Quote: "Yeesh Zen, what is it with you long islanders always having to have artsy cool photos j/k, but seriously, 7 out of 10 of my long island friends have a portfolio of art photos of themselves. God help me when they have kids, and their child is posing in a cemetary holding an apple in one hand and a whip in the other, and the image is all black-and-white except for their hands and eyes. Oh wait, nevermind, I already got a picture like that from someone once"
LOL. I don't have an answer really. I think it might have something to do with Long Island being a tough place to live. I don't mean tough in street terms, although that can be the case in the 5 burroughs. But tough in the fact that there is so much expectation. There's hardly any entry housing market, with even the poorest of areas in Suffolk county over $200,000-$300,000. Most average homes asking over $500,000 and that's not a great home. So it's tough on the mind in Long Island. You are surrounded by wealth and poverty at every corner. Middle class is being wiped out.
I couldn't afford to live the way my parents lived, and I work 2 jobs, and own a business. My fiancee is a professional nurse eraning $75,000. My school job brings in nearly $60,000, my computer work another $15,000, and the cleaning business profits about #3,000 a month. They raised 3 kids on an Electrician's and Secretary's salary. My father worked lots of over-time and did well on investments in the 80's. Both parents without a college education, & we lived middle class. Had family vacations, and nice home, a lot of extras. A Sailboat, sailed all around Long Island. A custom built gunnite pool, with built in hot-tub, and niccolock pavers surroundng the entire back yard. The only reason I have the home I have, with roughly 2 acres, is because my fiancee is older than me (42) and this was her house. She has two children. We aren't suffereing, but we aren't rich.
Then you have the city so close. The financial center of the world. At times it can seem like your the only NON-Millionaire walking around. Yet the reality is, so many people are 1 paycheck away from losing everything. The house, the car, the boat, the vactaion home all gone in a flash. I've seen it time and time again.
I love Long Island, I lived in other states in the military, and I have found no better place that I would like to live (except maybe Connectitcut). But I believe this place has a way, of bringing the artist emotion out of you. You live between feeling like a yuppie, and a street dweller, and any minute you are or could be either!
