With talk of the GOP nominating a lieutenant governor from Big Flats, I had to dig out of the archives a story about Senator Cadillac Smith from the 1960s. Just because it's a typical story of an Upstate Republican politician from the 1960s.
I've driven through Big Flats a few times on the Southern Tier Expressway, and never been real impressed with the town, which is more suburbia of Elmira then anything else.
Certainly Big Flats is not as pretty or interesting as Great Valley, which is a fair bit farther west. Then again, Cattaragus County and Potter County PA is far more mountainess and beautiful country, then farther east.
This map is a bit hard to figure out, as it's a mix of liberal and conservative states, both urban and rural, both nice climates and cold weather climates. Some have great natural resources, some others.
I told my mama on the day I was born
Don't you cry when you see I'm gone
You know there ain't no woman gonna settle me down
I just got to keep traveling on
And I sing
Green, green, it's green, they say
On the far side of the hill
Green, green, I'm going away
To where the grass is greener still
You know there ain't nobody in the whole wide world
Gonna show me how to spend my time
You know I'm just a good loving, rambling man
Now, buddy, can you spare me a dime
It's always fun to walk up to the Canadian border, like at The Gulf Unique Area in Chateaugay, and walk right out into the 20 ft cap, and stand in two countries -- and realize the entire US and Canada border is largely unsecured.
