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April 28, 1996
Ethnic Neighborhoods
My sister went to school in New York City. Many of her classmates were from
one large city or another. They were curious as to what life was like in
the small Oklahoma town where we grew up. When they asked, my sister would
reply "Imagine a city without any Italian restaurants."
That was a good answer. One cultural difference between urban and non-urban America is the availability of authentic ethnic restaurants. Furthermore, residents of most large cities are fortunate to have ethnic neighborhoods. In particular Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, Chicago and San Francisco draw much of their character from such areas. New residents from the old country are always arriving in places that have representative names such as Little Italy, Chinatown, Greektown and Germantown.
The convenient availability of these neighborhoods was one of my favorite things about living in Chicago. On a typical night out we would visit a neighborhood which was in the city limits but seemed a world apart, especially for someone who had grown up in small town America. Even simple things seemed adventurous. For example, when at a Greektown restaurant a friend made me try some octopus. I could not believe people could eat such food! It took a lot of effort to put the tentacles in my mouth, and even more to start chewing. I thought I was being brave!