CONTRAST ESSAY

CONTRAST ESSAY

Having grown up in New York City, then eventually moving to Maine, I have the definite advantage of being comfortable in two very different worlds.  Since my family still resides in or around the Big Apple, I am able to go there with my kids to enjoy getting together with aunts, uncles, and cousins, as well as taking time to tour the sights.  Through the years, we’ve gone to so many places, my sister jokes that after she retires, I’ll have to come down to show her around!  Truth be said, if you live there, it’s just a normal place, and the sights are for tourists.  In fact, I never even went to the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building until my best friend was moving to Delaware when we were both 14.  We realized then that all non-New Yorkers would expect her to have seen those 2 icons so we rushed to tour both of them in one day just before she left.  Even after moving to Maine, whenever we went down, we would spend our time visiting with family.  It was only upon meeting someone here in Maine who enjoyed going to NYC on vacations that I even contemplated the possibility of sight-seeing while we were there.  To me, New York City is first and foremost, my original home, just as now Maine is my beloved home, both very different, but both places in which I am quite comfortable.  Going back and forth between Maine and New York, it’s easy to slip in and out between the 2 worlds.  Even my New Yawk accent reappears when I’m around my relatives again.  When I’m here, NYC is a distant, ephemeral dream.  When I’m there, Maine is a far-off fairy tale.  Each region has its advantages and disadvantages.  Though I’m at ease in both places, living in NYC is very different from living in Maine in many ways.  Just three of the obvious differences are in the areas of entertainment, stores, and travel.  

NYC is a world of glitter, excitement, and glamour.  At least that’s the way it’s portrayed in the movies.  Manhattan is what the world thinks of when it envisions the Big Apple.  That’s the area with Broadway plays, museums, Central Park, 5^th Avenue, and innumerable shopping opportunities.  Actually, it’s only one of 5 boroughs, each of which contains mostly residential districts with nondescript stores catering to the individual neighborhoods.  And even half of Manhattan Island is residential, leaving a very small part of NYC portraying the entire city.  But entertainment opportunities in The City can be amazing.  There are interesting educational opportunities ranging from museums to zoos, from concerts to magnificent churches, from botanical gardens to historical sites.  Yet most of these opportunities come at a price, and for the most part it is not cheap.  But if you know the system, there are ways around some of those exorbitant entrance fees.  Several museums have pricey “suggested donations” listed.  Those are truly only suggested, and they will let you in for whatever you can afford.  Others have specific days and times, usually only for a few hours, sometimes for a particular off-day, when you can come for free.  In the summer, many parks host free public performances, ranging from the Philharmonic Orchestra to Beatlemania, to Jazz and more. However, in each of the aforementioned places, you will have to fight the crowds, from buying your subway pass to standing in line to pay entrance fees, to finding a place on the park grass big enough to sit on and close enough to see whatever is being performed.  If you dare to attempt the 4^th of July fireworks in Manhattan, be prepared to stand for many hours literally packed into a solid mass of humanity, unable to take a bathroom break until it’s all over. 

On the other hand, entertainment in Maine is much more subtle, with nature being the most obvious draw.  Clean air, star-filled nights, brilliant white snow, crystal clear lakes, silence so deep it almost hurts to listen – these are the things that make Maine special.  And it comes almost without price.  Hiking can be done nearly anywhere, though designated trails make it easier to reach some of the more well-liked places.  Indeed, even the most popular destinations are relatively deserted with a certain camaraderie obvious among strangers.  Community is very important in Maine, creating unusual entertainment opportunities, such as the Blueberry Festival, Lobster Festival, Pumpkin Harvest Festival, even a Chocolate Festival, each town seeking to find its own niche in unique celebrations.  Some towns, like my own, host more than one celebrations – for us it is the Whoopie Pie Festival and the Annual Homecoming for the local high school.  These festivities bring together most of the townsfolk, providing an opportunity for neighbors to catch up on family news, and new friends to meet.  Other well-attended community events are church suppers and pancake breakfasts, usually hosted as fundraisers by local volunteer organizations or to raise money for an unfortunate family who lost their home in a fire or to help with medical bills.  Pot lucks are another opportunity to get to know the other locals and newcomers usually within one’s own church family, and I will personally vouch for the talent of our local women who cook for these delicious feasts.

Stores are also very different within the 2 localities.  The number of stores in the Big Apple is mind-boggling, with stores almost continuous from one neighborhood to the next.  A person can seemingly buy anything they want in NYC and usually within walking distance (except, of course, some of the basic Maine essentials such as firearms and ammunition, which are illegal there.)  Maine, on the other hand, has very few stores in comparison, and sometimes one has to travel quite a distance to purchase some of the basic clothing necessities, though guns and ammunition are often available locally.  Whereas local stores in NY neighborhoods are small and crowded, with barely enough room for two shoppers to pass without knocking each other over, stores in Maine tend to be large with wide aisles.  Since New York City is home to immigrants from many countries, grocery stores reflect those regional tastes.  The variety of food items to purchase in New York is enormous, though ethnic tastes are not necessarily enjoyed by all, leaving normal purchase choices at a more reasonable level.  As for price, surprisingly, Maine’s staple items that can be stored, such as canned and dried foods, are significantly cheaper here, though for fresh produce, NYC can’t be beat, both for cost and for unsurpassed quality, and I usually stock up when I’m down there.  Another aspect of shopping which shows significant differences is the attitude toward shoppers in the two places.  In Maine, store personnel are friendly and helpful, eager to please and expecting their customers to be basically honest.  However, in the Big Apple, personnel and security carefully watch each shopper, waiting and expecting to see someone try to slip an item into a bag or under a coat.  Even libraries exhibit this paranoia, with drop boxes locked after hours to prevent theft.  This difference alone can make me yearn for my adopted home when I’m there.

Travel is a final obvious area of dissimilarity between metropolitan New York and rural Maine.  Public transportation is the norm in NYC, partly because it is so easily available, and  partly because parking is not.  Public transportation consists of subway or bus or a combination of the two.  Subways are generally loud and often unbelievably crowded during rush hour, when there’s no chance of falling down because of the crush of body against body in the cars.  And subway stations can be really scary places during late off-hours when intimidating characters can be seen leering in your direction and no reinforcements are in sight.  Buses, on the other hand, are unbearably slow, competing with cars on the crowded streets and stopping at almost every street corner to pick up and drop off travelers.  I’m pretty sure one could run faster than a bus travels on an average day, though that would be hard if carrying purchases.  Many New Yorkers do not even own a car, something almost unheard of here in Maine, but there it makes sense.  Owning a car in NYC means trying to find a parking space every time you go somewhere or return home.  Unless you own or rent a garage, parking your car after a hard day’s work could mean driving around and around narrow streets, often parking many blocks from home, especially during alternate-side-of-the-street parking days (which gives the city an opportunity to sweep the dirty streets every week.)  And a driver had better be good at parallel parking – often only a few inches is all the space allotted between cars in order to fit in.  It also means your car could be broken into or stolen, a not uncommon occurrence, especially in some neighborhoods.  If you want to travel to Manhattan, parking there is almost unheard of, so most natives take the subway anyway.  Then there’s rush hour.  Here where I live, rush hour on my road is passing 3 cars on my 5-mile way to town.  There it could take 3 hours just to go that same 5 miles, with stop and go traffic every inch of the way.  In Maine, cars are a necessity, and usually more than one per household.  There is no public transportation, so a vehicle is required to go anywhere, whether to work, stores, church, or just to visit friends.  But at least the roads here are relatively empty and the views while driving are beautiful.  As for parking, most Mainers never even have to parallel park (and most can’t) or look for a parking space when they leave their vehicles.  There’s always plenty to choose from – a far cry from my native New York City.

New York City and rural Maine are very different places but both places I have called home.  Traveling between the two places is as close as mere mortals can come to traveling in two different worlds without ever leaving the boundaries of one’s own country, and I am blessed to have the advantage of being able to slip between these two worlds, almost unnoticed, enjoying the benefits  that each has to offer.  One has the advantages of many big cities but to an exceptional degree; the other is the place I have voluntarily chosen to call home.  Though I enjoy going to the city, both to see the sights (I’ve not yet seen them all) and to see my family, I’m always glad to come home again to Maine, to the peace and quiet and friendliness that a big city cannot provide, no matter how hard it tries.  As the saying goes, Maine – the way life should be, and I personally agree.