Binghamton, New York—My Hometown, A Cut Above by James Pratt

By James Pratt

Binghamton, My home town. The other day I was at the Barber and he said that he would move out of the area if he didn’t have a business. He said that there were no jobs in the area. This rubbed me the wrong way and I countered that there are tons of jobs and a rich history of the area. I mentioned Dicks Warehouse advertising for 400 jobs and many in the Hospitals and Colleges.

I would like to list a few positive points for living in the Triple Cities.

While it is true that Binghamton has lost population to half of what it was in the heyday of 1950, the area’s of Vestal, Endwell and Endicott have gained population. The total population of Greater Binghamton and suburbs is 200,600.

This area supports many Sports teams, Choral groups, Our own Opera Company, and Orchestra’s all of which enriches our lives and our community.

We have four Over the Air Television Stations and a World Class Hybrid Fiber/Coax Cable System with high speed internet.

Our Religious Community comprises of many beautiful Churches with Calendar’s full of Suppers and Festivals.

We have Three Colleges, one is a Major University. We have a rich History of Inventor’s such as Edwin Link whose “Link Trainer” was used to train pilots in World War II.

Writer Rod Serling whose achievements have made our area famous worldwide. Rod said this about his hometown. “Everyone has to have a hometown, Binghamton’s mine. In the strangely brittle, terribly sensitive makeup of a human being, there is a need for a place to hang a hat, or kind of geographical womb to crawl back into, or maybe just a place that’s familiar because that’s where you grew up. When I dig back through my memory cells, I get one particularly distinctive feeling and that’s one of warmth, comfort and well-being. For whatever else I have had, or lost, or will find, I’ve still got a hometown. This, nobody’s gonna take away from me.” – Rod Serling.

I point all of this out to make us think positively about the Triple Cities. Our community is rich on many levels.

We have Three Major Hospitals with many Satellite offices.

Great Restaurants and a diverse population due to immigrants of many nations. Many of these immigrants worked for Endicott Johnson Shoes and supplied the War effort with boots. Endicott Johnson gave our area six Carousels which is more than any other area in the world.

We have the Kopernik Space Education Center, Roberson Museum, Bundy Museum, Phelps Mansion Museum and the Discovery Museum.

Many naysayers usually list the weather or jobs for moving on to other states. We enjoy the four season’s which includes winter. Our area of the country has a moderate temperate climate which is wonderful because we don’t have extreme heat or Cold.

Here is a link to a webpage that I include in the many websites that I maintain www.stny.info. This webpage has many links to local Activities, Schools, Businesses, Churches, Sports, Arts and Theatre.

Links to The Southern Tier of New York & Environs

I would like to hear from other members of the Community to post positive uplifting messages. We have all heard the negatives, I want to hear positives. I will be posting this message on the wall’s of many groups in order to get a wide range of responses.

NOTE:   This article was originally posted by James Pratt on November 2^nd, 20170 on Facebook’s ‘Historic Binghamton,’ a public group with nearly 9.500 members. Reposted here with permission of the author.