At her suggestion, I am going to try a new approach: shorter, more palatable, bite-sized chunks posted in a series. This is the first in the 'Pocono Passage' series.....
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Binghamton Bound
We left home on New Year's Eve morning and drove out to my hometown, Binghamton, NY, to celebrate with my parents. This trip of 350 miles usually takes me about 5-6 hours, but much less if Admiral Leadfoot does some of the driving. The first time I took her with me, she was amazed that 'Binghamton' actually appeared on mileage signs.
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| "You have your own 'green sign?' No way!" |
The trip takes us across the Hudson River, which I like to cross via the Castletown-Upon-Hudson Bridge. This cantilever truss bridge, with a clearance of 135-feet, offers a breathtaking vista on the river and its surrounding landscape. I look down at the water and imagine Henry Hudson and his crew of the Half Moon sailing here in search of the fabled Northwest Passage in 1609.
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| The Castleton-Upon-Hudson Bridge (and the Alfred H. Smith Memorial railroad bridge) |
At Albany, we pick up I-88 for Binghamton. This intrastate interstate highway is also known as the 'Warren M. Anderson Driveway,' since it connects the hometown of the longtime NY State Republican leader (who happened to be the father of my high school French teacher) with the state capital. Its construction in the 1970s dramatically reduced travel time between Binghamton and Albany.
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| Binghamton |
Situated on the state's Southern Tier near the Pennsylvania border, Binghamton sits in a valley at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers. Before you book your hotel reservations, you should know that it ranks as the 10th rainiest city in the United States and the 6th cloudiest city (cloudiest east of the Rockies), with an average of only 52 'sunny days' a year. So be sure to bring Vitamin D supplements when you visit.
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| Emergency Services are sometimes flooded with calls reporting a strange light in the sky.... |
Until the eighteenth century, the area had been home to the Onondaga and Oneida, two nations of the Iroquois Federation. But most were driven away during the infamous "scorched-earth" campaign of the 1779 Sullivan-Clinton Expedition of the Revolutionary War. The present-day city is named after William Bingham, who bought a 10,000-acre land patent in 1786.
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| Look, Honey, we even have our own 'blue' sign.... |
By the mid-1800s, the construction of canals and railroads had made Binghamton an important regional transportation hub, spurring a boom in commercial and industrial development. The numerous stately homes and mansions built here earned Binghamton the moniker of the "Parlor City." Lumber, furniture, and carriage manufacture were big here, as were leather and shoes. At the turn of the twentieth century, over 100 million cigars were produced here annually (second in the country only to NYC). In the 1920s, the Endicott-Johnson Company established its shoe-manufacturing here, employing tens of thousands of workers attracted to George F. Johnson's "Square Deal" welfare capitalism (in fact, the greater Binghamton area is referred to as the "Triple Cities" for Binghamton, Endicott, and Johnson City).
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| Square Deal Arch, on the border of Binghamton & Johnson City "Our Motto: 'How much can we make OF our business, rather than OUT of it'" |
Now the fourth largest city in New York State, Binghamton is the most famous place of which you have never heard. How many cities can boast of no fewer than seven "sides?" There is Downtown, Northside, Eastside, Westside, First Ward, Southside, and Ely Park. On beautiful Clinton Street you can find RobotCity, which claims to be the largest video game arcade in the state, and is one of the few places in the world where you can still play 'Space Invaders' (1978).
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| I was REALLY good at this game, back in the day.... |
The city also styles itself as the "carousel capital of the world" (it has six). There are countless bars, some offering the best spicy Buffalo Wings outside of Buffalo (one of my favorites used to sell a dozen hot wings for $1, but charged $10 for a pitcher of water). Even the Hell's Angels have a chapter here, because they know how to have a good time. SUNY Binghamton (or what locals like to call "BU"), is one of the four research centers in the state university system, and the alma mater of singer/songwriter Ingrid Michaelson. Rod Serling, creator of the 'Twilight Zone,' grew up here.
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| Binghamton High School, Class of '43 |
This was where IBM was founded, where Dick's Sporting Goods had its start, where Edwin Link (for whom my father worked) invented the flight simulator, where Valvoline motor oil was created, and where Dr. Kilmer's Swamp Root (a famous patent medicine) was concocted. And, of course, Binghamton is the birthplace of the world-famous "spiedies:" cubes of meat marinaded in a special sauce and cooked on a skewer (to order, click here)..
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| If you know what's good for you, never make the mistake of referring to Spiedies as "kabob" |
In Binghamton, you can see tigers, snow leopards, red pandas, and lemurs at the Ross Park Zoo, the fifth oldest zoo in the United States, and watch apples pressed at the Cider Mill (est. 1926). Afterwards, you can catch a show at the Roberson Museum's planetarium, and then view the heavens at the Kopernik Observatory, one of the best public observatories in the Northeast. The country's last remaining original Marconi Tower still stands in the downtown area near the old train station. Nearby is the stadium for the city's minor league (AA) baseball team: formerly the 'Binghamton Mets,' but now renamed the 'Rumble Ponies' -- which edged out other contenders, such as the 'Gobblers' and the 'Stud Muffins,' in an online Name-the-Team poll.
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