Tuesday, November 24, 2009  A Small Town  When I tell people up
here in Central New York that I’m from a small town of about
77,000 people, they just look at me funny. There’s no way that
77,000 people is a small town. Fabius, with only 1974 people, is
a small town. East Orange is not.  But you have to consider
where East Orange is. In addition to telling people that I’m
from a small town, I also tell them that I grew up 20 minutes
from New York City – at 2.00 in the morning, when there’s no
traffic. Compared to Newark with 281,000 people, Jersey City
with 242,000, Elizabeth with 124,000, and of course the 8
million people across the river in NYC, East Orange was a small
town.  Then there’s size. Neighboring Newark was 26 square
miles. Nearby West Orange was 12, and Montclair was 6. East
Orange was barely 4 square miles. I could walk it from end to
end in less than an hour, and since I was usually on a bike, it
took even less time. While it’s true that you could fit the
entire population of Fabius into my old