[PRCo] Re: Go West Young Man

Fri Oct 17 12:50:53 EDT 2008

I've never had a good piece of bison ... every place I had it, the  
"chef" cooked it to the consistency of a Goodrich truck tire.    
However, Prudhomme's Lost Cajun Kitchen in Columbia, PA does make  
some pretty decent bison mountain oysters.

Taking the train across the U. S. sort of reminds me of taking a bus  
tour around Europe in that it insulates you from what you went there  
to absorb.   I know I'm speaking with a forked tongue because I  
advocate public transport but as a traveler there is nothing nicer  
than wandering around the country in a car and being able to stop and  
chat with people anywhere and everywhere ... the Ukrainian restaurant  
in Manitoba, the small motel in Alberta, helping the guy start his  
Model T Ford in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, photographing the lizards  
in the Grand Canyon and the mountain goats in Glacier.

My memories of Cripple Creek, CO include a sign in a store window  
that read, "IF YOU ARE OUT OF WORK AND HUNGRY, EAT AN  
ENVIRONMENTALIST."   I chuckled then.   Today I am moving over to  
their camp because I see how much damage we have done to the world.   
It is difficult to live in balance with nature.

Most of the people in Calgary as well as other western Canadian  
cities came from eastern Canada trying to escape high prices there.    
Remember that in the 1960s the French separatists drove the banking  
industry and a large population out of Montreal and that group  
settled in Toronto.   The price of real estate in Toronto went  
through the roof.   Toronto became a city that stretched along the  
lake from Hamilton eastward forever and northward to Barre.   When I  
built my house in Lancaster in 1973 for $40,000 (plus about $12,000  
in sweat equity and donated land from my father), my wife's uncle  
built a home in Barre for over a CDN $250,000.   His home was  
larger ... it had two baths and two kitchens and might have gone for  
$80,000 in Lancaster but not $200,000.   Perhaps you can buy a 1400  
square foot home in Toronto for what I paid for my 3100 sq ft home.

Canada also has a huge population of Chinese that came from Hong Kong  
when the British lease ran out in 2000; Calagary, Toronto and  
Vancouver received very large immigrant populations of Chinese as a  
result.   We're not talking hundreds.   We tens of thousands added to  
each city.   Vancouver also has a incredibly large Indian  
population ... Asian as opposed to what they would call First Nation.

Were there a lot of Americans going north to Canada?   Probably not  
since the draft but we would have to ask our one Canadian list member.

People have generally changed countries over history for the same  
reasons: (1) hunger, (2) better life, (3) religious persecution, (4)  
tired of fighting other people's wars, (5) followed someone of  
another sex.   Those rules generally don't change.  If you are  
comfortable and happy, you stay put.   The last great migration to  
Canada that we had was during the Vietnamese confict.   We ended the  
draft; our men stayed home  We pulled three out of four divisions out  
of German and there is no reason for our men to bring home German  
girls.   In fact that slowed long ago because the life style over  
there became better than here.   If anything, the serviceman might  
have been tempted to stay take his discharge over there and stay in  
Germany with the girl.

I have become intrigued by the number of Americans who have chosen to  
migrate the opposite direction in recent years.   Some of you know  
Jack May who has been an officer in the Electric Railroaders  
Association, an editor of Headlights, and a trip leader for years.    
His daughter married a Russian; his grandkids speak English and  
Russian and he goes to Moscow every year or they come to the U. S. A.  
to visit.     My wife had a teaching colleague whose daughter came  
very close to marrying a European .... very very very close.   Some  
of you know Kevin Farrell, the railroad book dealer from North  
Billerica, Mass.   His daughter speaks Portuguese and Spanish and has  
lived in Europe.   Right now she is a professor in Washington DC.   I  
think the son, however, is living in Europe.

If you were to ask me what I might do if I were again 21 years old  
and know what I know now and it was again 1961?   Germany, Austria or  
Switzerland might be very nice choices.   And with my ancestry, (six  
of my eight great grandparents were German), I could emigrate to  
Germany without question.

On Oct 17, 2008, at 8:47 AM, Dennis F. Cramer wrote:

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> Well I have not driven across the country yet, but I have taken  
> Amtrak =
> from Chicago to Seattle, Chicago to Los Angeles and Sacramento to =
> Chicago.  I have also gone from Seattle to LA. =20
>
> Glacier is wonderful because it is off the beaten path.  I have  
> stayed =
> at Glacier Park Lodge twice and Many Glacier Hotel once.  I prefer  
> Many =
> Glacier for the remote area.  (There was a forest fire on the other  
> side =
> of the mountain while we were there.)
>
>
> I learned to drive on dirt roads.  Watch the utility lines for  
> headlight =
> glare on blind curves and yes you had to dust the inside and  
> outside of =
> the car, because we did not have ac.
>
> The cuisine I want in Montana walks on 4 legs and is hopefully not a =
> cow.  (Had some great elk and bison out there.)  We were eating  
> outside =
> of Helena and Liz asked what size steaks they had.  The waiter  
> responded =
> with 12, 16 or 24 oz and they could go much higher if she wished.   
> I had =
> the bison.
>
> Many of the trolley lines of the west are fascinating, especially  
> the =
> ones in the smaller towns.  Cripple Creek, CO comes to mind. =
> http://www.cripple-creek.co.us/Railroads.aspx     =20
>
>
> The article on Cripple Creek is from Cripple Creek Railroads by  
> Leland =
> Feitz.  See also Hilton & Due pgs 381-382  (Electric Interurban  
> Railways =
> in America)
>
>
>
> How many of those new folks in Calgary are US citizens trying to  
> escape =
> the homeland for one of many reasons?
>
>
>
>
> Dennis F. Cramer =20
>
>  Trombone
>
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