Christmas Carols
Why is Owego, NY the coolest small town in America? A walk that should take five minutes to John's Fine Foods takes over an hour because you meet eleven different acquaintances/friends on the way there and on the way back ... A December stroll through downtown, with dog in tow, leaves you lamenting the choice of living in the Northeast, until you hear three schoolboys
performing Christmas carols with saxophone, clarinet, and trumpet in front of the Goat Boy ... The enviable ability to walk to the doctor's office and also to your friendly pharmicist's ... The weekly jaunt over to Tioga Trials to savor the best chicken sandwich ever, and to follow it up with a movie at one of Tioga Theatre's three screening venues ... The family excursion down Front St. - all the way to Grandma's house (a mere 4/5 blocks west) - and a July swim in the backyard pool, just 50 yards from the beautiful Susquehanna ... The close of October, mask on and microphone in hand, scaring van loads of trick-or-treaters as they make their way up and down the Front and Main Street corridor ... Taking the kids sledding on a Sunday afternoon, in sub-zero temperatures, to the Hickories Park ... Reveling in the smile of a six year old as he makes his first basket on a Saturday morning at the pee-wee basketball clinic at the Tioga County Boy's and Girl's Club... And perhaps best of all, driving the three minutes to work (give or take 30 seconds), work that should never be considered "work," as I get to teach (and learn from) the coolest kids in America - the students at OFA. We have lived in a number of cities throughout this country (and others) and would never choose to raise our children anywhere else. I would be remiss if I did not say that the people of Owego, the coolest little small town in America, are second to none.
