Roscoe and the different New Yorks (Barry)
We stayed at Roscoe, population about 600, for two nights, 7th and 8th May. The Reynolds Family Inn and Motel is an early C20th boarding house, which has included Rockefeller and Roosevelt among its guests. There’s a motel by the house – our motel room was comfortable and basic. Roscoe is in the western foothills of the Catskill Mountains – the Catskill region is famed for being the site of the story in which Rip Van Winkle fell asleep for many years.
I said in an earlier post that we should see a broader slice of life on leaving Manhattan for upstate New York and that has turned out to be the case. Of course, we are and can only be tourists here. Every comment I make is qualified by the fact that I am only making immediate impressions. In this case, the two hour bus trip from Manhattan to Roscoe created two main impressions.
Firstly, the region is so green and lush. It’s strange coming from drought-afflicted Australia to see such abundant waterways and green grass and thriving forests everywhere. The other impression is the material poverty of life for ordinary people in this region, or at least those whose homes are visible from the bus along Route 17.
There are small towns such as Liberty and Deposit that seem to be stagnant and, in one place, it was like driving through a movie set of an old dilapidated town frozen in the 1950s. The former businesses and corner stores just seemed to be rotting, the old Coke signs rusting away. The homes of the people are like rectangular wooden boxes with windows. I hate to say it but those we saw – (and in no way am I implying, or can I reasonably imply, that they are typical in any sense) – were also quite sooty.
Perhaps we saw this overt poverty, akin to the stereotypical poor trailer park dwelling community, because it is located near a main highway. But it really did remind us that the glamour and dynamism of New York City is only one of the New Yorks (though no less genuine and real as the unglamorous and disturbing one).
Again, a hasty qualification: we have not really talked much with ordinary people. Many of the houses, including the poor ones, fly the American flag. In some cases, even Old Glory looked dismal and sooty rather than proud and democratic. Why do people marginalized from the benefits of the system fly the flag? The best way to find the answer would be to ask them. I know this only too well as a historian who has done a lot in the field of oral history. Otherwise, one can only speculate – and that will involve drawing on one’s own prejudices, which may or may not be in tune with the particular reality. As tourists, we don’t really seek out such intercourse, nor does it come our way readily.
One thing is for sure, though: capitalism creates vast wealth but the producers do not reap what they have created and the system does not productively use the resources of nature or of the people to the fullest but holds them back. If it did, there would not be structural unemployment (albeit camouflaged often by the welfare state, as in Australia). In New York City, we saw what the collective labour and creative imaginations of humans can achieve – yet there is still poverty (homelessness) in the city too. But in the rural upstate region we travelled through, we saw on one hand vast natural resources – abundant fresh water, fertile land and forests – and on the other human poverty.
I’ll step off the soap-box now to say how genuinely friendly we have found people. The manager of the Reynolds House, Louie, and his girl-friend, Susan, were just wonderful to us. Louie is Peurto Rican and told us he had lived for some years in one of NYC’s ghettoes in the 1990s when drugs and crime were a major problem. He loves the House and Roscoe, has two little dogs that are adored, and is one of the most dynamic and enthusiastic people I’ve ever met. He was very kind to us, going the extra mile by taking us to the local trout fishing pond (where the Willowemoc meets the Beaverkill River) and lending Joey and Hannah his fishing tackle.
We dined at a local pub – or ‘diner’ to use the proper term over here- and the food was, as always, inexpensive and very big servings. I had ‘blackened salmon’ which, to be honest, I didn’t know what to expect. The pub, like Roscoe itself, is visited by many fishermen and deer hunters. Louie has a deer head mounted on a plaque above the corridor of the House. He told us his son hunted it and they all ate the meat over time. By the way, the salmon was just delightful – perfectly cooked after being coated in black pepper.
We had breakfast each morning in the House dining room, which also displayed historical documents about the place. We had a long walk up the hill at the back of the House – there’s a pond in the garden and frogs are common. The walk – or ‘hike’ as Americans say – follows a rough trail. The scenery is beautiful, gentle, inviting, pastel shades, thin elegant trees combined to make thick forest, very unlike the vividness and starkness, and huge gum-trees, of our own bush in Australia.
We asked Louie about wild-life in the area and were slightly daunted when he said there are supposed to be a couple of bears and a puma in the hills. The most common critter is the deer – Joey saw a few wild herds from the bus. It was funny when Louie mentioned the puma – Joey and Hannah looked at each other with a very concerned expression on their faces. The most frightening creature we encountered on the walk was the bumble-bee. Don’t laugh! These are huge, about the thickness of a golf ball (well, slightly less), with a bright yellow band marking around their bodies.
On Friday morning, Louie kindly drove us to the bus stop with all our luggage and we continued the journey to Binghamton. It was sad saying goodbye to him and Susan, but we’ve agreed to keep in touch by email.
So far we’ve found people to be very friendly and even kind and generous. In Roscoe this was the case – but in Binghamton even more so.
I’ll send a Binghamton report soon.
We’re heading back to Manhattan in a couple of hours, so better pack up.
Barry
Tags: Travel
You should have taken a picture of the bumble bee; I would have loved to have seen that!
Dear J,B,J,H,
I’m really enjoying reading about your journey – and have been motivated to re-read my travel books about the US.
I recently read a review of a book by Don Watson called American Journeys – don’t know whether you’ve seen it.
You must be about half way through your holiday – enjoy, in my experience 2nd halves always go faster than 1sts.
Cheers
Carys
Hi Carys,
I was thinking about you the other day, and how different this holiday is to yours in Nepal. It is certainly different to travelling in South America, though I wonder how our kids would go roughing it. We spent quite some time booking our hotels beforehand which has proven to be good. All the hotels have been in good locations and comfortable (considering that we are four in a room). We have spent a fair bit of money but both Barry and I can make claims from our jobs, mine because I am giving a presentation at a conference on Friday (drawing from my Phd) and Barry has been visiting a few heritage places here on behalf of Old Parliament House. Joey has been whinging from time to time but then he will spurt out (without hardly thinking about it) oh I loved L.A. and want to go back there with Sam. He is also liking New York so some consolation. Hannah has been cooperative and generally enjoying the trip, though she hasn’t said a lot as yet. She’s been spending those spare hours in the hotel at night drawing which has been good.
Have you been to the U.S.A. and/or New York – being the veteran traveller that you are? There are obvious cultural differences here though also definite similarities that takes away from the cultural experience.
We’ve spent a lot of time walking around the city in the first four days here but now we have a seven day stretch we are hoping to get into some of the classic sites including museums and landmarks.
Hey, Carys, have you got to look around this site at all. It is worth it there are loads of blogs and some worth looking through – all those real travellers. Earlier when Joey was having a bad day he said to us, oh you’re such tourists you two, such an insult.
take care and best from us, Joan and Barry
PS: Will have a look for the Don Watson book when we return to Australia.
Looks like Leave it to Beaver country!
Hey you guys. What a fantastic trip you’re having. I’ve been reading each days but tonight I decided to reply. Big of me isn’t it? You’ve seen and done some great stuff. Did you manage to get to the Stat of Lib? I can’t remember if you did or didn’t. from your descriptions, the West side of the USA seems different to the East side. The west seems more like australia whereas the east side is more european, would that be a fair opinion? The photos are good and some of the places you’ve stayed in look real swish. Have you been tipping everyone like you’re supposed to? Being an aussie in new york would probably have a sort of celebrity status by the sound of it. It means that people have probably gone out of the way for you. They imagine you’re going to say “That’s not a knife, this is a knife”.
Time to go. Hope the rest of the journey’s as good as the previous.
Ken
I stumbled across this and honestly, its so weird because i had a conversation just yesterday about Liberty, NY with my boyfriend (who recently moved up there and within 1 week got his car broken into & nearly stolen–they took off the steering wheel, realized they didn’t know what to do and then gave up by the looks of it) but the conversation was all about the flag and how everywhere you look, its there, amid the derelict buildings and unemployed citizens, what do they have to be proud of?? They’ve been forgotten! They get support checks of $300/mo. to make sure they don’t die, they realize they can just get by with that and don’t bother to change. I guess its just the mentality that develops in places like that.. Its just odd because most of upstate NY is that, when i hear people talk about New York like its this glamorous place, i wish they realized how gross the majority of the state is. Anyway, it was really interesting to read your experience there! Im glad you took the chance to see all of NY and the difference between the state and the city, i think its rather crazy that my opinion is practically the same as yours, and i only live one state below!
PS. there are totally black bears in NY, i mean, we have them in NJ and theres hardly 1 square mile of woods!
PPS: i should note that when i say NY is gross, I’m referring to the towns, (minus the few which house vacation homes for rich Manhattan-ites). the wildlife and mountains and everything are beautiful.
Thanks for dropping by, Laura. We’re having a great time in New York – in many ways it’s very different to Australia but in other basic ways it’s all so familiar. We’re cultural cousins, I guess. No black bears in Australia, though – but lots of kangaroos! We have drought conditions back home in Canberra and so the kangaroos come down from the bush into the suburbs and city parks in search of water. Tourists love to see them out of their natural environment like that.
Regards,
Barry
Hi Ken,
Just thought I’d respond to some of your questions. See question first and comment – Did you manage to get to the Stat of Lib?
We saw the Statue of Liberty today. It is very close to Ellis Island and we went past on the ferry. I was a bit surprised, after all the times we’ve seen it on the tele it looks so large – but, at least from where we were, it didn’t look so big. It is a beautiful depiction but what does liberty mean in a country where the media is all around you and yet there (appears to be) so little information. Where there is so much material wealth and I’ve heard the basic wage is $6 an hour. The land of contradictions.
The west seems more like australia whereas the east side is more european, would that be a fair opinion?
The way I see it the divide between the east and the west is along the lines of the east and the west in Australia – the east more up market and wealthy and the west the workers, battlers, strivers etc ….
Have you been tipping everyone like you’re supposed to?
Yes, we’ve been tipping and the first couple of times people appeared surprised and happy with what we would have thought was a modest tip – so we’ve got the impression that people don’t expect a large tip. Along the lines of 10 to 15 percent.
Being an aussie in new york would probably have a sort of celebrity status by the sound of it. They imagine you’re going to say “That’s not a knife, this is a knife”.
That’s right Ken, most people know about Autralia and want to hear some more – most of them know about Crocodile Dundee as well as Steve Irwin – and would like to visit Australia.
Glad you’ve liked the blog, we’ve enjoyed writing them and it has given us something to do while we recouperating from those long hours walking around the place – my feet need a rest.
Canberra is looking good – and we are all looking forward to coming home and catching up.
take care and love from us, Joan, Barry and you know whoes ….