Small Town, USA

This weekend, the boys and I took a trip north to go see what we could see. If you live in the city, you know that sometimes you need to just get out of it. The constant hustle and bustle, crowded streets, sirens and grime can really get to you after a while. A weekend get-away can be the perfect way to recharge, unwind, and enjoy some greenery and quiet for a change.

While our trip ended in bustling Montreal, we had the pleasure of visiting some quaint little towns on the way up. On Friday night, we stopped for dinner in Ravena, New York (population 3,369). We were wary at first, thinking that maybe we had entered into one of those sleepy ghost towns you see in horror flicks. The roads were empty, the lights were out, and the shadowy beat up buildings were giving me the willies. But pretty soon we found that Ravena did in fact host the basic essentials that have become the backbone of any American town: a swinging (if creepy) bar called the “Halfway House”, a generic Chinese take-out shop and a good old-fashioned diner with a pleasant waitress and an endless pot of coffee.

Continuing on, our next stop would be Elizabethtown, New York (population 1,315) where we stayed at a family owned log cabin on a pond. Elizabethtown (note: NO relation to the Orlando Bloom movie of the same name!) has been a favorite of ours for years. It is a town so small that it lacks any incentive to be creative with naming, for it has, at most, only one of everything. The kids learn at a high school called ‘High School’. For field trips, they head over to ‘Museum’. If they have to do some research, they make their way to ‘Library’, and so on. While the town has grown since we first visited, it still maintains that simple charm. There’s still only one traffic light, next to the only gas station, across from the only church, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Our last small town stop before Canada was not a town at all, but a city. However, Vergennes, Vermont (population 2,700) is proud of the fact that they are “The Smallest City in Vermont”. Vergennes is home to windy country roads swinging around lush green pastures and cow farms. On one main street are all the city’s shopping attractions: The Black Sheep Bistro, the Hungry Bear restaurant (where we had lunch, of course), the Busy Bead jewelry store (where the owner will provide you with pretty earrings AND gripping stories of close encounters with bears in Wyoming), and the Daily Chocolate Shoppe. One store that was missing, however was a great grocery shop called the Fat Hen, which we had visited once before. To our dismay, we found out that the owner of this local produce and grocery store had maintained the place for 5 years, and had planned to break even and begin to turn a profit until the economic recession hit, setting her years back financially. Unable to maintain the investment in these economic conditions, she was forced to fold her business, to the disappointment of her tiny city, and its occasional visitors.

As we rumbled past the border into Canadaland, we did so with a newfound appreciation for our own country. America, she’s a beautiful old place, big towns and small towns alike.

PS: the population of New York City is just over 8.2 million people.

- Varun