#32, New York NY (Been There, Born There)

Ah, New York. It was a lot different back when I was born. As a young child I had to do a report on what Long Island was like decades before that and found out it was even different from what I knew. By talking to an older person who had lived there from the early 1900's I discovered that potatoes were grown out on the island away from the city. For decades this was one of the top five locations in the country for potatoes. But after the war demand for housing kept pushing out into Long Island and many of the farms were gobbled up by developers. Fun Fact: Potatoes are still grown on Long Island though only about 1,000 to 3,000 acres total now. It was here on Long Island where I was born into this world.

The original church building

I had a good childhood. In the morning on school days we'd all march down to the corner and wait for the bus. It was less than a mile to school but we all got a bus ride. When I got a little older I walked the 8/10 miles distance, sometimes stopping off at a friends house that had a big slot car track. Kids back then did kid things all by themselves or with friends. We would get all the neighborhood kids together with their bikes and play cowboys and Indians. Don't remember what the rules were but we sure had fun on the bikes. Across the street from our house was an empty field and I used to fly kites. And then there were the times when a bunch of us kids would all ride our bikes down to the local park and stay there all day. We used to make up our own games but we just had fun.

New church sanctuary

Since my dad was a minister you could say life centered around the church. As a young man he shared the life-changing message of the Gospel and many lives were touched in that area. He led the renovation of the original church and the addition of a new sanctuary in the 1960's which remains to this day. I was there for all of it, though I didn't fully understand it all. But I'm sure that such an upbringing led me to the place where I followed in the footsteps of my dad.

New church addition

I had just finished the first semester of seventh grade when our parents said we would be moving to Illinois to start a new life. I had just done a school report on The State of Illinois in the past year, and I had picked that state mostly because my aunt and uncle had moved there. I figured they could provide me with more information than I could find myself. Those were the days you had to go the the library or seek out brochures and books that covered what you were looking for. We didn't have any say in the matter, we just went with our parents. It would be a couple decades before we took a trip, with my dad driving our minivan, back to visit the old haunts from my childhood. My wife was with me and was more interested in all of it than I was.

The Empire State Building

Fast forward to 2005 and our Australian friends were visiting us in Lincoln, Illinois, and wanted us to go with them on a trip to New York City. For years as an adult I had not been able to speak about New York City on a personal level since we had not gone there much. I had never done the touristy things like going up in the Empire State Building or seeing the Statue of Liberty up close and personal, so my wife and I were onboard with that idea. We drove there in one very long ride and stayed in a New Jersey hotel for a couple days, taking the bus into the city and then walking around. This was less than four years after 9/11 and New York City was still somewhat subdued.

New York City in all its crowded glory

The Hudson River in the distance

The emptiness without the World Trade Center

Modern Art?

Statue of Liberty

I bought my first digital camera right before we left on our trip. This would be the first trip we'd ever taken in which I didn't have to skimp on how many photos I allowed myself to take. This time I probably took just over 300 total for the entire week in New York City and Niagara Falls. Compare that to 72 photos in two weeks traveling around Europe. The best part was how clear the photos were now. I had been taking photos for over thirty years with several different 35mm film cameras and even the best ones were limited to the developing process of film emulsion which left much to be desired. But that was all we knew. As you peruse these 50 states worth of photos and stories you will find how positively blurry 8mm movies looked. The 35mm was a larger negative and it was more defined than the movies. With digital photography the resolution was increased greatly. The Canon Powershot A95 that took these photos had a maximum resolution of 2592x1944 pixels, while my present Canon 60D DSLR sports a maximum of 5184x3456 pixels which is four times more pixels. The best part of digital has been that I can store them in the computer for easy retrieval. I must have disposed of all the negatives years back and they were deteriorating even back then. We've still got a lot of photos in their albums but then I have to find the ones I want and scan them in before I can add them to the blog. So just know that you can roughly determine the age of a photo by how clear or blurry it is.

Niagara Falls from the U.S. side

Niagara Falls from the Canada side

We drove to Niagara Falls for a couple days as that is a photographer's dream. Our Australian friends were both into photography, as he would take the still photos with his Canon DSLR and she would take videos with her video camera. Remember tha photo taking in 2005 with a mobile phone was not particularly worthwhile. In the two photos above I took the first one and he took the second. I'm not sure why I don't have that many of the Canado side but my guess is I hadn't gotten used to being able to take all you want. Plus I was enjoying the scenery in the moment. We needed our passports to get into Canada though it was breathtaking from both sides.

We made the trip back safe and sound, and then our friends were back on their way to Australia as they said goodbye to a picturesque vacation. At least we both have the photos to remember it by.

Until next time,

Arktander

(aka David Andreasen)