"Where do you live?" feels like a good starting question for a weblog based on a particular location. For some parts of the Town of Dryden, especially the villages, I don't think it's a difficult question. In a lot of other cases, as Dryden has houses all over, it depends on context and a sense of what's close, or not.
I live in an odd border zone, east of the area marked as Varna but still considered Varna by the Varna Community Association and by me. I use the Boxcar as a reference, but lots of people even in Tompkins County don't take 366 enough to know that, so I use Treeforms, the Exxon station, or the intersection of Routes 13 and 366 as a reference. Even when describing it to people from the area, it's sometimes difficult to describe.
Parts of the town are harder to identify. Along the western edge, Bethel Grove, Snyder Hill, Ellis Hollow, Varna, and West Dryden all have names, but the area around Hanshaw Road and Lower Creek doesn't have a hamlet nearby until you reach Etna. The Freeville zip code contains huge amounts of Dryden's central areas, but Midline Road isn't exactly in Freeville.
Then there's the question of describing where I live to people with less idea of the area. When I was in college, saying I was from New York got me the "which borough?" question, so I took to saying I was from "beautiful upstate New York". People didn't always understand that either, but they got the idea that I wasn't from New York City. People who have a grasp of upstate New York geography often know where Ithaca is but not Dryden, so then I become from "near Ithaca". I've heard the Village of Dryden described as "near Cortland".
Finally, wherever you live in the town (if you live in the town), how often do you say you live "in the Town of Dryden"?
Posted by simonstl at June 14, 2004 07:42 AM