The Neighborhood Melting Pot

As you all know, New York City is called the "melting pot." Just about every culture in the world is represented in New York City. There are restaurants and shops owned and operated by people of every ethnicity and culture around the world. All my life, I have found this fascinating. It's fun to learn about and observe the customs of people that are not of my ethnicity.

I live about 20 miles East of New York City, on Long Island. I live in a seaside community called Long Beach. Basically, it's a barrier island. We have the bay to our north and the Atlantic Ocean to our south. Long Island, as a whole, is pretty ethnically diverse, just as NYC is. The difference on Long Island is that there are pockets of different cultures living in different towns. Long Beach, for the most part, is caucasian with a fair amount of African Americans and a fair amount of Hispanics. It's accurate to say there is an African American part of town as well as a Hispanic part of town here in Long Beach. There are exceptions where people of different backgrounds live on the same block, that's my street.


This Should Be Flying High Above My Neighborhood..... 

On my block, it's definitely as close to the United Nations as you can get. I find it fun. We have African Americans, Dominicans, Indians, Pakistanis, Jamaicans, Puerto Ricans, Asians, Caucasians, etc. on the block. For the most part, everyone gets along and there is no real trouble on the block. The only time there is a bit of "competition" is during the summer.

During the summer, everyone is outside doing stuff. For some reason, many of the people on this block enjoy bbq'ing on their front lawns rather than in their back yards or on their decks. Just about every home in Long Beach has a deck, and we all have back yards. The front lawn bbq's make things interesting. Not only do people feel the need to bbq on the front lawn, they also feel the need to use their car stereos for their party music. So on any given Sunday, there will be ethnic music stereo wars. Indian Techno competing with Salsa. Bachata music competing with Merengue. Rap competing with Reggae. It's quite comical. These people just open all the doors and windows of their cars, park them in front of the bbq and pop a cd in. Every Sunday afternoon looks like a block party. You have the Indian Cricket team on the front lawn next door cooking up a storm. The 100 Dominicans across the street cooking in the driveway and drinking. Just crowds of people and a car parked in front of just about every home on the street. It's pretty wild. I usually just drown out all the noise with my music on my deck.

It's a unique street in a unique town. We all live amongst each other and are tolerant and accepting of each other and each other's customs. If only the world and life were this simple.......