I remember having these arguments in yeshiva about why Brooklyn wasn’t really the best place in the world, as you can imagine people from Brooklyn have a lot of pride and I would constantly have to stand up for the city of Rochester (despite the fact that I myself was from New York City) Now, I do know that Brooklyn is an awesome place, the frum neighborhoods kind of blow – but if you check out Cobble Hill, Park Slope, Ditmas Park and Dumbo – you will find cool and hip neighborhoods with all the amenities of Manhattan. The arguments really centered on the fact that in Rochester – “there was nothing to do”.
A few weeks ago I was eating at someone’s house Friday night, also at the meal were 5 girls from Lakewood on a road trip and they were asking the host what there was to do after shabbos, after naming off all of the possibilities – the girls were still not satisfied and they asked in half horror if there was a pizza store of sorts in the neighborhood. It turns out that when frum people tell you there’s nothing to do – they really mean there’s no kosher pizza store or the like – that is open late.
I can see this phenomina first hand at the restaurant I work at – it is the only kosher place for miles and one of the former chefs told me that Jews in the restaurant tended to spend 1.5 to 2 times as much time eating and hanging out as normal restaurants, I told him that was because most of these folks wouldn’t be going out to a show or bar after dinner and that they needed to get the most bang for their buck.
In Rochester we had no kosher place to eat and this translated to nothing to do, the Lakewood girls basically equated no kosher pizza store with nothing to do on a Saturday night….
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Hesh, Did the Lakewood girls know who you are ?
A bit off topic. But, is it me, or do kosher pizza places cook their pizza too hot?
I always thought you were the type to hang out with girls from Lakewood.
Heshy’s new video: Lakewood Girls Gone Wild
What There is to Do in Frummy Brooklyn (high school version)
(1) eat pizza- oops, not allowed
(2) hang out on any central avenue- also forbidden- and basically just stand around trying to look cool and hot and not-bored even though you’re just standing around with the same people with little variation
(3) bowling (edge of frumville)- also banned
(4)- movies (also bordering frumville)- forbidden
(5) sit home, either alone or with friends, and whine about how there’s nothing to do
(6) get stared at when you mention that there are other forms of entertainment nearby, but since none of them ever take your suggestion to go to downtown Brooklyn or manhattan, you have no sympathy for them
What there is to do in Scranton
(1) Go to WalMart and make a huge chillul Hashem (personal favorite)
(2) Movies-Chairem forbidden
(3) sit home, either alone or with friends, and whine about how there’s nothing to do
(4) Repeat 3 over and over again
(1) FTW! But I dothis in pharmacies. To this day, a certain pharmacy bears a sign that states “no children under 16 may enter without their legal guardian” because of my friends and I having way too much fun there when we were 14. I shepp such nachas when I see it 🙂 There’s only one pharmacy chain I haven’t been kicked out of yet- Duane Reade.
Marry me.
Hold on- we haven’t even met! Don’t we have to exchange The Deep Dark Secrets first?
Lol. That wasn’t an actual marriage proposal. When do you want your hat? What night works for you?
Phew! I was worried about my transient youth being abruptly ended 🙂
erm, around the holidays or Chol Hamoed? What’s good for you?
Pretty much anytime as long as it’s at night or a Sunday. There has got to be a better forum to coordinate this though.
Really anytime works for me as long as it’s either at night or a Sunday. Btw, there has to be a better forum for coordinating this.
Heshy,
you should have taken them to a Gay Pride parade in SF.
There’s plenty to do in Brooklyn–Botanical Gardens, Lefferts House, Prospect Park, Audubon Center, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Aquarium, Prospect Park Zoo, ferry and park in DUMBO, horseback riding, Floyd Bennett Field…
Spoken like an open-minded person. Most people honestly believe that life is eating pizza. I once suggested to the complainers that they not eat out for a month and let me give them suggestions (not my friends- just can’t stand by when others claim to be bored). I had your ideas, but I personally thought they were more the comedy-club types…didn’t go over well…
People from New York City always love to constantly talk about how it’s so awesome, even though it’s kind of a dump. Baltimore is much better.
As someone who has lived in both places, you are off your mind! I’ll grant you that NYC is not the CENTER of the universe, as so many New Yorkers are want to believe, but its not a DUMP. I grew up in Park Slope… and we have an AWFUL LOT of movie stars living there for a “dump.”
Now, as for Baltimore, or as my FPS friends call it, “Kill-i-more,” that may not be the worst city to live in America, but it certainly isn’t BETTER than NYC. It’s alright, but access to amenities like open parks, farmer’s markets, and general aesthetics of the city are not on par. Though, there is some kick-ass kosher butcher somewhere in there. I hear good things…
I went to Manhattan a while back and it’s by far the most polluted city I’ve been to in the United States. Everyone there was really rude. And everything there was ridiculously expensive. I can’t really comment on Brooklyn though because the only part of Brooklyn I’ve been to was Coney Island.
This past summer I was working near Washington and visited Baltimore when I was up there. It seemed a lot nicer than New York City.
Anywho, if you’re looking for places to go for shidduch dates, there’s a site mikomos.com that has some good suggestions for some areas, including Brooklyn. Unfortunately there’s no information for Orlando, so that doesn’t really help me.
I be to differ, Heshy! Rochester has Abba’s Pizza, a rather potent butcher shop, people to eat at the houses of, libraries, the free bathroom place, silly gourmet grocery stores, AND parks. Along with half a dozen minyanim. Best place in Upstate to be a baal teshuva/convert, I know.
Hannie…….is that short for Hot Channie??
No. It’s short for Hannah. >:(
ha!
HA! I got called “Hannie,” and “Channah-leh” but I never knew another Hannie. HOWDY! 🙂
Rochester did not have Abba’s Pizza when Heshy was there (or even when I was there, frankly). It’s very new. And I would hardly call Lipman’s “something to do”. Also, what’s this “free bathroom place”? This interests me. Is it anything like the Charmin bathroom in NYC? Cuz that place rocks the cookie.
Barnes and Nobles. They have “free” magazines, too!
Abba’s Pizza is pretty darn good. They aren’t open on motzei shabbos, as far as I know.
If “free bathroom” means “there are public restrooms available” I have some news – it isn’t just Rochester that has free public restrooms in, say, grocery stores. Its the whole country outside NYC! There are also public restrooms in gas stations (often yucky) and public libraries and in Starbucks too!
The Pittsford Barnes and Noble also has a Starbucks thing, which allows for shidduch dates AND loitering.
RIT Barnes and Nobel has Starbucks too
It’s not on the bus line, though.
I’m using this article as inspiration to write about the same topic for Thornhill in Canada. (Just north of Toronto)
Um, Thornhill has tons to do! You could get high at Mac’s. You could get high at an open house. You could get high at Starbucks. You could get high at…
One of the people my wife and I most respect is an elderly man who does not allow the “B” word in his house.
Why? A story goes with it.
A few years ago he was visiting relatives in a part of Eastern Turkey so far up in the mountains I think they only get daylight twice a week by mule train.
After a few days of enjoying family togetherness he got pretty sick of it and said “Oh God, I am bored! Anything for some excitement!”
The words were barely out of his mouth when there was a knock at the door. It was the police. It seems a couple German tourists had been robbed. They didn’t speak any Turkish. Nobody in the village spoke any German. But he and they both spoke English, so he got drafted to translate.
He spent three days in a rickety old police Fiat unsuccessfully chasing the robbers – who had the tourists’ German Driving Machine – over mountain roads that were only called “paved” by courtesy.
Since then he will never say he’s bored. There’s always a chance Someone will hear that prayer and decide your life needs to be a little more exciting.
Of course, that’s nothing compared to another good friend. When he was a little child he prayed for adventures. Oh did the gods ever deliver on that one. In spades….