Reasons I Love My Neighborhood, #1
I have recently experienced several moments of sudden emotion regarding my neighborhood. (My apartment is just on the other side of the big red building in the upper left of the photo. That building is a hospital. The railway in the foreground is the Metro North train that goes to CT and Upstate) I think i love it. It feels like a great privilege to live in such an historic neighborhood, one with rich and influential history, and a history that is tremendously significant in the lives of immigrants and black folk. I use that phrase reluctantly. It's a phrase that would be used around here, but i'm becoming less satisfied with "race" delineations such as "black" "white" "latino" "hispanic." They are really quite poor categories for humans, especially American humans who are well aware of the heterogeneity of ancestry. My thinking on this is undoubtedly influenced by living with a PhD student in Anthropology who is the daughter of two Latino immigrants: a Cuban and a Dominican, who are themselves decendants of Spanish colonists to the Carribean.
A friend and colleague who is a Brit was discussing recently what she considers the strange phenomenon of tracing geneologies and for an American to say, "I'm Italian" or "Irish" or "Indian" when the person was born in the States. "My dad is from Ireland, but I am British," she said. "I don't get this 'I'm from such-and-such' when you're born in America."
But i'm digressing.
Why I Love My Neighborhood, Reason #1:
On my way home today, i stopped in the dollar store by the express stop at 125th street.
For less than $4.50, I purchased:
3 pairs of cloth Mary Jane shoes (white, blue & red)
1 very fragrant candle
1 bag of mint M&M's
1 Under-the-counter light to go over our kitchen sink.
Less than $4.50
On Manhattan Island.
A friend and colleague who is a Brit was discussing recently what she considers the strange phenomenon of tracing geneologies and for an American to say, "I'm Italian" or "Irish" or "Indian" when the person was born in the States. "My dad is from Ireland, but I am British," she said. "I don't get this 'I'm from such-and-such' when you're born in America."
But i'm digressing.
Why I Love My Neighborhood, Reason #1:
On my way home today, i stopped in the dollar store by the express stop at 125th street.
For less than $4.50, I purchased:
3 pairs of cloth Mary Jane shoes (white, blue & red)
1 very fragrant candle
1 bag of mint M&M's
1 Under-the-counter light to go over our kitchen sink.
Less than $4.50
On Manhattan Island.
posted by ceciliabrie at
7:38 PM
2 Comments:
wow. i am amazed at your ability to get that much for so little! love you.
By
micah, at 1:33 PM
a bag of mint m&m's that your roommate ate many many many of.
By
Christine Folch, at 3:24 PM
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