Mullets in upstate NY (Victor, Howard: home, gardens, safe)

[JiminCT]

Good for you Laurie-

I used to feel like I was missing something living in Northern CT...having moved out of NYC years ago. However...one thing I have learned is that so many people in NYC and LI are just virtual slaves to the trends. Beneath that is a level of unhappiness that substitues material things for an empty soul.

I still love NYC for the dining and cultural stuff...but after work I go fly fishing with my kids in the Farmington River.


BTW...mullets are alive and well. I have recently seen them in Pittsburgh and scenic Dayton OH.

[smalltownusa]

However...one thing I have learned is that so many people in NYC and LI are just virtual slaves to the trends. Beneath that is a level of unhappiness that substitues material things for an empty soul.

How true true true and what a rat race it is with the fashion industry laughing all the way to the vault as the manipulate the masses with their lastest........

[TughillTina]

True, True, True...... There is no "keeping up with the Joneses." I myself have learned that when the weather dictates your dress looking cute goes right out of the window!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In the winter I'm bundled up from head to toe looking like a lumberjack and in the summer it's overalls shorts and a straw hat. I'm happy as can be digging in my garden and really not caring what I look like. I do draw the line with my hair, NO MULLETS!!!!!!!!

[MrsC]

You know you're upstate when it's commonplace to see a bleached out orange mullet with 3 inch black roots driving a circa 1989 Ford held together with duct tape. That's when I get pangs of homesickness for the lower Hudson Valley.

[homeward bound]

Near Hornell, NY, 1978:

I'd pulled over to the side of the road to eat my sandwich beside a pretty creek. No hurry to get back to college on a beautiful late summer evening.

Mulleted man rattles up s l o w l y in his (very calico) 1965 Ford pickup. Pointing to the semi-straightened coat hanger serving as my 1974 (rusting) Gremlin's radio antenna, he asks:

"Hey, if you ain't listenin' to the radio for a while, mind if I borrow your antenna? Had mine holding down my hood, but it busted. Can't drive over 15 this way. I'm gonna head home and get a new one--I can bring yours right back. With your antenna holdin' down my hood, I can make it in no time."

Fifteen minutes later he was back bearing gifts from the heart of Steuben County: my hanger-antenna, very considerately re-straightened to my original setting; a new, un-straightened hanger which I could accept if I so chose; and a six-pack of what I pretty surely recall was Genesee Cream Ale (with only one can missing, which he was finishing as he pulled up, tossing the empty into his truck bed to join a few dozen others).

"Hey, buddy, thanks a lot! Really freaks me out when you're taking a curve and whoop!--your hood flies up, know what I mean?"

Then he proudly showed me how he'd "double-hangered down" on his hood.

"Brother-in-law says he's gonna bring me a new used hood latch next week Saturday. It'll be ready for deer season. If you're not old enough to have the beer legal, don't tell me, okay?"

Shook my hand and drove off, mullet and all.

My guess is that now he has kids who have mullets in turn--that yea and verily, he multi-mulleted long ago. But cuture's decline being what it is, his mini-mullets may not be nearly so gracious as mullet le original....

[JustSayNo]

Yikes, maybe I am in a pissy mood, but really what is the point of this post. I think Homeward's WONDERFUL story speaks more than all the posts poking fun at the way someone looks.

Homeward, I can promise it was Genne, still the beer of choice for the old-timers here in the southern tier - and wicked cheep I must add

I spent 40 years on LI and in NYC, and one year here in southern tier, and I promise that I have met more people in my year here than all the years in downstate that I WOULD give the shirt off my back to help. I don't give a CRAP how many teeth you have, what truck you drive, what your dwelling looks like.......I care how you treat your family, your neighbors, your community, your animals.

A perfect example, many of you know that our town fought an ugly battle over wind turbines for the last 13 months. It divided the town, spreed rumors, and turned friends and neighbors into people that don't talk anymore. This weekend was an auction for the library-the original one-roomed schoolhouse for our small town and a great little place for kids and adults alike.

The turn out for the auction was great, a lot of the stuff was "junk" but I tell you everyone in community hall laughed, smiled, cheered, made sure nothing went unsold, and people sat next to each other chatted, commented, etc. that I NEVER would have guessed would have after the battle. And, best of all the auctioneer was a pro-wind board member, and pretty set in his decision. YET, for the town, for the library made everyone comfortable, told genuine stories of the town's past, made us all laugh, appreciated EVERYONES participation, and had great conversations interactions with the well-known anti wind folks. Now THAT is what community is about, that is what people are about, that is what you find in many upstate regions-genuine, hard-working, down=to-earth people that care. What fun we had, what a great feeling it was knowing a town of 630 raised thousands for the library, and everyone was together, as one.

To find that in LI and NYC is hard, but I sure found lots of Hummers, and beemers, and benzes and gucci, and D&B and Coach, and $100 haircuts, and 6,000 sq. ft. homes, and fancy fences, and inground pools, and Armani suits, and LV gear. I also found a lost little girl in my well-to-do neighborhood that asked 4 adults for help before me, and no one could but me. We got her home and safe.


My point, don't judge a book by its cover, try reading a few chapters first. And no I do not have a mullet, I own D&B and Coach and I am a downstater-transplant. It is the attitude of material, what you own and what you drive and what you look like that has drained all real and true character from communities, IMHO. Perhaps this started as a joke, but it scares my that these attitudes are the future of this increasingly unpleasant and scary country.

Peace, love, and mullets for all

[rug city]

As I suspected that simple conflicted hairstyle and all that it represents makes us truly consider the conflicts of our upstate communities. Many of our once proud towns have succombed to years of neglect, inertia, and irrelevance. Our expatriates have followed modern trends (and hairstyles) elsewhere, and are just now starting to look back for clues that it may be safe to return. Are all the good things about my wholesome, slower, more honest upstate town still there or have they been subsumed by the mulletia that filled the vacuum in our absence? Is Oak Lane still the wide, proud boulevard of grand Victorians with well-kept lawns and carefully crafted gardens or is it a jumble of paint-peeled, falling-down-porches with cars jacked up on their lawns- the only sign of life a stray, be-diapered mullet baby darting out of the front door into traffic?

For a young, college educated family it is not a question of whether folks in my hometown prize guccis, D&G, & beemers, and never has been--it is whether after a hard days work renovating their home and making their lawn as meticulous as the Victorian era family that built it in 1890, they can go out and grab a dignified glass of beer or wine with someone wearing something at least of this decade (not the least of which is their friggin' hair). It is about reclaiming a sense of style and modernity that was once the hallmark of these communities in their more handsome, and dignified, and yes, COMMUNAL days. Believe me, a bunch of flannel shirts, ****kickers, and disney sweatshirts do not have a corner on the sense-of-community market. I'd take the 90 year old italian guy who won't leave his house on Sunday without his most stylish lid on over the happy-go-lucky mullet who sees nothing wrong with his tiger striped buffalo bills fun pants. As more people up here reclaim the style of our previous generations, our public spaces, ironically, will begin to attract a younger generation that prizes a strong sense of design and style and individuality.

So please don't lecture me about the virtues of the poor, put-upon gap-toothed cretin with the Beware of Dog sign in his front window. He may be far more of an imposition in my hometown than yours and he breeds far better than all of us.

[TughillTina]

Looks like some "upstaters" are getting pretty "uptight."
Once again if you dare make some observations that have some truth to them the PC crowd will attack and say that they are "scared" of the attitudes. Give me a break. I am happily living in a very rural area that happens to have some mullets, SO WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's the TRUTH and it is funny. Farmers also wear FLANNEL because guess what, it gets very cold here folks and they will not spend a outrageous amount of money on clothing that is going to get some cow manure on it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lighten up New Yorkers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!! Lighten UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tycobb2522]

Originally Posted by rug city

As I suspected that simple conflicted hairstyle and all that it represents makes us truly consider the conflicts of our upstate communities. Many of our once proud towns have succombed to years of neglect, inertia, and irrelevance. Our expatriates have followed modern trends (and hairstyles) elsewhere, and are just now starting to look back for clues that it may be safe to return. Are all the good things about my wholesome, slower, more honest upstate town still there or have they been subsumed by the mulletia that filled the vacuum in our absence? Is Oak Lane still the wide, proud boulevard of grand Victorians with well-kept lawns and carefully crafted gardens or is it a jumble of paint-peeled, falling-down-porches with cars jacked up on their lawns- the only sign of life a stray, be-diapered mullet baby darting out of the front door into traffic?

For a young, college educated family it is not a question of whether folks in my hometown prize guccis, D&G, & beemers, and never has been--it is whether after a hard days work renovating their home and making their lawn as meticulous as the Victorian era family that built it in 1890, they can go out and grab a dignified glass of beer or wine with someone wearing something at least of this decade (not the least of which is their friggin' hair). It is about reclaiming a sense of style and modernity that was once the hallmark of these communities in their more handsome, and dignified, and yes, COMMUNAL days. Believe me, a bunch of flannel shirts, ****kickers, and disney sweatshirts do not have a corner on the sense-of-community market. I'd take the 90 year old italian guy who won't leave his house on Sunday without his most stylish lid on over the happy-go-lucky mullet who sees nothing wrong with his tiger striped buffalo bills fun pants. As more people up here reclaim the style of our previous generations, our public spaces, ironically, will begin to attract a younger generation that prizes a strong sense of design and style and individuality.

So please don't lecture me about the virtues of the poor, put-upon gap-toothed cretin with the Beware of Dog sign in his front window. He may be far more of an imposition in my hometown than yours and he breeds far better than all of us.

Just stumbled upon this thread while doing a search on Upstate, and I have to say this is one of the best posts I've read anywhere on this forum!

[rochacha]

It makes me cringe when I read these posts about "Upstate" because I can just see all the downstaters who have never traveled past White Plains thinking that most of New York is just one giant field full of tractors, mullets, and skoal cans. Can't blame them because even if you drive the length of the Thruway that is what it seems like. It amazes me how many people do not realize that both Buffalo and Rochester are in the top 50 metro areas in terms of population in the country, with Syracuse and Albany within the top 100 as well.