SCOOP: Stamford can be a tough place to love if you don't know where to look.
MY TAKE: It took me nine years to like Stamford. I only thought about what it didn’t have: coffee shops that weren’t Starbucks, easy to find live music on a regular basis, and beautiful places to walk. I need other people to like Stamford sooner. If it takes five years, they might leave, depriving me of people to have fun with. I need this town to rock my world.
Fairfield County northern-ized me. I stopped talking to strangers. I started driving like a bitch, not letting people go in front me. I hated who I had become. I let this area teach me to ignore the people around me, but I want to change that. 140,000 people live and work here. This site will be a great excuse to approach all the interesting-looking characters I have felt too shy and disconnected to talk to. I'm devoting myself to finding and reporting on the live music, good public parks, and eccentric events like contra dancing, and get back to you. Seriously, I want to do-si-do.
VERDICT: I’ll do some “research”- tonight it’s karaoke at Bobby V’s- and get back to you.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Why a Blog About Stamford?
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3 comments:
I, too, have lived here in Stamford for five years, and have found myself equally frustrated that it seems like a barren, empty place when it comes to fun things to do. I didn't even get trick-or-treaters at my townhouse door in downtown Stamford! It's like a ghost town downtown on Halloween! Now that I have a toddler, I feel like my world is opening up because I am discovering all sorts of places thanks to other moms. I know that kiddie activities are not the focus of this blog, but I gotta mention a few of my favorites: Stamford Museum and Nature Center (cool live animals, a playground in the shade, a cute little otter, and a museum and lots of hiking trails for you kidless folk!). Also gotta mention Mill River Park and playground--it's a mega playground with performances at 10am on Saturdays in the summer. Bring your left over bread and feed the geese for some real fun (oh wait, we're probably not supposed to be feeding the wild animals!!).
I spent my first 2 years in shell shock-culture shock what ever. I, after 30 years, still find Stamford, somewhat disquieting. There was a lesson I learned in my 3 year here that help me. I was in a company that sent teams of people to different parts of the country for jobs. I was in one that landed me in Huntington, West VA with a bunch of Stamfordites. I loved it, went out to the local eateries and all night truck stops, enjoy the people while all my compatriots stayed inside the hotel and thought I was crazy. At the end of 2 months on the job in the day and enjoying the town at night, I realized how much they missed. It helped my attitude and then it helped my actions. I decided somewhere after that to stop rushing around, running through red lights, getting crazy about what everyone else was doing (that took me some time to get back). I decided I was going to be me and not what these other people had become. If you had ever met an original person from Stamford, you would know they were friendly and laid back and knew how to have some fun.
I do think the manic aggressive attitude we see a lot in Stamford is from the people who have moved here... the people who can afford to live here because of their high-powered jobs. That's a generalization of course, but like you said, if you go to other parts of the country (ah, Virginia, I miss you so much), life is slower, and not in a bad way.
It sounds like you made the most on Huntington- that's awesome, and is definitely the way to live life.
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