Home

I was gone for a few days recently. I went home to NY to visit my family for my birthday. My last few trips home have been direct flights. While the Dayton airport is closer to my house, I can get a direct flight out of Cincinnati- which makes the trip easier on my body, since I don't have to schlep through an airport. So I spend about $20 more, drive a little further, and two hours after I get on the plane, I step off in Albany.

The flight was uneventful. I did have a bit of an amusing moment at the security checkpoint. The woman ahead of me appeared to be well-to-do (expensive clothing & jewelry, hair that had that 'just stepped out of the salon' look). She was older; in her late sixties or early seventies. She noticed the full body scanners that Cincinnati recently started using, and asked the TSA agent 'what if I refuse to do that?'. The TSA agent, a burly woman that I wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley, said 'then I'll haul your ass into a private room and strip search you'. I stifled a giggle as the perturbed woman stepped into the scanner.

I always tear up when we land in Albany. I know it's silly. If it has been a particularly long time since I was there, it's an all out cry. This time it was just a few tears welling up in the eyes. Landing in Albany always brings happy tears. Even though Albany isn't 'home'. Home is about an hour east of Albany. Albany is my identifying marker. When people ask where I'm from, and I say 'NY State', Albany is the city I use as a reference. To non-NY'ers, when you say NY, they automatically think NY City. I started telling people 'NY State' and they said 'oh, like Dutchess County?' No- that's still technically NYC. Now I tell people 'Upstate NY'. To that, I get: "Buffalo?" "Syracuse?"

No. 'Near Albany'. People always ask what the name of the town is. As if they know it! There are people in Rensselaer County who do not know where Berlin is (I know this, because as a teenager I was at the Orthodontist in Troy, which is the county seat. The dental tech asked where I lived, and when I told her Berlin, she didn't know where that was. I had to explain it to her, and she was amazed it was in the same county). But still, I tell people Berlin (which is not pronounced like Berlin, Germany. Berlin, NY is pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable). And I am not surprised when people stare at me blankly.

I have started telling them Berlin is in Eastern NY. If you look on a map where the states of NY, VT, and MA meet- if you were to put a pin at that location, that's Berlin. Wikipedia states the town of Berlin is 59.9 square miles and the 2000 census listed 1, 901 residents. When people talk about growing up in a small town of 6000 people, I just chuckle. Berlin is a very rural area. Our school district covers five towns, yet there were only 43 in my graduating class. My sister had 60 in her class, and that was one of the larger classes in many years. Even in times of prosperity throughout the country; Berlin always seems depressed. There were two main employers in town: Cowee's, which made a lot of wood products, and Seagroatt's; which grew roses. Cowee's used to be one of only two places in the world that made the green wooden floral picks used in floral arrangements. They also at one time, made wooden toys for Fisher Price- before wood was replaced by plastic made in China. In the past couple of years Cowee's has significantly reduced its' workforce, and Seagroatt's has shut down.

Berlin is a beautiful area, geographically. It sits in the Taconic Mountain Range, which lie between the Catskills to the south and the Adirondacks to the north. Part of the Appalachian Trail runs through the Taconics. Berlin Mountain (which is known as Macomber by the locals), is the Eastern border of the town. It is the highest peak in the county, and at 2818 feet, is the highest point in NY outside of the Adirondacks or the Catskills.

When you stand in Berlin, you are surrounded by mountains. No matter which direction you look, you see mountains. There are a lot of forests- dark, thick, lush forests full of evergreens, maples, oak, and ferns. Even on the sunniest and brightest day, you can look into the forest and all you see is darkness. There are parts of the forests that probably never see daylight. As you drive down the road, you see the gentle rolling mountains. The peaks are not as prominent and jagged as the Rockies. The Taconics are much older, so centuries of weathering have made them more round than sharp (and you thought I wasn't paying attention in Science class!). It is a very serene place.

I remember taking my ex husband home the first time. He spent all his life in Indiana, which is very flat. To him, the bank that led from the college campus to the Ohio River was a mountain. He was actually freaked out that you could see the shadows of the clouds on the mountains in NY. I had never really noticed it before, but I find it beautiful. I was once again reminded of the difference between the Midwest and the Northeast when I was telling Erich about driving, and as we started down the mountain, we'd shift the car into a lower gear so the engine will hold the car back without wearing out the brakes. He didn't understand the need for it, but for those of us who grew up in NY, it's just a given. You know just the point in the road that you have to gear down. If you gear down too early, the car will come to a stop. Gear down too late, and you've already built up too much momentum. I haven't driven those roads regularly for 15 years, but I still know the exact part of the curve below Old Maid's turn to gear down into low. Erich laughed and said 'I live in Ohio, we don't have to do that!'.

Naturally, with the dense forests and rural nature of Berlin, there is a lot of wildlife. Deer, foxes- sure! How about hanging out in your backyard! I'm talking Bears, Moose, mountain lions. When I was a teenager we had a bear in our garden. And Mom & Dad live in the village. Last year, one of the resident Moose was in the neighborhood (mom & dad weren't home to see it, but their neighbors told them about it).

Berlin is truly a beautiful place, but also a bit sad. There are some beautiful old buildings, but a lot are dilapidated too. The town used to be a railroad stop, and had quite a bit of industry. In my lifetime, it has been more of a 'has-been', which only seems to have gotten worse in the past few years. I noticed this time when I was home that there would be a house that was abandoned (or a barn, or some other structure), and the trees were already covering it. I imagine in another few years the earth will have claimed these places, and you will never know anything stood there. In urban areas, when you have vacant or abandoned buildings, it is a blight, an eyesore. But in the country, the grass will grow up first, then weeds will grow from the high grass, then trees will sprout, and the forest will reclaim the land. All that will be left are the memories of those who remember when this house or that store stood there. Oh, I'm sure any metal will leech into the earth, it's not a completely green process. And it does not happen instantly. The places that are forests now were wide open fields when my grandfather was a boy in the 1920s. But I was amazed at places that I remember from my youth; which now stand covered with trees. The process has already started. There was something very poetic about the whole thing.

Every time I go home, I tell myself I need to take pictures of the area. Then I get so busy doing things with the family, seeing all the people I need to see, that I run out of time. I must make an effort in October to take time and take pictures. We may have been hicks or hillbillies, but I was truly blessed to grow up in such a beautiful, natural place.