Writing about Niagara when I don't live there anymore

A couple nights past I was scrolling through the channel choices, skimming past known and suspected shows I'd find boring/irritating. The signal from the remote travels through some hidden labyrinth of copper and fiber optics, and seems almost independent of my choices, which is a long-winded way of saying the channel selector rested on a show 'Rock Stars' that I normally would have skimmed past. Which rock stars? I wondered, and selected it, expecting perhaps another interview with fifty year old burnouts with bad hearing, tales of the road, talks of a 'new album'...

Instead I see Niagara Falls and within seconds realize 'Rock Stars' is a really bad pun. It's a reality show about a crew that specializes in dislodging boulders before they come down on their own, inconvenient and potentially dangerous, schedule. So I watched the show, less for the repetitive footage of guys on cables stabbing the gorge walls with picks, than to figure out from the backdrop where in the Gorge they were.

I've now lived in Massachusetts longer than I lived in Niagara. At one time that depressed me a little, but no more. I considered myself from Niagara, and in the popular sense still am, but to my wife, when we travel back to Niagara (and we do regularly) we refer to Massachusetts as home.

So why do I keep writing about Niagara when I don't live there anymore? Well, it's a unique place and like anywhere, it has unique history. In this case it's interesting history. By comparison, my present home is in the town of Westford, and I visited their small museum recently. For what it is, it's not a bad collection, but Westford was just a farming community that evolved into a well off bedroom community. Nothing very interesting has ever happened here. I include in that assessment the tale of the Westford Knight.

I consider myself fortunate (and sometimes unfortunate) to have been born and raised in Niagara Falls. It has always fascinated me, and wherever I am if there's a reference to the falls, if I see a passing sign or TV screen, I always look and try to determine a) where and when the shot is and b) do I know any of the people. After twenty eight years I rarely know the people, unless (here's where age kicks in) it's an obituary.

A lot of history happened around Niagara. I wish the city would organize a museum, but in its current state as Atlantic City 2. 0 there aren't the resources. So in that sense I don't miss being in Niagara. And I can foresee the day when I don't come back for regular visits, but it's still fascinating to me.

So the trick is, write about the history of the place. I won't ever be an expert on the history of Niagara, not like some others are, but I'm pretty well read in certain areas. And besides, I work pretty exclusively in fiction, where we are not required to be fact checkers.