Over the Verrazano Bridge

I'm from Staten Island. I never thought I'd say that. If you asked me 20 to 25 years ago I would say I'm from Brooklyn but I live in Staten Island. And basically once you get to know me you find out that I've been back and forth over the Verrazano Bridge from Bay Ridge Brooklyn to the South Shore of Staten Island many times. I'm back here in Staten Island now for about 7 years and I never thought I would prefer Staten Island over Brooklyn, but I do. What I'd really prefer is a small house "down the Jersey Shore". I can dream, can't I?

Minus the 4 years we lived in Long Island, half my life has been spent living in Bay Ridge and the other in Staten Island. Bay Ridge is still a great place to live, like a little Manhattan, you can walk everywhere in certain neighborhoods and find restaurants and bars all over the place. Parking is hell. Ask anyone who lives there, there's lots of big beautiful homes on Shore Road with long driveways and garages, but then there's also large apartment buildings, you can spend hours looking for a parking space. My ex, Peter Pan, you might know him? Well he lived there for a couple of years, got so many parking tickets for just parking wherever he wanted because he didn't have the patience to look for a parking space for hours.

I couldn't stand Staten Island when we first moved here. Called it "Static Island". Brooklyn gave me so much more freedom, not that I was doing anything wrong, but I could walk everywhere I needed to go or ride the bus if it wasn't within walking distance. In Staten Island there weren't too many places to go and if you did want to walk anywhere, there weren't and still aren't sidewalks in certain areas. But eventually I found friends in the area, while working at a local Burger King. They introduced me to the wilds of Staten Island and the Jersey Shore and I introduced them to Bay Ridge. My friend Karen and I shared our first apartment in Bay Ridge but we both eventually moved back to our homes in Staten Island. I moved back again, over the Verrazano Bridge and lived there again for about 7 years or so, and as much as I enjoyed certain parts of being back in Bay Ridge, I found I missed quite a few things about Staten Island.

It may be crowded on Staten Island, but there are beautiful parks everywhere, and quiet roads where I can ride my bike and there's no cars around. And not as much as it was when I first moved here but I still see someone ride by on a horse every once in a while.

The sounds at night are different. When Molly and I moved to Brooklyn, she kept me up nights more than the sounds of the busses and people walking by, even though we were six stories up, it sounded like it was right out the window, we both eventually got used to it, but I noticed once we moved back to Staten Island, she was a little calmer, yes older, but she got used to the new sounds quicker, the crickets at night, hardly a car going by and no one walking home from a neighborhood bar yelling at 3 or 4 in the morning, big difference.

Maybe it's because I'm older. Your perspective changes on everything. But I realize how beautiful it was when we first moved out here, when I always saw people riding by on horses, rabbits in the woods behind my house which had no fence blocking the view, walking the snowy empty streets to hang out with my friends when we couldn't drive in bad weather.

Everyone used to cruise down Hylan Boulevard, again in my late teens, early 20s, and there were no houses, the Conference House, a historical landmark was right behind us but I never looked back, didn't care about the history of Staten Island or Brooklyn at that time, now the history of everywhere, everyone intrigues me. I may not be able to afford to travel to all the places I would like to but the internet has opened up a world of information and pictures of places and people I have an interest in. I read a book and will look up an area they mention or an historical place or character when reading or watching a movie. So much information out there at the touch of my fingertips!

I love history. Love watching the History Channel and other channels like it. Yesterday I watched a show about Benjamin Franklin. I've always missed the beginning or the end of this show and yesterday again just caught parts of it, but he was an amazing man, he created the US postal system and the first circulating libraries in the US. He invented, among other things, bifocal glasses, a wood stove. He never took a patent on any inventions so that other people could benefit from his inventions. He assisted with the drafting of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. He was America's first ambassador to France. He owned and franchised many of his printing presses, a concept unheard of before him. A great American.

I watched the HBO special on John Adams. You can rent the series if you didn't catch it. Another amazing founding father, President of the United States, a great American. A man who listened to, needed and cherished the opinions of his wife, what a man! Especially during that era. The movie is based on a book of letters that John and his wife shared, she was a founding mother.

So yesterday I went out to take pictures of the fall foliage, not as advanced here as it is upstate plus the crazy weather we're having, but it's getting there and some of the pretty sights right outside my own front door. I also drove out to the Conference House, my first time after all the years I have lived here.

Just one of the many stops along Hylan Boulevard by the water where you can pull over and see Sandy Hook in New Jersey.












From Wikipedia:
Peace Conference held at Staten Island Conference House.
On September 11, 1776, Lord Howe, commander in chief of British forces in America, met with representatives of the Continental Congress in a peace conference to try and end the American Revolution. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge rowed over from patriot-held Perth Amboy, New Jersey. The meeting lasted for three hours and ended with the Americans politely declining Howe's offer, leading to another seven years of conflict.


When I was at the Conference House it was surreal. Standing where Benjamin Franklin and John Adams stood. I looked at the trees, huge trees surrounding the house and wondered if they were there from long ago?



They arrived from Jersey, it's so close you could swim to Perth Amboy, NJ from that point in Staten Island.



Amazing history on Staten Island, the land and the people. There are still quiet beautiful winding roads, surrounded by the greenbelt, for miles, and you can walk the trails. Historic Richmond Town too, that's my next venture, I only went there for a party, held in restaurant that had been an old home restored, but I don't know that it is one of the homes restored from the 18th century.

I love learning about so many things these days, I wish I was like this when I was in school, so much wasted time!

Here's some of my fall foliage shots from this weekend and the Conference House...just over the Verrazano Bridge.