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bearsir, who remarked that all of her grandparents live in Florida, "as you might expect".
My mother's parents used to winter in Florida until the travel got to be too much for them (I'd guess my grandfather was around 90 then), and then stayed in New York City for the rest of their long lives. My father's parents moved to senior citizen housing in Far Rockaway, Queens when they were around the age of your grandparents. I know people retire to Florida, but it's not something my family do: New York City appears to be the Promised Land.
That sounds facetious. It's not. My mother and her parents were born in Germany; my father's parents in what was then Czarist Russia. America, and New York, were safety. They raised families here, lived safe lives, and had no reason to move again.
It seems entirely reasonable to me that I am living, again/still, in New York, and slightly odd that my mother and brother have moved long distances away. Both for good reason, and both enough years ago that I'm used to it, but in some ways I think of New York as the place we come to, not from. Yes, I know the demographics; I know people move to the suburbs or California or any number of other places.
[This feels approximate and not quite right, but I'm going to post it; revisions and expansions possible, comments encouraged.]
bearsir, who remarked that all of her grandparents live in Florida, "as you might expect".My mother's parents used to winter in Florida until the travel got to be too much for them (I'd guess my grandfather was around 90 then), and then stayed in New York City for the rest of their long lives. My father's parents moved to senior citizen housing in Far Rockaway, Queens when they were around the age of your grandparents. I know people retire to Florida, but it's not something my family do: New York City appears to be the Promised Land.
That sounds facetious. It's not. My mother and her parents were born in Germany; my father's parents in what was then Czarist Russia. America, and New York, were safety. They raised families here, lived safe lives, and had no reason to move again.
It seems entirely reasonable to me that I am living, again/still, in New York, and slightly odd that my mother and brother have moved long distances away. Both for good reason, and both enough years ago that I'm used to it, but in some ways I think of New York as the place we come to, not from. Yes, I know the demographics; I know people move to the suburbs or California or any number of other places.
[This feels approximate and not quite right, but I'm going to post it; revisions and expansions possible, comments encouraged.]