built my favorite electronic project, which scrambled signals on TV. I’d drive my brothers nuts, sitting in the back of the den, scrambling all their TV shows!!39. My first kiss was Debbie Zimmerman, 19 years old.40. I have one guy best friend, what thee Lakota would call my kȟolá. Every single one of the rest of my other friends have been girls. Much easier to talk to. Much deeper than most guys.41. I love to read scifi.42. My favorite book is The Alliance by Gerrold Lund.43. I’m into video/audio/broadcast engineering.44. I love geography and maps.45. I love hugs!!46. I love my parents intensely. Mum is so loving. Dad is the wisest, best man I know. Mum’s gone, but I visit or talk to dad weekly.47. My grandpa was my best friend and died when I was just 12. I still miss goingg down to our hideout by the Logan River, cooking hot dogs and marshmallows with willow sticks, hearing his stories, driving to Idaho with him to visit the relatives.48. I like computers,especially international application. At work, thee IT guys used to try to help the Japanese team, give up, and then call me to fix it.49. I’m quite disabled now, but still do genealogy work for friends for free.50. This was veerry long! 助けて!!!I just went over this and it looks like I’m bragging a lot. I’m so sorry!! I didn’t intend for it to look that way, just to write some things unique to myself. At least I hope it was somewhat interesting!

Generally? Muscular? I wouldn’t word it that way, exactly.If we’re talking about taller than the rest of the world on average, and more bulkier(not as skinny/scrawny) in terms of their average build, then yes, I’ve noticed this too.But it depends on where you go, honestly. Genetics has to do much with Northern Europeans being generally taller people than others.With North Americans, on the other hand, the ethnic composition of North America is too diverse, and too young(in terms of an ethno-geographic sample that has recently migrated there and from that point on the North American continent, environment, fauna, flora, climate, etc. has started to take a toll on changing their genetics), and we’re talking about post Columbus migrations, of course, which form the majority of the North American population(excluding Mexico, which are mostly Native Americans in terms of their genetic composition).I’m one example. I’m 6′4, have varied in weight from 250 to 370 pounds, while both of my parents are below 5′8, and so is most of my immediate family, including my brother and sisters, who are all less than 5′8 and 200 pounds, and this is because not only were they born in Macedonia(Europe) like I was, but they also grew up over there during much of their childhood and teenage years while I spent most of my childhood and early adulthood years in Canada.So while they grew up and lived most of their lives in a Mediterranean climate, I grew up in a cold temperate climate. This means that they got more sunshine and were in hotter temperatures most of the year than I was in Canada. And not only that, but they grew up in a dry climate while I grew up in a very humid climate.You can research more into what sunshine does to the skin and fat cells and to the metabolism of food.They had more physical activity than I did most of my life. This is due to how Macedonian cities are designed, where everything is conveniently close by(even if you live in a large city like Skopje). Mix that with much better weather(6 months of sunshine and 6 months of cold vs. Canada’s 3 months of sunshine and 9 months of cold) and the ability to walk to your destination more often without slipping everywhere or being forced to wear 50 different articles of clothing just to get to the grocery store so the inside of your lungs literally don’t freeze with the -46 degree weather from breathing the cold air.They got shorter, lighter, more common bursts of physical activity than I did. They would walk every day, in addition to playing sports or training martial arts on a regular basis(depending who you ask in my immediate family).Most of my 18+ years in Canada, have been long periods of staying indoors for a few days at a time without going outside, followed by long periods of physical activity(be it walking around the city, at work or at the gym) followed by long periods of sitting in a car driving around.While I might not walk every day, or walk at least an hour every day which if I was living in Macedonia I would, when I do walk, or when I do get physical activity, it would be for 2–3 hours or more, in addition to or in replacement of 2–3 hours at the gym, for 3–4 days a week.As you know, more activity requires more calories. North American food tends to be a lot more caloric than European food, let alone Southern European food.A glass (250 ml) of your cheap generic European orange juice brand contains around 15 grams of sugar and 80 calories. A glass (250 ml) of your cheap generic North American orange juice brand contains 25 grams of sugar and 120 calories.Similarly with milk, which I consume a lot of, and other foods that are common in my diet, such as cheese and dairy products, processed meats including those in hamburgers, fried foods, etc.Most of the food in Canada is GMO. You have to specifically look for organic food, which is 2–3x more expensive(instead of $2 per lb for crappy tomatoes that smell like cleaning chemicals, you now to have to pay $5–6 per lb for some decent, normal tomatoes, at least what is normal to us in Europe, especially southern Europe).So it’s easy to say that on average, most food, both domestic and restaurant food, has a higher calorie content, and more chemicals, GMO, antibiotics and other crap that’s not supposed to be in food, while southern European food doesn’t. Now, the EU, Canada and the US all regulate their food differently. This plays a large part in what some food is composed of, especially processed foods, even Coca Cola.I have two case examples that I can relate to - one is a North American recipe for a popular chocolate that has changed considerably since 5 years ago, and the other is the recipe for a Macedonian chicken pate called Argeta which has only recently started being imported into Canada.For example, there are some chocolates that are sold in the US that Canada does now allow for sale due to their composition. In order to keep their original brand and recipe, the US companies who produce these chocolates have figured they’re better off not selling them to Canadian importers on a modified recipe to begin with. That is one example.Uria, or urine, is sometimes used in Subway breads as a yeast. The EU, would in turn, never allow urine to be used in food preparation…because, well, it’s urine.Yet, in Bulgaria, which is a EU state, clenbuterol is fully legal to produce, possess, sell and consume, while in much of the EU, Canada and the US, it is not.This is why many Bulgarian men born post 1980 are very muscular, since clenbuterol gives you the ability to exercise twice as much, even if your body is used to exercise and not just somebody who is starting out(I know, I’ve used clenbuterol before).The recipe for Hershey’s cookies and cream chocolate had a lot more sugar in it in 2013, the one sold in Canada. After 2014, it changed all of a sudden to something with less sugar. The texture of the chocolate changed as well.As a result, I consume a lot less of this chocolate. Think of this example of the chocolate as that of European foods in general - the chocolate might still taste the same in theory, but the key ingredients that make you want to eat it over and over, such as MSG, have been taken out.So while North American and European food might fundamentally be the same(eggs, sausages, potato salad, tomatoes, cucumbers, bacon, cheeses, breads, grains, etc.) they are different in their chemical composition.This is why if you want true German sausages, you go to a European market where they have been imported from Germany.You don’t buy American made German sausages, because their composition is different.And this is not only in relation to just dairy and meat, but grains, beans, nuts, fruits and vegetables.One good example to take is that of Bulgaria and India - with the mass suicide of Indian farmers after their soil was destroyed after buying Monsanto seeds. Similarly, part of the negotiation process for entering the European Union is you must adhere to certain EU standards - be it reform in the banking sector or financial regulations, or other industries, including agriculture, which means that you will be forced to buy EU regulation seeds, sold by distributors within the EU. These are GMO seeds that destroy the soil or modify it so you can only grow more GMO seeds and can no longer grow your organic seeds that you have been growing for generations, as they take the nutrition out of the soil and change everything from the bacteria and so fourth, and you will now also rely to buy on chemically pumped EU fertilizer that is overpriced and comes in bags. No more homemade fertilizer from weeds, bushes, branches and animal droppings.Many Bulgarian farmers, who were uneducated and oblivious as to the effect this will have on their farms and crops, were enthusiastic about Bulgaria joining the EU and then being able to buy these seeds which were cheaper, grew faster and required less maintenance than their own seeds. They now regret it, and give the same warning to Macedonian farmers, as one of the reasons to avoid joining the EU. It ended up with businessman buying their farms, and generational families of farmers going out of work finally after hundreds of years, thanks to additional EU funding for EU sponsored agriculture.Argeta, on the other hand, has a much better and stronger recipe in Macedonia. Even though it is imported and produced in Macedonia, it is produced as part of a batch specifically destined for Canada, and therefore the recipe is as Canadian regulators allow it to be, therefore using a different recipe. The fact that only Argeta tuna and salmon were imported for a few years before Argeta chicken(which was arguably the most popular pate out of the Argeta brands) made it to the Canadian market only tells me of some negotiations or delay in having it imported, which adds further weight to this theory that the recipe is different.Back to the comparison in terms of climates and geography, I realize that most of the US for example varies in climate. You have temperate, cold, tundra, tropical, subtropical, desert, semiarid, jungle, swamp, mountainous, plains, etc.But yet again we will remind ourselves that the genetic sample of the US is very diverse, and also that of Canada. So we need to pick from the population, such as those with English or mixed Northern European ancestry, or those with Italian, Greek, South Slavic, Arab, Persian, African, Chinese, Japanese, South American, etc. ancestries in order to truly get a picture of WHY and HOW climate has an effect on things such as genetics, body type and height. I’m a testament of this change, but as I’m a 1st generation immigrant, I would be a false positive to include in a study that has to do with how climate and geographic location and even topography changes your genetic code, from one generation into the next, why it works more with some people or families more than others.Right now with me as a case study we can only conclude that the diet and lifestyle has more of an effect than anything else. But it’s not always the case with everybody. Some people lose weight when they immigrate to North America, which only adds to the possibility of procedural errors in how a study is constructed.So diet, lifestyle, climate, geography, all have a lot to play in terms of what a person looks like.For me, it was these long periods, where I had extra calories to burn, that made my body into what it is. I have incredibly strong legs, huge arms and big hands.Nothing weird or anything, but one little thing you can research that I’ve noticed is the difference in feet shapes and sizes between certain European and North American females.This goes to show you how physical activity comes into play.If you’ll notice, North American females tend to have larger, more manly looking feet, that are thicker, more rugged, flatter and wider than European females, while European females tend to have smoother, thinner, more curved and more feminine looking feet.This is on average. I’m not saying North American females are masculine and European females are better. This is just from my pure observation from my eyes darting around during the summer months and my interest in human related sciences in general.But it also depends on location. Not all of Europe would have smooth supermodel feet and not all of North America would have hobbit feet.I’ve noticed the hobbit feet phenomena more common amongst North American women in colder climates and large cities, such as that in Canada and the northern United States.Similarly, in the UK, Germany, Scandinavia more so than in Italy, Spain, Balkans, etc.My theory is this is due to moderation in physical activity. I have huge, thick, wide, flat, rugged feet. Yet my brother and my cousin who both grew up in Macedonia during their teenage years have more of what you’d call a foot typical of your average European.If you walk more often, but with moderation, your feet will develop a certain shape and so will your body. Yet if you eat more caloric food and have more physical activity in a shorter time frame, you will develop a more congested physique.I’ve frequently been asked, how do North American girls often get big bubble butts, while a lot of European girls have trouble developing them even by good diet and gym and squat exercises and whatnot. I tell them things similar to what I’ve told you.More calories in your body + longer or more intense physical activity + more rest = bigger physique and limbs.By the way, I’m not saying North Americans and Northern Europeans are physically stronger on average than other people. They are just taller, but tend to be weaker and less developed in terms of motor reflexes because their exercise is not as structured or tends to be more repetitive(more walking, more weightlifting, more physical labor, instead of more sports or walking varied slopes in urban settings such as hills and steps and uphill and downhill roads vs. the flatness of North American cities).And when you do physical activity, you are not only using your body but your mind as well. Take that into consideration. European cities are much easier to navigate if you have a good sense of navigation, because every neighborhood looks different. Architecture is more varied, more colorful, roads wind and curve, and there are much more landmarks. I have spent nearly my whole life in the Toronto area but I can navigate Skopje better only from about a week total of living there altogether, because Skopje has more landmarks and is more varied.With a GPS, obviously North American cities would be easier to navigate.So this difference in information hitting your senses and your brain having to process it, works different parts of your brain, and thus requires you to to have more or less calories, depending on the circumstances.Europeans tend to socialize much more than North Americans, and as a result Europeans tend to smoke a lot more in social settings. Both of these are correlated, because socializing with various personality causes an influx of varying emotions. Either you cure stress with eating or you cure stress with cigarettes.This is why Europeans also tend to be thinner, because cigarettes work as a sort of appetite suppressant. You socialize more, you think less about eating and more about socializing. Eating becomes less of an activity and more of a chore or responsibility or social setting. You are therefore more self conscious of your image.But socializing in North America is either a lot more pleasant or very stressful, because there are a mix of very decent people and lots of retards around. Plus most of North American socializing revolves around buying or selling something, work, school, saying hi to your neighbors, or socializing with your family.Socializing in terms of talking to the person who works at your gym or making small talk with the cashier in the grocery store is NOT socializing and therefore does not stimulate various emotions.You don’t expect a blowjob from the cashier, or from the cop who pulled you over, or from your supervisor at work who is nitpicking about your work performance.Yet road rage is very common, at least where I live. So people either ignore you or don’t look at you, or they give you dirty looks. This is a negative type of social experience.So most of your social experiences, or 90 percent, relies on dealing with the gas station attendant, the person making your coffee, etc. stuff like that, and therefore shapes your outlook on the world, your ambition to go socialize more, your need to eat more, how you deal with stress from social situations, etc.Different experiences = different calorie intakes. Parking lots are huge, buildings are huge, you have to drive 1 hour from your grocery store to your bank to cash in your check, not literally, but a lot more time consuming than in Europe. Most of the time when I go to Costco I have to walk like 10 minutes just to get to where I need to go. I end up walking an hour just shopping.But that’s exactly the problem instead of the solution. Because I just walked 30–40 minutes nonstop, I get in my car and go home. Now I don’t feel like going to the gym.No gym = less sports = more physical deformations develop on their own.And walking 30–40 minutes is NOT enough, even if you do it every day. The problem is there is no consistency in this. So you walk, and then come home, and not to go the gym, because you are lazy now it will take you another 30 minutes just to get to the gym and back, let alone all the time you go to the gym.If it’s -30 outside, you also have to dress up for the gym, and then change once you come back from the gym or at the gym, so you don’t get a cold from walking from the gym to your car in your sweaty clothing, even if you are wearing a jacket and a hat.If it was consistent, like a nice 2 hour per day of walking like in European and more warmer climates, then it would be better.But you don’t necessarily go grocery shopping every day. And even if you work an 8 hour shift 5 days a week, you are most likely going to spend 1 hour just doing chores, such as buying coffee, filling up gas, grabbing a bite to eat or some things you need from the grocery store, in addition to the 1–2 hours of commuting you do.So, honestly, North Americans tend to need a lot more calories to function, even though cities are designed for cars instead of pedestrians.Many Europeans tend to own their houses already, aka already paid off. Most people I know in Europe have houses or apartments they own, meaning they don’t have to pay rent or mortgage.Most North Americans including my family have to pay rent or mortgage. That is 30 percent of your salary. And laws that favor the landlord(can evict you after 1 month instead of 6 months or 1 year like in Europe), and problems with finding meaningful work, that isn’t minimum wage, and can cover your mortgage, only adds to the stress.For example, a friend is going to lose his job soon because they’ve sold the Bombardier factory in Toronto and 3500 people are going out of work. He has a mortgage to pay and he is not going to pay it off within 2 years, which is the expected date they will let everyone go.His work experience will not be enough to land him a similar paying job elsewhere. He got this job through connections. He does not have a PhD or a Masters degree to guarantee him some sort of meaningful work someday, somewhere.Yet he has many years on the mortgage left. So you do the math. More stress + faster lifestyle + bigger cities + more idiots living here = more calories. It is an evolutionary instinct to survive in the face of danger. I gained 60 pounds in 14 months from stress alone, because I was anticipating a period where I would be eating less, eating crap food or not eating at all, or a mix of all 3. Even though I consciously made an effort to lose weight instead during those 14 months. It’s weird, but it’s there. Our subconscious can play a big part sometimes in weight loss, weight gain and muscle gain. For example, when I started going to the gym, it was out of the need to be strong enough to defend myself against bullies. I was 17, and on bad terms with some really nasty and dangerous people(worse than just a street gang). So, I needed to be physically fit in order to be able to ESCAPE an attack let alone defend myself against one. I knew I wouldn’t win a fight against somebody who is ex special forces, has trained MMA his whole life, is 6′8 and 250 pounds of pure muscle. But at least I could try to at least get out of it alive. And I wouldn’t get out of it alive if I wasn’t strong enough to have a chance.Eventually, as time went on, and the danger subsided, by the time I was 21–22, my arms were so big, 18.5 inches, while Schwarzenneger’s arms were 22 inches at his height. I would hit the bag for 30 mins to an hour in addition to weightlifting(60 pound dumbbells for bicep curls, anyone?) and swimming. I felt so strong I could demolish a house with my hands. But then my priorities shifted - I was having trouble getting into relationships because I looked more of a strongman than an athlete. Girls at that age don’t like guys that look like they wake up and if they don’t kill somebody today their day isn’t going well. So I needed to slim down. Now at age 25 my focus is around an athlete body type, more for health. Plus my doctor kept bugging me, even though I felt great at age 22.So, even your priorities in life change you. If you’ve noticed, some men and women gain weight after marriage, this is because they’ve literally “settled down”. They no longer need to look for a mate because they already have one, and can let themselves go. They are confident their wife won’t leave them if they gain 20 or 30 pounds. Similarly, your priorities in life tend to shape your body as time goes by.North American cops are known for being steroid abusers. I remember one black Peel regional police cop was literally the most muscular person I’ve seen in my life. His arms were literally probably 30 inches or more and he himself was like 6′9 tall. Yet he works as a cop. Why? Because the cop career came before the need to stay physically fit. Criminals tend to have the money and the free time to loaf around, eat well and exercise, while cops are always working varying shifts and whatnot, and not all criminals will lay down on the ground when you yell it at them. Some might laugh at you, take your gun and tie your arms and legs into a knot.But North AMerican cops tend to do it overboard. Similarly, most North Americans tend to do it overboard in the sense that they don’t get any physical activity at all, let alone in moderation. And the ones that do, tend to do it too much.I have a Karate buddy who started Karate about a year ago, who is so into exercising, he literally just screwed up a muscle even though a few weeks ago I told him to relax in order to avoid injury. Runs a marathon for 40 miles, weightlifts, all before he would come to Karate class lol. That’s too much, and it’s what caused me to have an injury for 2 years where I couldn’t work out at all.Thankfully the injury has fixed itself and I can now resume, but more carefully, to work out.I still can’t work physical jobs either, and it’s been hindering my ability to find work for a few months now, because I have no diploma or connections under my belt. So similarly, now, during this period, I take the time to eat healthy, go work out and get more sunshine. From 2016 to the beginning of 2018 I was working as a security guard, which entails working night shifts. As you may know, night shifts can lead to weight gain and screw up your metabolism. I would literally work nothing and still come home tired as hell because it was a night shift, and not go to the gym. Now imagine the tens of millions of people who work similar jobs across North America, who come home tired as hell, milked dry by the establishment, who just sit down and eat a big ass meal to compensate for their calorie intake and knock out.And it’s not “oh well if you don’t like it, don’t work that” or anything, like idiots would tell you. You HAVE to work, when you have no other option. You HAVE to pay bills, or risk getting kicked out, and your stuff thrown in the garbage, and starting your life all over again.I think that if North Americans did not have to pay rent or mortgage for 30 years, then North Americans would be much more healthier, both physically and mentally. You wouldn’t have tomato looking mutants walking around.And while there are many muscular North Americans and Northern Europeans, there are also much more that are obese, or physically weak(either by being overweight yet with an undeveloped or poorly developed muscular frame or by being scrawny and not used to playing sports).

Living in the North and moving SouthI lived in the North most of my life; was born and raised in 1930s - 40s Milwaukee, then spending ten years in the south during my Navy and IBM Naval Base career. And then moving south 15 years ago.In my early Navy days in Norfolk, there was absolutely nothing to do within a racially segregated church run society. The schools were closed due to de segregation orders, Civil Rights was flaming throughout the south, and the food was terrible. When I didn't have a car or a ride for weekend liberty, I would take a Railways interstate bus to New York City. When the bus stopped for bathroom or food in the South, we left the bus and parted company into separate racial facilities, but when in the North we shared all facilities together. If you were pissed off at Jim Crow and thwarted the segregationist pattern, like entering a "colored" rest room, you could be arrested and put in the local jails, where you would be treated horribly, being crammed into tiny, filthy cells. Fed salt without water and sporadically beaten. In the South, the police didn't take kindly to whites who sympathized with the blacks. On one trip I met Mary Thomson, a young pretty Black girl who lived in Manhattan, and we became good friends. She was very smart and had a great personality and I wished I could date her when she visited her parents in Norfolk, but as things are in the South, I knew that was impossible. We could only breathe the fresh air of freedom when we crossed the Mason - Dixon Line.Once in the City, I would get a room at the YMCA in Times Square and explore the city, hitting the bars and night clubs like the Latin Quarter or Copocabana and the mid town dance emporiums, all places racially and ethnically integrated with beautiful women looking for hungry sailors. One of our favorite places was the Roseland Ball Room on 52nd Street. They used professional orchestras playing every kind of ball room music and even dance clubs from Harlem came down to jitterbug and swing dance with us. Eventually, I bought a 1952 Cadillac Deville and ran a Taxi service to New York, dropping sailors off at the Port Authority Bus Terminal on 49th Street or Penn Station on 34th Street. Going back, I just sat in front of the Port Authority bus terminal with a sign and pick up sailors who are all around looking for a ride back to Norfolk. They paid my expenses plus a profit and it never cost me a cent for my New York trips, in fact, they helped me pay for my Cadillac.I had some friends from New York and they took me to their homes for weekends; Ted, my Jewish friend, lived in Mount Vernon and I went there many times. His dad, a German immigrant with one leg thanks to medical experiments in Hitler's Jewish concentration camps, escaped anti Semitic Germany and opened an 8 X 15 foot newspaper and candy stall on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx; he put his children through college on his earning and bought a big house in Mount Vernon. Ted and his family loved the performing arts and they took to many performances at the Ballet, Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Opera. We attended works by Leonard Bernstein, Isaac Stern, The New York Philharmonic, The New York Ballet, and the Metropolitan Opera. It was all a great a great education for me since I had never been exposed to such entertainment before. Sometimes I stayed at the decrepit and worn out Lincoln Hotel on Eighth Avenue and 44th Street. It was full of retired actors and musicians riding their last days sitting in the lobby and commiserating about the good-ole-days. It was perfect for sailors looking for a cheap room on weekend liberty in the Big Apple. We ate at Greek Diners most of the time, there was almost a classic quality to the New York diner experience - singing musicians/waitresses en all - and they are all over the City offering burgers, eggs and full meals at cheap prices. They all feature all-day breakfast specials, steaks, pork chops, southern fried chicken and of course, a bottomless cup of coffee, the real surprise about the menu here is that they offer every demographic - Jewish, Italian, Irish and everything else under the sun, including enormous desserts, all baked fresh on the premises daily.On one of my trips to New York I had a guy in my car who grew up on Coney Island and he said if I drove him home to Coney Island in Brooklyn he would treat me to a weekend on Mermaid Avenue and all carnival stuff that go with it. Herb told me about growing up on Coney Island that it was the best place hang out . . . Every thing was there on Mermaid Avenue; the Coney Island rides,The Cyclone Roller Coaster, Nathan's, Steeplechase, the beach, the fishing pier, the Lowe's on Surf Avenue, the Parachute Jump, the Wonder Wheel, Cotton Candy, Jelly Apples, Buttered Corn, Shatzkin's Knishes, Faber's, Playland, The Magic Carpet Fun House. We had Delis, Pizza Joints, Diners, and Italian Bakeries, Chinese restaurants, luncheonettes, Ice Cream shops and department stores." Herb took me there and we did it all.New York City was a major port of call for freighters, cruise ships, and foreign navies. Consequentially, it had many bars geared to the tastes of salty sailors and our favorites were unlike no other watering holes or dens of iniquity inhabited by seagoing men. They had to meet strict standards to be in compliance with the acceptable requirement for a sailor beer swilling dump. The first and foremost requirement was a crusty old crossed anchors tattooed gal serving suds. She had to be able to wrestle King Kong to parade rest, be able to balance a tray with one hand; knock sailors out of the way with the other hand and skillfully navigate through a roomful of milling around drunks. The establishment itself had to have walls covered with ship and squadron plaques. It had to have the obligatory Michelob, Pabst Blue Ribbon and "Beer Nuts sold here" neon signs. An eight ball mystery beer tap handles and signs reading: "Your mother does not work here, so clean away your frickin' trash." "Keep your hands off the barmaid." "Don't throw butts in urinal."The bar had to have a brass foot rail and at least six Slim Jim containers, an oversized glass cookie jar full of Beer Nuts, a jar of pickled hard-boiled eggs that could produce rectal gas emissions that could shut down a sorority party, and big glass containers full of something called Pickled Pigs Feet and Polish Sausage. Only drunk Chiefs and starving Ethiopians ate pickled pigs' feet and unless the last three feet of your colon had been manufactured by Midas, you didn't want to get any where near the Polish Napalm Dogs. Liberty bars were home and it didn't matter what country, state, or city you were in, when you walked into a good liberty bar, you felt at home. They were also establishments where 19-year-old kids received an education available nowhere else on earth. You learned how to make a two-cushion bank shot and how to toss down a beer and shot of Sun Torry known as a "depth charge."Whereas NYC had everything, from tough water front bars, girls of every color and ethnic type everywhere anxious for attention from loved starved sailors, to ritzy nightclubs, the south had no social life, just military bases, guns and churches. And the Civil War which was like a mountain range that guards all roads into the South: you can't go there without encountering it. Specifically, you can't go there without addressing a question that may seem as if it shouldn't even be a question - to wit: what caused the war? One hundred years after the event, the Confederate Flag still flies south of the Mason Dixon line and southerners don't think the Civil War had anything to do with slavery - regardless that Jefferson Davis and all the seceding states stated slavery was the reason for the war. It was the 1960s and African Americans were waging epic struggles for civil rights that altered white Southerners' worlds who reacted with hostility. They feared social and political change, and grappled uncomfortably with the fact that their way of life seemed gone for good.While many of our high school classmates were attending college, we were getting an education in the rolling seas in the North Atlantic or the exotic ports in the Mediterranean experiencing the orgasmic rush of a night cat shot, or the gut wrenching on a pitching deck. Our fate was the hours of tedium, experiencing the periodic discomfort of turbulence, marveling at the creation of St. Elmo's fire, and sometimes having our reverie interrupted with stark terror from crashing seas. But when we came ashore on liberty, we could rub shoulders with some of the finest men we would ever know, in bars our mothers would never have approved of, in saloons and cabarets that would live in our memories forever.After the Navy I was an IBM Main Frame Engineer working throughout the USA and stationed at the Naval Base, and spent about three years in upstate NY going to IBM schools, working in Civil rights and Jack Kennedy in the 1960s south, and then moving to New York City for 30 some odd years. Actually, my northern experience in NY is more like 40 years if you count all my time there too. I traveled around the USA spending much time in the northern places where the computers were, and in Texas and the southwest.I got to know the country well and love it, and yes, its is a huge country with different geographies, cultures with great stories to tell. Of course the south has the slavery and Jim Crow history which has stained the USA soul in world circles.I moved to NYC and Upstate New York, places not radicalized like the south; they have always been moderate Republican while the City was liberal - moderate Democratic. And they got along and got things done and still do. Maybe its because there is a symbolic relationship of good will between Upstate and the City, or that the common ground is so persuasive that people beg off conflict. However, the rest of the country is at logger heads. Disliking the free lunch crowd - like me - but fearful of the religious right.Well, a big reason for that is the Republican Right Wing that refuses to compromise. So here we are today: And so in my country you're seeing a horror show. Ultra conservatives Republicans instead of being problem solvers they have become ideological purity warriors for the bigoted, racist, homophobic, misogynic and those religious fundamentalist nuts who are against science, the nations true history and the separation of church and state. We have become a truly divided nation.Despite the diversity, several characteristics do come to mind that could be considered common to most New Yorkers as a whole. With everything literally at their fingertips, New Yorkers are by definition savvy and worldly, and very little surprises or shocks them. They are not very liberal as you might expect, but basically down to earth and normal. Most people on the street or in the subway are friendly and helpful after you get past an initial wariness. On the other hand, New Yorkers are unfailingly proud of their great city, and this pride can, at times, come off as arrogance and an inability to see the positive beyond the Big Apple’s city limits. New York offers the visitor as many cultural activities as there are existing cultures – in other words, an overwhelming choice that couldn’t possibly be experienced in only one visit. Numerous offerings in sports, the arts, food, and university life are available for the taking!Religion and Politics are all over the map. Everyone has a different opinion, tolerance is expected, bigotry is not tolerated, The NYPD is respected, The NYFD are all heroes, Koch and Giuliani were our greatest Majors, Sharpton our greatest asshole, protests for anything happen everywhere, everyone gets along with a smile and a wink, and serious debates focus on sports. New Yorkers come from every belief persuasion known to man and are reasonable human beings, not argumentative absolutists and ultra conservatives intolerants like found in the south and they know a phony when they see one. Plus there is the romanticism of this city, what with its beautiful people and architecture going hand in hand with the parks that take you away from what some like to call the concrete jungle. It's quaint and is sort of the closest thing to Europe: You're living on the water, you have outdoor cafes and small streets. There are lots of parks. The entire Hudson River Waterfront has been newly renovated, and the East River Waterfront is being renovated. There's a huge strip where you can take long walks, and there are also bicycle paths."Moving to New York has always been an act of optimism. To come here you must have faith in a better future, and courage to seek it out; you must trust the city to give you a chance, and know that you'll take advantage when it does. You must believe in investing in your future with hard work and ingenuity. You must, in short, believe in accepting a challenge."There were thousands of delights, with tens of thousands of people walking about, and no question about it, the best girl watching in the world was available in Manhattan - particularly in midtown along its many avenues, lined with skyscrapers, building ledges and street cafes to sit around. A particularly good area was in the fifties on Sixth Avenues where many water fountains abounded and granite veranda patios filled with tables, chairs and sitting ledges. Whatever your fancy, blond, brunette, redhead, Asian, White, or Black, the woman of you dreams would pass by every five minutes - or oftener! The beautiful people of the world came to Manhattan for fame, fortune, and excitement. Careers in show business and the business world topped the list as reasons so many bright and attractive people moved to Manhattan. And for some like me, it was for freedom!For lunch, every kind of food is available, with hundreds of Delis, street cafes, ethnic restaurants, Halal street carts, and fast food eateries every two blocks. Eat a New York pizza and you are doomed to never be satisfied for a slice anywhere else. Manhattan is also the Happy Hour and dance capital of the world, and everyone loves to party heartily in one of those 12,000 some odd night clubs, juke dance joints and dive bars in the City, the Irish ones being the best. So after work, Happy Hour is a must to relax and become acquainted with someone new while you search for your heart's desires of a soul mate. There is so much to choose from, every type and color hue that making up your mind is a problem, but choices are stimulating, and Manhattan has tens of thousands of personal prerogatives, and a neverending supply of life styles are available. Nothing in the world beats the night life in New York, which includes various types of hang out places like Bars, Cocktail Lounges, Billiards, Comedy Clubs, Dance Clubs, Hotel Bars, Comedy Clubs, Music Clubs, Sports Bars, Piano Bars, Jazz & Blues Clubs.Yes, in New York you can always hear any type of music, from plenty of jazz, pogoing punk to thumping hip-hop on any night of the week the live music scene very well reflects New York's diversity. If you are looking out for some dance clubs with Caribbean, Brazilian, African tastes, or even cheesy numbers or hard hitting drum tunes, you can get that too. Crazy things happened all the time. I bought beef jerky sticks from a street cart, an Amish man, in Union Square park on a gorgeous sunny day in Gotham after a business meeting. There were hundreds of people milling about enjoying the day as I was. As I sat eating my jerky sticks, I saw an attractive big busted woman wearing absolutely nothing above her low cut jeans; her beautiful breasts on full display. It made my day. What a delightful vision of splendor!All the New Yorkers pretended not to notice but, I like to smile and luxuriate in spiritual feelings so, I was most happy she walked by, breaking up the routine of another day chasing a buck in New York. Now you see the bold and the beautiful, the famous and discover they are just like you, scared of the notoriety and needing a small space to hide in. That is the biggest lesson you learn in Manhattan that we are not so different, all the races, colors, ethnicities and religions types are so much the same. Yes, the best time of my life was working in Manhattan; the total freedoms, the people and place were perfect for me, all exciting and highly glamorous. It was all for me! But to be honest, I moved to Manhattan in the last innocent time, the time without AIDS. Like many of the adventures in the 1960's and 1970's it was "risk on" as no sexual act, no sexual conquest, no ethnic adventure was taboo - as it had been for generations before. In the 1960's the call to arms: "If it feels good do it" became the credo to live by for millions of us who grew up listening to the music and the message. The rebellion of Woodstock and social revolution in Greenwich Village permeated the American scene. All the old fears were thrown aside.Moving South From New YorkI worked in NYC for more than 30 years, lived there and commuted there from upstate, took semi retirement and for another 15 doing route sales in the upstate mountainous lake laden state. It was time to retire to a warmer and heap place and the south looked good . . . it had changed since its bad ass Jim Crow days.There are both good and bad things about anyplace. For example, my home, New York, is the land of opportunity and modernity, and also the land of frustration - cold snowy winters, high heating bills, and neverending Go Go, high taxes, high densities of people, places and things. The south is antiquated, hung up on its very one dimensional conservative religious and political culture and is very backward compared to the rest of the USA. But it is also the land of comfort, low speed ease, warm weather, tradition, good friends and hospitality.Yes, the south does have a troublesome past, Slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow, it elects extreme right politicians and practices very judgmental religion an all that nervous stuff that scares people. And they hate the modern 'Other World' especially Yankees and their enemy of their 1860s Civil War to this day. In fact, one time years ago, when I got some eggs and bacon at the local Waffle House, a guy sitting next to the cashier whispered "Damn Yankee." I asked him "I barely said five words. What indication could you possibly have that I am a Yankee?""Well, we could start with the words 'what indication.' Someone from south of the Mason-Dixon would have said, 'Who the hell are you calling a Yankee?' Then we would have fought." Makes me wonder the attitude toward northerners - Yankees work to pay the vast majority of US taxes, which are then used to pay the welfare and disability rampart in the south that allows them to sit on their front porches and do nothing but dream of incest and racism. It also pays for their alcoholismI have traveled the south since the 1950s, back when it was racially segregated and violent. Today it's different, more normal, but always so hot and humid, and everyone is so polite, they say "Bless your heart" which makes it OK when followed by a verbal bomb, like "Your breath stinks. " But while it is all giving with warm fuzzys on the surface, I still felt underneath it was like a bomb waiting to go off. There is so much 'anti' feelings exhibited toward people not like them. I felt southern culture was kind of ridiculous. Sweet tea. Lots of churches. Religious judgmental attitudes out the wazoo. Ugh It just seemed so phony. But every corner I turned, there was an voluptuous white or black woman in a spring, floral-print dress with big hair and too much makeup, smiling and telling me, "Bless yer heart." I kinda liked that! Made me feel good and welcome. Yes, Blacks and whites get along fine today in the south, maybe better than the north. I guess after 400 some odd years of slavery and Jim Crow, practicing the same kind religion, living together and getting to know each other, they discovered there wasn't that much difference in the races. But that doesn't mean the South in general doesn't have a serious problem confronting its deeply embedded culture of racism.However, I always felt the South, that beneath the smiles and southern hospitality and politeness were a lot of guns and liquor and fear. Look at who they elect to office, all fear mongers and isolationists. I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted. And if you want to see what life was like years 50 years ago, go south, everything happens in the south later than in the rest of the civilized world. It is backward and behind the curve on modernity . . .I think southerners are really different that northerners, coming from high anxiety - highly educated - competitive and diverse New York, you notice it right away. Southerners have a wonderful sense of rhythm and charm, lots of that charm too, they are un ambitious, uninformed and they like it that way, superstitious, conspicuously poorer (how could it be otherwise, say the us northerners); who for all their poverty and squalor lead enviable relaxed lives - envied, that is, by us work-driven, sensually inhibited, less corruptly governed northerners.Living in NYCNew York City occupies a special place in the American consciousness as the tumultuous seat of our financial markets and the buzzing capital of our culture. New York is celebrated for its wealth of nationalities, ethnicities and languages. But why would anyone want to live in NYC? It's insanely expensive, there are too many crazy people, it's bundles of energy and famously, "If you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere." And lots of people love the challenge! Most important, it’s the city that exemplifies American pluralism, the “melting pot” that attracts new immigrants looking for work and college graduates drawn from their hometowns by the promise of excitement and opportunity. Its appeal hangs on its image as a city where everyone can try, get, and be anything. It has been my home for more than 40 years and I love it for its social and economic freedoms. My education and computer technology background fit right in and I found great career and social successes. Am I wrong or what?But NYC is not a panacea, it has its own problems just like any other city. First of all, it's terribly expensive, living costs are very high, you live in a small apartment that cost a fortune or commute from far away distances. Taxes are high to pay for all the social services, city employees and infrastructure support. The New York City government's budget is the largest municipal budget in the United States. In 2016 the NYC city government had a budget of $80 billion a year.The best jobs are in NYC and unless you are wealthy, you must commute and the hours required while being stuffed on packed trains and subways which are actually a frustrating second job. Second, the City is densely crowded. People are piled on top of one anther. Third, you will never get a good job unless you have a great education, NYC is comfortable for skilled and educated people only. Others scrape by! NYC is also being seriously gentrified, wealthy people move in to replace poorer people who are moving out.On the other side of the coin, NYC is certainly a playground for adults. There's never a dull moment in NYC. It's the city that never sleeps. It offers a thousand different interesting things to do every day. Besides high paying jobs for the talented in the business, banking, financial, advertising, business, performing art’s world, there is Broadway, Greenwich Village, China Town, Little Egypt, parades galore - St. Patties Day, Halloween, Macy's Thanksgiving, street theater and theatrical Flash Mobs, thousands of restaurants, bars, night clubs, museums and parks to pleasure your life away. Living or commuting to NYC is like being a member of Delta Force. It ain't for everyone but if you can do it life is great and you are a very special person.So let's talk about NYC. The New York City immediate Metropolitan area represents the largest city and metro in America with more than 20 million residents. New York City has an extraordinarily diverse population. Half of the residents are immigrants. It is one of the few cities in the country in which four different racial/ethnic groups each make up at least 10 percent of the population. Put it in perspective, and you end up with the conclusion that New York City is by far the most ethnically and racially diverse city in the world. It has the largest number of blacks, close to 3.5 million in the USA. (Atlanta is second.) This is almost 9% of the entire Black population of the United States. New York City proper has more than 2.4 million African Americans.According to the 2010 decennial census, 33 percent of New York City residents are white, 26 percent are Hispanic, 26 percent are black, and 13 percent are Asian. Altogether, 47 percent are immigrants. Some neighborhoods are mixed, but most are of the same ethic/racial groups. Expensive neighborhoods like most of Manhattan and lots of Brooklyn and Queens are white. Immigration from the Caribbean and Central America are diminishing the dominance of Puerto Ricans, and among Asians, where new arrivals now are more likely to be from rural China or Southeast Asia rather than Taiwan or Hong Kong. In joining the ranks of American cities where whites are a minority, New York, in its diversity, is more like Los Angeles and San Francisco than cities like Detroit and Newark, where black majorities replaced white ones.New immigrants do not simply replace old residents in the same jobs. They alter the economic mix. Look at the way Italians shaped the construction industry or, more recently, how Koreans have changed greengroceries. The succession of wealthy and skilled Blue Collar European groups who founded New York and dominated it for centuries have now become a racial minority. Whites are the racial minority residents in NYC itself. And they tend to be wealthy too to afford the expensive skyscraper multi million dollar condos and $3000/month apartments being built by the hundreds to accommodate the huge world migration to NYC. People have their priorities and if one of the top ones is living in Manhattan then they make it happen. Lots of people live in 2 bedroom apartments with 2 or 3 other people they don't know so they only pay $1,000 month each. I don't know how people move to NYC from anywhere else because the amount of living space you'll end up having is just a fraction of what you're probably used to . . . but for us NYers it's just what we are used to. It's also a very different lifestyle. There are a lot of singles and couples, it's exciting, active, socially diverse, people get along, tons of things to do any day with lots of entertainment choices, Very few families live here (in Manhattan).Lots of the people renting are struggling actors or such and they sacrifice space for location. I have friends who live in only a small room and share bathroom and kitchen. I know people who commute 2 or 3 hours to work . . . I am one of them, which is ridiculous but I have six kids and wife Upstate in the Catskill’s mountains, so its worth it. If you know the right spots to look and the right people you can get something affordable in this town . . . but for most people you're better off moving somewhere else. It sounds crazy but it's just life here.Most New Yorker's don't own, they either rent and/or live in the burbs & commute. When I first moved here, I lived in Hell's Kitchen in Midtown Manhattan and then moved to Jamaica, Queens. I worked in the Village and spent one hour on the F Train each way to and from work. The average rent for a Manhattan apartment was more than $2500 in 2005 and it's only gone up since. It would be more realistic for you to look for a studio, deep in another borough and even then you will have a hard time finding something acceptable that is that cheap. There is an affordable housing crisis in NYC and things are bad for everyone. Luxury skyscraper condos are sprouting up for sale everywhere but nothing affordable to rent. You could always try renting a bedroom in a share situation. It's possible that you won't find much less than $700/800 since you don't want to get shot or have an hour commute.NYC is a commuting culture. Millions of people commute to Manhattan every day, they ride trains, take ferries, subways or buses to Manhattan and there are tens of thousands of amenities to accommodate them. They come from Westchester, Long Island, Connecticut, Hudson Valley, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Upstate. This Metro area is more than 30 million people. Consequently, transportation is everything in NYC. But if you live in Manhattan, don't even consider a car unless you're wealthy, because you'll have to pay big time to keep it in a parking garage which cost around $800/month. You can get around by train, subway, taxi and bus. Subways go everywhere but are full of smelly homeless, hot, dirty, loud with rude people, constant beggars and candy sellers etc. But the entertainers at the stops are great. The A Train travels the entire length of the city, from the Bronx all the way through Brooklyn. It is quite the ride . . . a bucket list thing. Busses aren't bad but it tends to be slow. Living in Manhattan or Brooklyn and having a car is suicidal. A car is needed if you live on Staten Island. In Queens a car is helpful, and not a pain. For most of the Bronx, forget it, except for Riverdale. Manhattan and parts of other boroughs have alternate side parking, which means you have to move your car every day except Sunday and find a new parking spot. Loads of metered parking also.When I moved to NYC, I kept my car. I love the freedom that driving gives me and I hate having to rely on public transportation. My only issue with cars would be traffic & parking. It's HORRIBLY hard to find parking in Manhattan. And no one drives a nice car in NYC, just whoop Dees that suffer lots of dings and dents. Your car is also apt to be hit or sideswiped so if you're very anal about the way your car looks, you'll have to pay extra to fix it . . . And yes, insurance is expensive.As for "deals" on apartments, some neighborhoods are cheaper and some more expensive. Location counts for a lot. I, for one, always was more interested in space than in location. I was always willing to live on off blocks (but never dangerous ones, just skuzzy looking ones) to get a bigger place. Right across the Hudson, Hoboken is a great pace to live. Hoboken is a very up and coming place, lots of young people who commute to Manhattan, lots of bars, restaurants. It's just so clean, quiet and friendly here. There is the PATH Subway and ferries to take you to work in NYC.Speaking of commuting, New York City has one of the most extensive public transit systems in the world. The New York City Subway System is one of the largest subway systems in the world with more than 700 miles of tracks covering the four out of five boroughs of New York City. It is the only subway system in the world that operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Penn Station is the busiest railroad station in the world, with more than 800,000 commuters in it every day. In addition it hosts the Long Island Railroad, which bring million of the commuters from the eastern suburbs into the city daily. Grand Central Terminal is the largest railroad station in the world. The GCT is home to Metro-North Railroad, which operates train from this fame rail hub to the Hudson Valley, the northern suburbs and Connecticut. And now also the Long Island Railroad to Manhattan's east side.Other form of transportation operates to and from New York City, they included The PATH, NJ Transit, Amtrak, and both national and regional buses departing from and arriving to the Port Authority Bus Terminal. There also five airports, (Newark, LGA, JFK, Newburgh, and White Plans), as well as an extensive ferry system that include the Staten Island Ferry. So there is definitely no way you'll need a car to get around New York City. Manhattan squeezes people in skyscrapers and more are built every year for business, condos and apartments. Most people who work in those tall Manhattan skyscrapers of Manhattan live in Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens, or even the NJ cities. Asking whether the City or New Jersey right across the Hudson is better is like asking if surfing is better in the Great Lakes or the Pacific. Stay away from Long Island, New Jersey, Hudson Valley, etc. if you're not looking to start a family, or simply do not prefer some of the most exciting activity in the world.NYC is heavily minority but overall, whites are much better off - they are better educated, have significantly less out of wed lock births, suffer less drugs, idleness and do much less crime than minorities. The evil doer whites steal unethically at the top in Wall Street and the blacks steal violently at the bottom on the street. Social progressives are always trying integrate the neighborhoods and schools, but it is the old story, how do you mix poor minorities with educated affluent whites? So the melting pot image belies the reality that much of the city remains divided along racial or ethnic lines. In dozens of neighborhoods, a single racial or ethnic group predominates, at rates of 70 percent to nearly 90 percent.New York schools are the most segregated in the country according to a new study. More than half of New York City’s public schools are more than 90 percent black and Latino, But these numbers don’t mean very much when placed in the context of the demographics of the school system as a whole - more than 67 percent of all students in the NYC system are black and Latino to begin with and live in their own neighborhoods. There just aren't not enough white kids to go around and integrate. And the white kids come from a different demographic too - more wealth, better educated and less dysfunctional homes. Sounds like Atlanta to me too! This is the worrisome inequities hidden beneath the New York’s glowing facade.There is a “tale of two cities” and the growing gap between the city’s haves and have-nots, which all too often follow racial lines. Indeed, racial segregation in New York is frequently accompanied by socioeconomic segregation. Across the state, the typical African-American student “attends a school where 69% of students are low-income.” For the typical Latino student, that number is 65 percent. For whites, less than 30 percent. Mandatory efforts to force integration - such as busing - are unlikely to gain political traction today. This causes great anger among whites and they move out.New York’s elite high schools are some of the city’s crown jewels, are the best in the USA, renowned for their merit-based exclusivity. Changing admission requirements to the city’s top schools for the sake of feel-good social justice would erode the schools’ tradition of excellence in the service of dubious ends. Absent a massive program of busing, or forced population transfer, there aren’t enough white people to satisfy the social progressives. And many of the best-regarded public elementary schools are getting whiter.More than a third of the 100 most diverse schools are high schools, reflecting the city’s practice of allowing students to apply to any high school. The Mathematics, Science and Engineering High School at City College is the most diverse. Every year about 80,000 students will soon receive high-school acceptance letters, and for many this time marks the culmination of months—sometimes years—spent hitting the books, meeting with tutors, and sprucing up resumes. That’s because admission into one of the city’s 400 or so public high schools is rarely automatic: Each kid ranks and applies to as many as 12 schools, and recent statistics suggest that less than half of a year’s applicants get into their first-choices, while 10 percent of them—nearly 8,000 kids—don’t get a match at all.Then there are the crème de la crème of New York City’s public high schools: the nine prestigious "specialized" institutions that are often seen as informal feeders for the Ivy League. Only 5,000 kids are offered admissions to these college-prep schools, which students can pursue in addition to their 12 choices. You get into them by passing a test - a 150-minute multiple-choice test known as the SHSAT. But critics say the test encourages a culture of exclusivity - one that, matched with the schools’ notorious lack of student diversity, has been subject to intense debate over the years.Social progressives suggest new desegregation efforts that link “choice” with “key civil rights standards, such as strong public information and outreach, free transportation and no admissions screening.” Personally, I think that admission screening is a must unless you want to water down academics.NYC is the epitome of capitalism and socialism - called Plato's Utopia - in the USA. They are conflicting values, but everyone on both sides gets along. In such a highly people packed environment, where ten thousand people work in one skyscraper, getting along is a must. Immigrants, entrepreneurs and business make the world turn, the socialists want undeserved economic equality.I am old school - you work for what you get - and I do not agree with much on the progressive social agenda that I equate with giveaways and guarantees for the free lunch crowd. I don't have a problem with providing a "hand up" but dislike the handouts that never go away and encourage laziness and dependence on the government. Excellence starts in the home and grows stronger in the schools. I do not favor increased social welfare spending - life is sweet but can be hard, getting educated and keeping a job and your nose clean is perquisite for the good life. In another words, "personal responsibility" counts more than welfare spending. Social progressive wanted to eliminate tests and merit-based criteria for schools, busing to mix populations, reserved housing for minorities in wealthy areas, etc. I totally disagree with any of that. I say stimulate the economy, create jobs and that will eventually take care of most of the problems.I don't like this "Taking the Knee" protest thing during our national anthem at NFL football games by black players; it is wrong in my opinion - or at least misplaced, protest should go to places that actually suffer with racial discrimination not the NFL at Foot Ball Stadiums where they don't. How about the "White Nationalist Parades" occurring around the country. Or the racist Trump rallies? The blacks either say the USA is a racist country or are protesting social problems like the Police actions against black men. There are some incidents that need inspection, but the primary problem black's face is "Black on Black Crime" which murders about ten thousand blacks every year and which they don't want to talk about. Blacks who say the USA is a racist country are wrong, the USA is not a racist country and whites are not generally racist either. Since foot ball stadium are legal ground for protest now, next the white nationalists or confederate and Nazis will protest the discrimination against them at NFL games. Maybe even the Muslims will protest too about their problems. I would love to see foot games being just football. I say "Be careful," this is unnecessarily dividing the country - it's red meat for Trump and all the bigots . . . for many, the flag is synonymous with their mother, and for many, this whole issue had become an unnecessary race issue.Why is the Country so divided?Since the beginning of recorded history, people have disagreed on everything and when societies were run by demigods (and many still are), getting agreements were simple, the ruler kills the ones who disagree, you know, the ones who are different, the ones who belong to other groups, have different agendas, believe in something radical to the norm. After all, life is so much simpler when all agree on everything! Then came democracy for the few people with enough nerve to stick their necks out and suffer debate, disagreement, and disorder.Today, in the 21st century, our knowledge on history has increased ten thousand times with the advent of computers and hundreds of thousands of new scientific and archaeological / cosmology / geophysical discoveries and with critical thinking we are capable to absorb all this new information and not get stuck in the past. But there are those who want to disregard modernity, science and our ever increasing understanding of history, they are afraid of change because it disturbs their comfort zone and/or are stuck with religious / political dogma. Change is natural and good, but people's reaction to change can be unpredictable and irrational. It can become a phobia for some and often being recognized as irrational. Resistance to change comes from a fear of the unknown or an expectation of loss. In reality, fear of change is one of the most common reasons for resistance to change because it stops you taking any action at all.The Religious Right extremists want to rewrite history, in much the same way as holocaust deniers are, they want us to believe our country (USA) was founded as a Christian country when in reality it was founded as a secular country. One of the principals of our founding was based on a desire for religious freedom and freedom from religion, and therefore the founders established a secular government focused on the personal freedom to be and equality - southern states excepted [sic] slavery.None of the Founding Fathers were atheists. Most of the Founders (Washington, Madison, Jefferson, etc.) were Deists, which is to say they thought the universe had a creator, but that he does not concern himself with the daily lives of humans, and does not directly communicate with humans, either by revelation or by sacred books. They spoke often of God, (Nature's God or the God of Nature), but this was not the God of the bible. They did not deny that there was a person called Jesus, and praised him for his benevolent teachings, but they flatly denied his divinity. The Founders were students of the European Enlightenment. The attitude of the age was one of enlightened reason, tolerance, and free thought. The Founding Fathers would turn in their graves if the Christian Extremists had their way with this country.I say all this to shout my dismay at the conservative right wing who have left their traditional bastion of reasonable advocacy for running a common sense - business like show. They have gone to religious and political extremes, advocating fear, mistrust and hate for anything or anyone not like them. They have been subjugated to extremist dogma and misconstrued history to their own ends (like the Nazis and Communists did), especially when it comes to what being a true American and Christian is all about, and facts about the philosophies attendant in the founding of our country and the Civil War. They see the world in a very puritanical - black and white - light.And we have our original sin . . . In the USA, slavery has, does, and will always be at the bottom of every issue, every supposed cause, every reason why the South was ultimately led from the Union. It will not go away, it will not recede, it will not be driven from the pages of our collective history. The North and South have always been culturally different even to this day, but the simple fact remains, without slavery, without those who were in charge who had a vested interest in slavery, no Civil Way would have been fought, not one of those non slaveholding boys would have ever needed to enlist, fight and die for the Confederacy. . There was simply no other reason, no other cause, that could bring about the slaughter of 620,000 Americans.The institution of slavery was regarded as immoral in the 18th century western world and had been eliminated in European colonies, but it remained strong in the American south, was blessed by the evangelical church, and consequentially has lowered the creditability and soul of the south forever. People question how the church could support slavery and still be called Christians. Much if that dilemma still exists today what with the south's inclusion of the evangelical religion into everything it does; where politics and religion are the same thing..But today's crisis is far more comprehensive, extending to the social, political and economic realms. The worst thing about it is that the country still refuses to engage in any debate over the reasons for its decline. It seems as if many Americans today no longer want to talk about how they can strengthen their union. Criticism is seen as a betrayal of America's greatness. It seems to me at least that the US has arrived at a place where it cannot reach consensus on virtually any issue. For decades there has been broad disagreement on abortion, gun control, the military, health care, evolution, public schools, immigration, the separation of church and state, drug law, global warming and other environmental protections, welfare and social programs in general, the rights of homosexuals and women, resource development, affirmative action, international trade, international aid, and what to do about crime.This divisiveness hurts our world prestige and power. It divides the population into at least two camps, each fervently standing for its beliefs and damning the others while the United States is frittering away its role as a model for the rest of the world. The political system is plagued by an absurd level of hatred, the economy is stagnating and the infrastructure is falling into a miserable state of disrepair and many Americans are losing faith in their country's future. And here we are, after a brilliant century and a terrible decade, the United States has reached a point in its history when the obvious can no longer be denied: The reality of life in America so greatly contradicts the claim ‑‑ albeit one that has always been exaggerated ‑‑ to be the "greatest nation on earth," that even the most ardent patriots must be overcome with doubt. We have fallen behind every western industrialized country in every metric including healthcare, income and middle class growth, social mobility, economic and jobs growth, and being a good place to live. It’s basically conflict over the role of government, personal freedoms, separation of church and state, acceptance of modernity, and our strategic role in the world.The country has forgotten the days when former President Franklin D. Roosevelt courageously told his fellow Americans that a collectively supported social welfare system didn't translate into socialism but freedom, a "New Deal" that would strengthen America in the long term. Gone are the days when former President Dwight D. Eisenhower launched bold government programs to cover a country 27 times the size of Germany with a network of interstate highways.Gone are the years when former President Lyndon B. Johnson declared war on poverty and enacted federal laws declaring that there could be no second‑ or third‑class citizens, regardless of skin color. And gone is the spirit of renewal after former President John F. Kennedy's visionary promise to send Americans to the moon within a decade, a program that would cost taxpayers billions.Today America lacks the financial strength, political courage and social will to embark on such large‑scale, government‑directed programs. In fact, the Republicans wouldn’t do it anyway - and that is one of ideological differences gripping the USA - the role of government. The United States has long been drawing down its savings, writes Fareed Zarkara, another American critic of his own country and a respected columnist with Time. "What we see today is an American economy that has boomed because of policies and developments of the 1950s and '60s: the interstate‑highway system, massive funding for science and technology, a public‑education system that was the envy of the world and generous immigration policies."My take on all this: The US will unravel, peacefully, much like the Czechs and Slovaks bifurcated Czechoslovakia into two countries. Essentially, what will happen will be a diminishment of Federal control that will allow birds of a feather to flock together. Those who want more government can stay in states where it exists; those who want less government can move to south. The choke point is how much of the national debt will each territory assumeFifteen years ago I moved back to the rural south for warm weather cheap living retirement. As for me. coming from a highly educated academic, high technology, very multi culture diverse New York to the monolithic Bible Belt - rabble rousing Fox News south presented problems for me. It's a completely different culture and belief system! In New York people ask what school you went to and here in the south they ask what church you go to. And their evangelical [Baptist, Methodist] church has a lousy record of following the Golden Rule; they help set up slavery, supported Jim Crow and fought against the 1960s Civil Rights to the death. Pastors still tell you from the pulpit that Obama was the anti Christ, to vote Republican, New York Values and homosexuals are evil, and the Confederate Flag represents southern tradition. And southern public education does not include a true picture of slavery, the Civil War and Jim Crow. The result is that southerners are on a completely different page of world understanding on religion, American history and how the USA was founded. You only get elected by being an evangelical Christian, ultra conservative, gun loving, immigrant and homosexual hating, Wall building Tea Party Republican.I go to church and volunteer here, and everywhere I go in the south there is a negative feeling about New Yorkers and the great city where I spent my life. With bad attitudes toward New Yorkers and being called a “Yankee” (like it’s a dirty name) once too often, and with my contemporary feelings on social issues like abortion, gay rights and racial integration generates conflicts among some church members, who saw nothing wrong with slavery and Jim Crow and still think 'Neegras' need to know their place,In metro Atlanta, the people are far more progressive and have experienced major northern immigration with commensurate cultural concessions like social integration. But those multicultural areas are repeatedly reviled by many of the rural people where we live, who are very socially conservative and uncomfortable living with multiple ethnic cultures and have a far different understanding of history.In Georgia, I am in the land of religious zealots and Tea Party conservatives and closed minded thinking and it's not a good fit for me. These days, it's hard for me to relate to people who insist that they are right, right, right and right, and even more right! They are full of - mostly mean and nasty - opinions without facts. They are supported by their media outlets like Fox News and conservative talk radio. They are only looking at their "side"... and their "side only!" All justified because their Bible tells them so! Especially when their view is so bigoted and hateful . . . that is so un Christian to me but normal religiosity to them.Yes, it's is a different world in New York where critical thinking "brain-storming sessions" was the way we got things done. Where there is very little race, religion or ethnicity issues, but where people are measured on character, where people work together to come up with creative and novel ideas to solve long-standing problems. New Yorkers are definitely better educated and a highly competitive international bunch, that live in a highly diverse environment and consequentially are very tolerant, and that all seems to rub many socially conservative southerners to no end who deplore New York values and call New York "Decadent" because we allow Gay Marriage.And the South is Trump country where he and his Republican alt right base have normalized bigotry, misogyny, racial hatreds and ignorant low brow thinking. They have not condemned the Nazis, white nationalists and KKK who support the extremist 'alt right.' They have become America's "Hate Group" and created the "US vs. "THEM" in American politics. And they are blaming America's problems on Mexicans, immigrants, liberals, homosexuals, abortion and anyone who disagrees with them being an educated and thinking worldly person. It's gotten into religion too, evangelicals standing against abortion and Gays and for "Religious Liberty" which allows them to discriminate against whom they disagree with, like Gays, Muslims, blacks, inter racial marriage. Conservatives used to stand up to religious crackpots like Alabama's Roy Moore, now many are defending him and he is sure to win election to the US senate in Alabama. Trump protects violent fascists by dispersing the blame in Charlottesville to "many sides." He has emboldened fascism around the world and white nationalists and Nazis in the USA. And the once truly great Republican Party has become the voice of hatred and thugs. It is perhaps the first time in American history that the racist far-right sees the elites in the White House as its allies.Since turning 80, I have not felt a shrinking but an enlargement of mental life and perspective. Having a long experience of life, I have seen triumphs and tragedies, booms and busts, revolutions and wars, great achievements and deep ambiguities, too. One has seen grand theories rise, only to be toppled by stubborn facts. One is more conscious of transience and, perhaps, of beauty and God. At 82, one can take a long view and have a vivid, "I have almost a century" and developed a sense of history not possible at an earlier age. I can actually imagine, feel in my bones, what a century is like, which I could not do when I was 40 or 60.I feel the north is more optimistic, exhibits critical thinking, thinks through facts rather than jump to some religious dogma like in the south.Trump who speaks to the ugliness, the fears and anger of left behind 'white' Americans. Rather than some plans to enhance a new high tech economy and a decent strengthened social order, he speaks to the old time religion of white nationalism, world isolation, segregation, hate messaging against Muslims, women, Mexicans, immigrants, etc. and the 'weeds' find a leader filled with misogyny, racism, bigotry which is now allowed on the national platform and the whole nation shakes to a new idiom of hate, anger and discontent instead of hope, charity and love. Trump has created a return to political isolationism in the future of the US.I do not think of old age as an ever grimmer time that one must somehow endure and make the best of, but as a time of leisure and intellectual freedom, freed from the factitious urgencies of earlier days, free to explore whatever I wish, and to bind the thoughts and feelings of a lifetime together with my writing.The trip to New York - I went to the Colonial diner several times and looked at the crowd streaming in, diners being a famous New York habitat for the local yokels and also the rich and famous. New York diners are huge, seating around 500 plus people, and offering up a variety of menus but always serving 24 X 7 generous eggs and bacon breakfast with home fries, toast and orange juice for around $4.00. Waitresses always seem to be the wise cracking chesty blondes in short dresses with black fish net stockings who serve you flawlessly, but with endless jokes, local antidotes and are the best authorities on local politicians. Yes, New York always has that edge of Mickey Spillane grittiness and toughness about it, but New York is the land of the immigrants and the neighborhoods are always swapping from one group to another and people are very tolerant of different life styles. Man, I wish I was young again and could go out in the world and do SOMETHING! In NY there are jobs all around for a old retiree, driving local truck for parts dealers is a common one.But I nearing 83 and feeling my age. My biggest problem is that I am fat, and at 210 pounds, a little bit of a porker, and all in the belly. I took several Internet tests on “How long will you live” and they all came back saying I would live to be 95. Well, that I doubt very much! I am constantly working on my “Navy” and “Working in Manhattan” memoirs, going over them again and again, adding, editing, embellishing [I do that really good] and come away with a feeling of thankfulness for the life I have led.I have discovered this retirement life is for the birds, it’s too boring and I yearn for exciting things to do, like living and working in Manhattan again, going to the museums, becoming Irish again and watching the St. Patrick or Ticker Tape parades, where millions watch and hundreds of thousands march, crawling around the bars and night clubs at night, getting real ugly, looking at the tens of thousands of pretty women that fill Manhattan streets, thinking maybe someone remembers me from the good ole days, but I can’t drink or dance anymore and my old friends are passing. My dear friend and drinking partner from the Peppermint Lounge, Joe Fraiser, just died at 66. I remember attending his championship fight of the century with Ali at the Garden in 1971, what a thriller.Talking about visiting much less working or living in Manhattan drives evangelical Southerners crazy as they hate the place, too many liberal Obama loving Yankees with those damnable "New York Values," and humanists, you know the kind, those classic liberals that believes in equality and fairness, besides, they all have unhappy times when they visit Manhattan, most people are having too much fun to pay much attention to them and they hate all those Obama look-a-likes, you know cultured, smart, educated and classy Black men. Decrepit as I am, I would get out of breath (old and thankfully extinguished smoking habit, but it has done the dirty on me), collapse on a street corner, and Emergency Services would take me to Bellevue, where I would be housed with the crazies for even thinking such thoughts about living in Manhattan, ugh, an old poor, albeit good looking me, in Manhattan.I still have those “Wild Days” fantasies from my old Navy life when I rode my Harley all over the East Coast. I thought about buying another motorcycle at Cycle World in Athens, but the salesman was short of a foot and hobbling around with two aluminum crutches with several missing front teeth and a patch on his left eye, he just had a motorcycle accident with a truck and the truck won. Kinda of scared me, I didn’t want to spend my elderly days crippled.But just for a lark, being the epitome of manhood and devil dare, and for something crazy to do and brag about later, I tried enlisting in the Marine Corp again, I am pretty smart you know, can figure out really strategic things, and they were so nice last time I tried, they gave me a sticker to put onto my car, I thought maybe they were hard up now, but there is almost a two-year waiting list to get in - the economy sucks and young people are looking for good jobs. One smart ass Marine in dress blues with a chest full of medals said if I could do a hundred push ups they would consider me for a dishwasher assistant in the enlisted commissary at the base. Well, you know how that went! They paid for the ambulance, Medicare didn’t have to pay a dime, and I got another nice sticker for my car. They put me in a hospital with some pretty Jamaican nurses with big breasts and long legs and I got a date next Saturday night at Wendy’s - They liked me, I have coupons. But my real heart is with the Navy you know, but they couldn’t accommodate my need for afternoon naps and stinky severe methane episodes, those cramped sleeping quarters aboard ship you know, and it takes more than two years to get in there. Hell, by that time I might be in a nursing home farting and sleeping peacefully. So, I write stories about Growing up in Milwaukee, The Navy, Working in Manhattan, Living in upstate New York, little ditties and political commentary - I am mad at everyone, those politicians, they are all a bunch of crooks, and I feel good about ratting on them and contributing something worthwhile in life.While I write stories, Bettie is busy with her quilting and visiting her mother who is in Hospice in Birmingham. Judi is working on her Master’s, Neil just got his, Jeanne just had surgery, Jada is visiting Italy again to visit her husband’s parents in Turin. Lynn and Keith are fine, Morgan works at Longhorn, Skylar is going to private school now, Darilyn graduated NYU, Nick is in college in Dobbs Ferry, and Ariana (our great) is cuter than anything, and life goes on. All is well.Middletown New York is a 28,000 population city surround by a 29,000 population Town of Wallkill which I lived in and served ten years on the Planning Board, approving all strategic real; estate development, which included shopping and strip malls, hospitals, large residential housing developments, factories, distribution warehouses, big box stores (Wal*Mart, Lowe's, Home Depot), and any sewer, water enhancements within town boundaries. The whole area is full of bi-level ranch homes, is a regional mega-shopping center with hundreds of new apartment/condos complexes for New York immigrants who came upstate to the Catskill Mountains foothills for better housing and schools.Recently, Kiplinger Magazine billed Middletown as one of top ten small cities to raise you children in the Unites States. The magazine cited several reasons; Middletown’s good schools, median family income is big enough to live comfortably at $68,000, low crime rates, affordable median housing at $220,000, plenty of parks and pools, a culturally and racially diverse population, located in the beautiful Hudson Valley with a plethora of performing arts and sophisticated cultural activities, near the Catskills Mountains for skiing, canoeing and fishing, and closeness to New York City for the big paying jobs and all connected with multiple mass transit systems ending in midtown Manhattan subways, trains or bus station.It is not the gargantuan size of the New York Metro 20 million population region, or the crushing and suffocating commuting to Manhattan through a few tunnels and bridges that defines New York City, it is the diversity of people and everyday experiences that generate the excitement of living or working in the Big Apple. Just think, 45 per cent of New York City residents are foreign born and each ethnic group has its own colorful neighborhoods, restaurants, Bodegas, social styles with its own ethnic parades like St. Patties Day that millions watch and hundreds of thousands march in on 5th Avenue.There are similar parades for Halloween in Greenwich Village, the Caribbean, Asian, Middle Eastern peoples and that grand daddy of all, Wall Street Ticker Tape Parades. New York is not about whom to hate but who to love, because hating would be fruitless in this widest expanse of diversified humanity on earth and loving is so much fun . . . and Godly!It is because this gigantic collage of differentiating humanity is thrown into a bucket and stirred around and mixed up really well, the result being a salad bowl with political opinions and life styles that are so different and varied that the typical ideological wars between Republicans and Democrats or Whites and Blacks seem like child's play, like confrontation 101. Believe it or not, everyone gets along, because they want to keep the peace and because they have learned to enjoy each other.New York’s life style has always been to “Live and Let Live.” They work together, socialize at the dance or night clubs, date and marry, go to church with each other, and now you can understand New York City Region, it’s all about connecting to the world in a small peaceful space. The funky culture of New York City extends well into the 100-mile radius of the commuting region with its performing arts, academic intellectual curiosity and liberal social life styles.The next day Bettie and I went to our old church, the First Congregational in downtown Middletown. It was great seeing our old friends, a diversified collection of Upstaters of different nationalities and political persuasions. During the 28 years I lived in New York, I was a registered Republican, even got elected on that ticket several times, and at church after the sermon during coffee hour, enjoyed debating among my church member friends the days current events. This year my Republican friends are not voting the ticket in this election, they have been turned off by the extremism in the Republican party, the effort to tie religion to its principals and the virulent, without real thinking, anti Obama harangues. They see the world differently and look for problem resolution rather than the constant ideological confrontation coming from the current Republican candidates whose primary debates were an absolute turnoff for their meanness. It was great getting with my old friend Presley Cannady again. Back in the day we were on opposite sides of the political spectrum, but this day we seemed to have both moved to the center of reason, at least within screaming distance among the libertarians. Is it us or have the times changed? I liked the way my friends could discuss issues with some intimate knowledge, like they had studied the facts and were not intimidated by rapid opinions of such entertainment news outlets like FOX or Rush Limbaugh. Interesting!The next day Bettie and I drove to Connecticut to visit with her sisters and extended family living there. During our trip, I had been bragging about my great health situation, not having a single problem since my last heart by pass in 2000. Well, God must have heard me and decided to show me He is in control and He put a hurt on me I will never forget. Having the worst time in my life, I started having extreme vertigo and couldn’t stand, sit down or navigate in any way and wound up in the Yale emergency room in New Haven. I was there overnight and they ran every test known to man on me, concentrating on my heart and scans of the brain. I hope Medicare and my backup insurance policy pay for it as I am living on Social Security and can whistle only a little - pucker problems you know!While I was in the Emergency Room, I talked with the doctors and nurses. One PA nurse, was an ex US Marine who served ten years as a Scout Sniper and did several tours in Iraq. Another was a doctor who served there and we all talked about the desert, the Arabs and the primitive conditions of the Persian Gulf where I also served in the 1950s relieving the British fleet. The Marine said it all, the region lives in the 15th century and is so violent and that it breeds sociopaths who are willing to be suicide bombers, mass murdering their own people and be world terrorists murdering innocents to make their deranged religious points.A doctor came in to examine me, there were so many who did get a piece of me I wondered if I was something special; he asked me if Bettie was my wife. I said yes and he started discussing his personal his history, born and raised in New York City, went to North Carolina for medical school and got disgusted with Jim Crow and social conservatism, came back to Columbia Prysbertiaran in New York City for social freedoms and his residency and then on New England to set up his Neurology practice. He didn’t like the South.He said the culture in New England, basically upper class and a mixed ethnic/political region with a small minority population, was far different from the South, where most people held very right wing conservative political opinions and many still hang onto the old views of the Confederacy, saying the North started the War of Northern Aggression (Civil War) and what was wrong with slavery and Jim Crow anyway, after all, it’s all in the Bible. Worse, they dam Yankees for immigrating South with their liberal points of view and making them feel very uncomfortable. He further opinioned the racial situation in the South is slowly improving but still is way behind the dynamic diversity and extensive community touching that is found in the North, especially in New York, the diversity capital of the world. He said the rural South is still shamefully segregated, socially primitive and an anathema to any free thinking Northerner. Gee, where have I heard that before?One of the evening Doctors attending to me was a Nigerian woman and when she asked me where I was from and I said the Atlanta area she asked me how I like living there. I told her I preferred the north and later when she finished examining me she wanted to talk personally. She explained that she lived in the Atlanta area and didn’t like it, the old South and Confederacy an all, so she moved north and got an apartment in Manhattan, felt it was much freerer and offered more economic opportunity and she loves the big Apple city life. She wanted my opinion on Obama and asked lots of questions and offered opinions on politics. She sounded like a middle of the road voter, and I thought could be an Independent, but she was really turned off with the Republican party extremism.While in New England we stayed at one of our nieces, a farm house in Woodbridge, Connecticut, a seven-acre affair they just bought. Todd, her husband and I became good friends and he stayed with me while I was in the hospital while the rest of the crowd went off gallivanting for groceries. Connecticut is a state full of small towns connected by curvy two lane roads where drivers race about like they were doing the French Grand Prix. When I got back to his place he told me he was talking to his friend who owned the Woodbridge garbage collection (a multi million dollar) business, who is a Black Republican, and was turned off with the divisive rhetoric coming from extremist Republicans, consequentially this year he was going to vote Democratic.During our New York trip we stayed at Marilyn Nelson’s, a neighbor from our old Shangrila digs on Crane Road, in her new luxury apartment, a two-bedroom two-bath affair in a lovely wooded setting for $1530 a month. These luxury apartments are all over the area and rapidly fill up after being built. We looked at some on the other side of town and found them quite satisfactory. Evidently, that price point is a common one and good for the local population who will enjoy extravagant living with great amenities. And for Manhattan émigrés, it is dirt cheap, for they are used to paying more than $3,000 for a small apartment. It seems people prefer renting these days rather then owning a home, probably because of the collapse of the real estate market and loss in homeowners equity has scared people away from ownership. Being on a fixed income, $1530 a month is too much money for me, but I certainly could live there quite amicably, the Middletown area being full of shopping, social and eating experiences, which is typically reminiscent of New York life styles.Living in Georgia has been comfortable but cantankerous, what with the social conservatism and uniformity of right wing politics and Bible thumping absolutism so often indicating a basic intolerance of many of societies’ members. People are so sure about things; there is no in depth understanding or shades of gray. The Home Owners Association in our development zeroes in on any decent from their elevated perception of a photo perfect neighborhood, they believing they can control your home with intrusive bylaws. It can get really foolish, before the bylaws were changed, you could not park in your driveway, all vehicles must be in the garage, even your pickup truck.I am getting reflective, just got thru looking at my old photo albums from 2000 to present and what a tour de force in history and good times, summarizing our life living in upstate New York to our life in Georgia thru 2012. It was all there, in extroverted vivid photographic detail; the world Trade Center attack by Muslim fanatics and the USA response in Afghanistan, my heart surgery and Bettie’s breast cancer, our extensive Caribbean, Northern Europe and Mediterranean cruising, our children and grandchildren graduating from High School and college, my thirteen years in (really enjoyable) semi retirement making $10 bucks an hour doing various sale’s jobs in upstate resort areas, Bettie’s PTA and my School Board / Planning Board activities, fixing up the old Crane Road homestead and spending enjoyable summers at our Lake Wallenpaupack cottage, endless family gatherings at our house, Pennsylvania’s Knobble Amusement Park (no admission or parking and rides are just $1.00). Then there was our Motor Home camping in New York’s Niagara Falls, St. Lawrence Seaway, 1000 Islands in Alexander Bay, Lake George and Yogi Bear campgrounds. However, the greatest memories from all those years came from Bettie and our children and grandchildren. It makes one so thankful for life and our family! Yes, life was a neverending pleasure trip . . . what a ride!Which brings me to another point, I turned 82 this year and am feeling aged for the first time. What with getting tired easily and needing those afternoon naps, getting fatter and a little jowly, and often feeling like a truck has run over me for no reason at all, that ‘old age’ feeling has finally crept upon me. That and the feeling of my immortality slipping away has given me a pause for serious reflection, as most of my high school buddies, Milwaukee family and many of my Manhattan working friends have passed. I am thankful for my generally good condition, for I look much younger (most say late fifties - early sixties) and feel better than most of my acquaintances of the same age and I thank God for every new day! He certainly has been good to me!Then I think back to living in the Northeast for 40 years (3 in New York City, 7 years in New Jersey, and 30 years in New York). I would say those years were exhilarating albeit often stressful, and they had those great people living exciting life's to befriend, job opportunities and social freedoms, but those high - socialism inspired - taxes were outrageous! Yeah, there were so many life styles available without judgmental religious types around wagging their fingers, the north being a “Live and Let Live” environment, and then there were the characters and exciting experiences I encountered that were even better, but those taxes!? Ugh! And the cold weather and snow! Double UGH! Thank God I was young and could shovel five feet of snow because if I had to do it now, it would be heart attack time. I ranted about politics when I lived up north too, about the unions, the free lunch crowd, the jobs for life as long as you worked for the government. But then there were the great schools, best mass transit in the USA, the wonderful transformational life experiences working in Manhattan (Greenwich Village and Midtown) and living in Queens and Upstate, the excitement of Times Square, the multi culturalism, and more than anything, the thrill of Greenwich Village’s bohemianism, intellectualism and cultural artistic leadership. New Yorkers don’t complain. They enjoy life! And if you’re a little weird, it’s even better!I know that if given a choice, and I lived my life over again, I would definitely still live and work in New York and think twice about moving south when I retired. In the Hudson Valley where I lived, there was just more freedom, with more religious, political and life style choices available, where people are not the same and think differently, and we celebrate the differences, and there is tons of fun, a thousand things to do and the Delaware River valley is 15 miles away, the Catskills are just up the road, and the Pocono’s are an hour away and New York City is just a train ride away. It’s a low mountain area, with tons of lakes and rivers dotting the area with the Hudson River and West Point 30 miles a way, and the towns, those beautiful small artistic / university towns, are all over the map. I would still go into the Navy, the March on Washington and Woodstock, get involved in Civil Rights again, and have the same academic, business, Hollywood / artistic and Wall Street friends. It was a very good life!