Shuffle off, Buffalo

Once again, I'm at the gate 2 hours before my flight. I guess I've got time to grab some munch before the flight, and offer my last thoughts on Buffalo (and Tonawanda, et al.)
Buffalo is a good solid town. I've enjoyed being here. Contrary to expectations, everyone i met was extremely nice, maybe nicer than the average joe back in the sunny south. It's very obvious that this is an area with a long history of hevy insdustry. I've never thought about how the economy of an area impacts the aesthetic, baut I really saw that here. The town is worn around the edges, a little beat up and kind of....gritty. Buildings are close together, the atmosphere bustles without seeming overly tense. It's almost as if the entire area is one big factory. The colorful, homey touches you see in the local restarants and bars remind me of the personal items you invariably see tacked up at work stations on a production line. People go a little out of their way to knock the edge off the hard edged, heavy equipment town. It's a pretty neat place because of the people. There's a sense of pulling together on a small group basis, be it with family or the folks that immediately work together . I think this is the reult of generations of hard daily work and god-awful weather conditions. Survival (and sanity) meant tight knit relationships through months of lake effect snow. It still hangs on.

I did notice some differences in people here. Foul language is much more prevalent and accepted. I found it fairly entertaining at times. People here are generally better drivers. Most of the downtown streets have a double yellow center line but are two lanes wide on each side. The fun thing is that there are no lane dividers, and no real lanes. Traffic organically flows from two wide, back to one around turning and parked cars, with no accidents witnessed in a full week. They also know how to merge with no drama, no wrecks and in very short distances with no disruption to traffic flow. It was refreshing and amazing.

After almost a full week here, I can say I'd love to come back. If the winters weren't so god forsaken, it wouldn't be a half bad place to live. I could be happy here if they could fix that.

But don't come here in the winter.