LLPOH: A Tale of Many Cities – Part 1

I have recently returned from a trip that took me through the US mid-West, New York, and the UK. I was carefully watching for cultural/societal changes since my last visits to those areas. All of the areas had changed, and none of it was for the better, perhaps with one exception. I finished my trip with little interest in pursuing any further overseas trips for the foreseeable and indefinite future. The pain was too great and the cultural gain, and pleasure, too little.

The Mid-West

My first stop was to drop my second-born off at college. The college is located in a small to mid-sized mid-Western city. My first reaction was “Holy mother of God – will you just look at all the fast food joints!” We arrived fairly late in the day, and didn’t get to see a whole lot until the next morning.

I mean, I have never seen anything like it. Every street corner had a place serving poison. There were Hardees, Taco Bells, McDonalds, Burger Kings, Sonics, Kentucky Frieds, IHOPS, Dennys, etc. etc. etc. everywhere. And I mean everywhere.

The next thing I noticed was huge pick-up trucks. Pick-ups were everywhere, by the thousands. And inside each pick-up was a family of whales. Watching those fat suckers trying to get in and out of the trucks was truly enthralling. Some of them needed several attempts to haul all the lard up into the truck. Some of them had little ladder things to help them. You could see the fear on their faces when trying to get out of the truck – obviously the 9 inch drop could result in broken bones or dislocated ankles. Sometimes they would make several tentative tries to exit their trucks. We would watch this with our mouths hanging open.

The next morning, we got our student registered, and then had to go to a Walmart to collect the required bedding and assorted necessary items for a college student. Walmart was the only place that had the required bedding sizes. I had not been in a Walmart for years, and so was somewhat looking forward, nervously, to the experience.

Well, boy howdy, did my first impressions – fast food joints, pick-up trucks, and whales – translate into what I saw at Walmart. The parking lot was full of – you guessed it – pick-up trucks. By and large, it was full of new or newish pick-up trucks. And there were whales of all sizes, colors, and ethnic backgrounds tumbling, rolling, and oozing in and out of those suckers. Once their feet hit the pavement, they would waddle their way toward the entrance, perhaps 50 yards away, having to stop to catch their breaths a time or two on the way to the door. Once inside, the most whalish (whale-like?) would commandeer one of those motorized ride on carts, and off they would go. A lot of them were toting oxygen bottles. Some were so fat that their asses covered the seats and came near to dragging on the ground on either side of the carts – and I kid you not. My family watched this with our eyes bugging out. And as an aside, we also noted the following – the bigger the whale, the more likely they were to be covered in tattoos and to be sporting purple hair, nose-rings, and those ear-thingies where the holes are the size of silver dollars.

But here is the thing – we had some opportunity to talk to these folks, being unfamiliar with Walmarts in general. And here is what we found. Those fat, tattoo covered, purple haired, nose-ring wearing whales were …… nice. I mean REALLY nice. Helpful. Eager to be of assistance. They would walk (or ride ) with us to whatever we were looking for, they would describe what they buy, what they use and why, and what was the best value for money. They were polite – almost universally. We liked these people.

With respect to the general community, and the surrounding areas, we did have a chance to drive a few hours out of town, and around town, to the rural areas and such, as we were delivering a family friend to another college a few hours away. What we saw was a mixed bag – there was quite a bit of commercial building going on, but in general the overall impression was of a struggling economy. Our conversations with the residents seemed to reflect the same – that folks were generally getting by, with dual incomes, but that things were tight, and getting worse.

So my overall impression of the mid-West is of a god-fearing, lovely people who are killing themselves with rotten habits, and who are making horrible life-choices through their eating habits, their spending habits (new cars they can ill-afford), and their general long-term decision making. They are trusting souls that bought into the American dream, but are slowly awakening to the new reality. And they are compounding the problems of the new reality with their personal decision-making. It really is quite sad. We really do like those folks.

Next Stop: New York City

It had been quite a while since I had been to NYC. I really did not know what to expect. We flew into New Jersey, and took a New Jersey cab to NYC. A more disgusting, dirty, nasty car you would never have seen. It was a disgrace. The driver was on the phone the whole way, he drove like a maniac, and we came to realize that one hand constantly on the car horn was mandatory for driving in NYC.

We drove through some old parts of town to get to our hotel, and I was pleased to see, in general, that it looked pretty safe. The other thing we immediately noticed was that the people were not whales, unlike in the mid-West. In fact, we saw very few whales at all in NYC, despite seeing throngs of people. The why became more apparent over the next few days. The fact is, in NYC, a person HAS to walk. There is largely no choice. You simply have to do a fair bit of walking in NYC. Cars are few and far between, save for taxis (very clean taxis in NYC, as compared to the New Jersey shitboxes), and you simply must hoof it a fair bit to get anywhere. This is in comparison to the mid-West, where the folks waddle 20 feet from their front door, hoist themselves into their pick-ups, shoot through the drive through fast food joint, and then head home. I am convinced it is the walking that keeps the New Yorkers relatively less obese than those from the mid-West.

New York was, of course, bustling. We met almost no one who lived in Manhattan – almost everyone commuted from surrounding boroughs. The cost of living in Manhattan was extreme, and a lot of property was being snapped up by foreign investors – Russians, Chinese, Kuwaitis, etc. This was a theme we would see again.

There was a lot of building going on in NYC. Mostly what we saw, of course, were shops. I do not know what people really do for a living, but we were advised by the people we did speak to that things were not easy. A great many of the folks we spoke to were not native to NYC, but had been there for a number of years. And of those, the majority were trying to figure a way to get out. NYC was not their golden ticket.
We did go to Wall Street. It is singularly unimpressive. And we did not see a single person with horns and pitchforks. Admin made all that up. Along 5th Avenue, we were shown shops that were renting for $1 million per month – Chanel, etc. It is nearly impossible to believe. Their rent was in excess of $10 million per year for 5th Avenue storefronts.

Apartments along Central Park were going for many many millions of dollars. Apparently the old money is located on the East side, and new money (actors, athletes, etc.) on the West. The buildings, especially on the East side, are held such that the residents can prevent anyone they want from buying into the buildings.

I had opportunity to go to a local doctor (I picked up a third-world disease somewhere along the line that is still giving me grief. Apparently my vaccinations wore off after these several decades. I can assure you that some of the diseases that folks are vaccinated against are ones that you really do not want to get. I may still have some weeks or months before I am fully recovered. Without divulging the disease, I will say that it kills hundreds of thousands of children a year, and it has reinforced in me my belief in vaccinations. This disease is infectious BEFORE any symptoms occur, and I could have come in contact with an unvaccinated child before I knew I was even sick, and it could have been life threatening for the child.). I was seen for around two minutes, the quack shrugged, did not know the cause, prescribed some antibiotics, charged me an outrageous sum, told me I was not contagious, that I could travel, and sent me on my way. I mention this as I had the opportunity to visit several more doctors in the UK for the same reason, and will relate the different experiences later. But suffice it to say that this doctor was a quack.

In general, here were my overall impressions of NYC. First, the good point: since my last visit, NYC has become much safer. Harlem and all other areas appears to be rejuvenated. I did not see a single place I felt was unsafe. That is a spectacular change.
But much of the rest of my impression of NYC is negative. The people are distant and not friendly. There are far too many people. Streets are too narrow and cramped, and it is not much fun to walk around. There are a lot of folks hustling for money – mostly targeting tourists. Things are very expensive.

But mostly what I saw was a huge disconnect between the haves and the have nots or have littles. The people you see and interact with do not live in Manhattan – they live elsewhere, by and large. There is great wealth concentrated in areas of NYC – a lot of it is old money, elite money. A lot of it is also new money – actors, music personalities, financial people, etc. I do not find the stratification of haves from the have nots very appealing. There is a disjoint that I find unpalatable, largely I suppose because I cannot see that those with wealth have actually created anything of value. Perhaps they have – but I do not see it. They seem to have manufactured their wealth out of thin air, and I simply do not like the way that feels. It looks to me to be unearned. Those that do not have wealth seem to be beholden to those that do – that the rich of NYC seem to be the reason for the entire existence of the city. I get the feeling that crumbs flow continuously down the hill, from layer to layer. And that the whole city is essentially producing nothing of value.

So in the end, I do not like NYC. I do not like the crowds, the cramped streets, and the general feeling I get in the city.

I hope this is of some interest to folks. I do not think I have offered any great insights here. I will post the next part of the story, which will begin in London, when I get a chance.