Y buffalo?

(I delivered my second speech today. Right up front I need to apologize to my good friend Donna who never really asked me this question. I played Vanna a little, gesturing to whatever picture on my Y that corresponded to where I was in my speech.)

This is how it went more or less.

In the fall of '88, over coffee, I delivered the news to my friend, Donna, that my husband, Bill, had accepted a new position within his company and that we would be transferring from our Chicago suburb to Buffalo, NY. Why Buffalo? She asked.

I seemed to get this reaction from everyone when I shared our news.

I had no preconceived notions about Buffalo. I didn’t know then that Buffalo had such a bad reputation regarding the weather or such a lagging economy. I was sad to leave friends and family behind in Illinois but also excited for a change.
A few days before Thanksgiving Bill and I flew to Buffalo to house hunt. We left a few days later with our offer accepted on a new home.

On Jan 1st, 1989, a brand new year, we loaded up the car with our 6 year old son, Jay, our parakeet, Poindexter, our stripy yellow kitten, Ribbons perched atop the birdcage and we shuffled off to Buffalo.

So now I’ve had nearly 22 years to reflect on Donna’s question. Why Buffalo, indeed?

Well for one thing.....Buffalo has affordable housing, less traffic and easy access to the places we want to go. (I just realized that is three things, isn't it?)

In Chicago we owned a two bedroom raised ranch with vinyl siding on a single lot. Everywhere we went we had to drive…sometimes in unbearable traffic. (This part made me sad to write because I adored our house in Roselle.)
In Buffalo we were able to afford this charming two story brick Tudor in Williamsville. Not only did we now have three bedrooms instead of two, three bathrooms instead of two, we also had a family room and an office - all situated on a wooded double lot. Just a few houses down from us on the same side of the street we have a public park with a wading pool where our son spent many happy hours playing. Two more beautiful public parks are located on Main Street alongside Ellicott Creek. All the shopping you could need or want and wonderful restaurants are just blocks away within easy walking distance from our house in the village.
If I drive west I can be downtown in the city in ten to twenty minutes depending on traffic. If I drive east I can be out in the country in the same amount of time.

Something else I’ve discovered about Buffalo. Not only are the restaurants wonderful but there are lots of things to do and places to see. For its size Buffalo has an amazing amount of theaters. There is of course the elegant refurbished Sheas. I’ve had seasons tickets there for a number of years. We recently lost Studio Arena but still have Irish Classical, Musical Fare, Alleyway, The Kavinoky and Shakespeare in Delaware Park among many others.

There is a lot of talent and many musical venues in Buffalo. My own son formed a metal band called Bullet vs Eye when he was in high school and played at some of these venues. He abandoned the band when he went to college and they reorganized and renamed themselves It Dies Today. They went on to record a number of CDs on the Trustkill label and toured worldwide. Some of my favorite musical talents that became successes are (well, of course the Buffalo Philharmonic),the Goo Goo Dolls and Ani DiFranco. Ani purchased and restored the church at the corner of Delaware and Tupper thus saving a landmark and creating another musical venue.

We have incredible architecture designed by some of the most famous architects in the history of the United States including Louis Sullivan, HH Richardson and Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright, himself, called the Darwin Martin House his opus. The Buffalo parks system was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted who is considered to be the father of landscape architecture. I think City Hall designed and built by the John W Cowper Company is one of the most impressive building I’ve ever seen.

We have a major league football team, the Bills, a major league hockey team, the Sabres, and a minor league baseball team, the Bisons. Granted the Bills aren’t doing so well this season but I’ve experienced the high of having our Buffalo Bills go to the Superbowl four times since I’ve lived here.

We also have one of the seven wonders of the world, Niagara Falls, just minutes away from us and a whole other country right across the border that we can visit, eh?


And now a word about the weather. You can't talk about Buffalo without talking about the weather.

It’s true we have had snow up to the rooftops and I once had to spend a night sleeping under my desk at work because I couldn't make it home in a snowstorm. The surprise October ice storm had to be the worst weather I’ve ever experienced. But the coldest winter and the hottest summer I’ve ever lived through were not here in Buffalo. They were in Chicago. I can recall waiting outside for a bus to take me to the train station in 15 to 25 degrees below zero, the wind howling and snow piled up nearly as deep as in Buffalo. I can also recall a summer of suffering through several weeks of temps well above 100 degrees and high humidity when Jay was a baby. We spent a lot of time at the public pool that summer. I think our lovely summers make up for any cold, snowy weather we experience here in Buffalo during the winter. As I have said I didn't know what to expect when we moved to Buffalo.
So Buffalo…..In the words of Ani DiFranco, one of your hometown girls,
I've got
no illusions about you
and guess what?
I never did
when I said I'll take it
I meant as is
I’ve enjoyed Buffalo…as is. Now when anyone asks me Why Buffalo?

I think of all that Buffalo has to offer, why Buffalo is meritorious(I added that line on the fly because the word of the day was meritorious and I wanted to work in into my speech)

I reply Y Not (big arm gesture to my Y prop)



These props I set out as I came to that part of the speech



they were my cheat sheets but never actually had to use them

So this speech went rather well and I don't even want to think about about the next one for a bit. I was not very productive in the morning because I was worried about speaking and not very productive in the afternoon because I had a hard time unwinding and coming down from my high. I also gave a little ASWA recruitment speech at our staff meeting earlier in the day and then offered to repeat the joke that was told in our staff meeting at our Toastmasters meeting when the humorist failed to show. After work I had a ASWA board meeting where I shared my ideas. When I came home I had to do a lot of blogging and Facebooking to unwind.