| Page Views: 13,828 Last Visit to Rochester: 1999 | ~Rochester...My Original Home Town~ by Michael_D - last update: Jan 1, 2008 |
Rochester,,,I barely knew ya.... | Im hoping this is just New Years LOL |
In the 1950s/60s/70s Rochester was a great place to make a living. Kodak, Xerox, Bausch and Lomb, French's Mustard are all ORIGINAL Rochester companies,,,then the most prosperous city in Western New York.
Sadly, according to friends who still work at Kodak and Xerox, most of the above companies have expanded elswhere, downsized locally and left Rochester somewhat in a void from what I am told. One of those friends expects to be booted from Kodak after 28yrs and is now making plans to move to Florida. Will the last person leaving Rochester please turn out the lights?LOL
There are some good memories. Ill try to cover a few of the highlights in and around Rochester-called the Lilac Capital because of its huge Highland Park and many surrounding parks.
In a USA TODAY article recently :
-Rochester (-18.5%)
-Buffalo (-21%)
are 4th and 5th nationally in number of people leaving American cities for the sunbelt over the past 20 years. Not surprising, since upstate New York nieghbors
#1-Syracuse
#2-Buffalo
#3-Rochester
topped the list of places with the most snow in America averaging around 88 inches a year. You have to be tough to live in Rochester.;-) NOT trying to be a bad guy...just quoting the f-a-c-t-s;-)
I visited Rochacha this summer and some things have changed! Eastview Mall is now THE BIG mall, the War Memorial is now Blue Cross Arena. There is STILL Schallers and Tom Wahls but more Importantly Nick Tahou's is still there and they actually remembered me after being away 35 years!
Though Ive lived places like London, St Petersburg Russia and Barcelona intermittently..Ive been in Florida 25 years now. I loves my Florida and plan to stay put!;-)
*Many pictures here are courtesy of Rocpic, a site that has unparalelled quality pictures of Rochester via its POD(Picture of the Day)and is the best Rochester experience imagineable via the sites webcams. See it at WWW.ROCPIC.COM
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|  | What aint snow,,,is rain. This pic was taken July 14, 2003. I remember one year before I left for Cornell, I had Thurs and Sun off when I worked at Eastview Mall and it rained EVERY Thurs and Sunday for FOUR months (and some of the Mon/Tues/Wed/Fri/Sat's too LOL.)
I kept this picture of Monroe and Oxford St near Blessed Sacrement church because its my old nieghborhood and its how I remember Rochester overcast and precip of some sort. Somehow I find it comforting. There is a webcam at ROCPIC.com that has 3 Monroe Ave webcams.
I still have 2 MHS friends(Chuck DeGaugh and Shelly Austin Zuck) here and though BOTH live in the suburbs;-P, I found my old nieghborhood Swillberg to be much improved and South Wedge as well. |
Just some Rochester humor You know you're from Rochester, NY when:
The thought of eating a "garbage plate" makes your mouth water.
The only thing at the annual May Lilac Festival is snow.
The worst four-letter is "Fuji".
Soccer games have better attendance than baseball games.
The name "Greater Rochester International Airport" is bigger than the airport itself.
There's an 800 number to report a potholes.
You know that a "Can of Worms" is not about fishing.
Your baby's first word... "Wegmans".
You ask lifetime residents where the George Eastman House is...they don't know either.
In a city where it snows 90 inches a year, they build a new sports stadium with no roof on it.
Your low-fat diet isnt low enough to exclude Abbot's custard.
You can travel from Egypt to Greece in about a half hour by car.
D&C is a newspaper, not a medical procedure.
You can find a metered parking spot downtown in Christmas shopping season.
You can accurately judge peoples their social status by which Wegmans store they shop at.
You can go to any mall on Saturday and see at least 5 people you either work with, went to school with or dated.
The new line of spring fashions to hit the stores is actually comprised of leftovers from the 1991 line in NYC.
A musical comes to town 10 years after its Broadway premiere and the entire town goes nuts! (ex. Miss Saigon) and CATS is just opening in 2004!!!!!!!!!!!
You take out-of-town friends or colleagues to the airport during "rush hour" and they can't get over the fact that you don't hit a single red light or come to a complete stop the entire way.
You have to make a "road trip" to see any kind of Division I intercollegiate competition or major league sport.
Wegmans is a somewhere to go on a Friday night, for entertainment.
You define summer as three months of bad sledding.
Your idea of a seven-course meal is a six pack of Genny Light and a bucket of Buffalo wings.
You have experienced frostbite and sunburn in the same week.
Half the change in your pocket is Canadian, eh.
Half the television channels you get are Canadian, eh.
From May to October there is a festival every weekend celebrating a different fruit, vegetable, or agricultural product.
You know you're from Rochester when the ushers at your church look like the cast of the Sopranos.
You know you're from Rochester when your entire high school is employed at the same Wegmans. | | |
> Add to your Custom Travel Guide [What's This?]
| Pros: | "summers are nice(all 10 weeks of it)" | | Cons: | "its cold and harsh(the weather is bad too lol)" | | In A Nutshell: | "You have to be tough to live in Rochester" |
Michael_D's Rochester Travel Tips
 Comments for Michael_D about Rochester | | | | |
Maria250 Mon Jan 21, 2008 19:47 UTC
But that's some good "Rochester news"!! Btw didn't get what that means about Wegman? And love back at ya! | nixca316 Tue Mar 13, 2007 14:43 UTC
It's great to learn about your "original" hometown. Yes, I've read about it before, but you made it more interesting. Oh, and thanks for the birthday greetings. =) | globetrott Sun May 29, 2005 15:21 UTC
an interesting page and place, and the home of Mr. Kodak ... | jamiesno Sat Jan 1, 2005 13:01 UTC
Michael I didn't realize that Rochester was that big a city but your tips are great, your intro was great too, sad to see any city or region declining as you have described Rochester, Happy New Year :-) |
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