[jamom]

Thanks for the info about BT, omahamomma. And thanks for the entertainment, everyone else. I hope your banter is not a serious indication that we might be moving to a very race- and/or class-conscious community.

[tones]

Originally Posted by omahamomma

Andy Roddick and his brother did, indeed, attend Brownell-Talbot in grade school for one or two years. And both Brownell-Talbot and Skutt are great schools. Dundee and West O are both nice areas.

The major difference: Skutt is a Catholic High School. Brownell-Talbot is a private, independent school serving students from preschool through grade 12 and while its history is with the Episcopal church, its weekly chapel service is ecumenical. It is led by an Episcopal priest, but consists of a reading from the Bible and a brief homily directed to the age of the students at the service. It is a small part of the entire school experience. The curriculum is neither liberal nor conservative. It is traditional, as the school focuses on a college preparatory education. Oh, and 100 percent of its graduates go on to college.

My kids love it there.

I could be wrong -- but as I remember it they moved away from omaha when Andy was 4 years old. Perhaps you are thinking of brothers Lawrence and John at Brownell-Talbot?

No mention of Brownell-Talbot on Andy's wiki page.
Andy Roddick - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Roddick lived in Austin, Texas, from age 4 until he was 11, and then moved to Boca Raton, Florida, in the interest of his brother's tennis career,[4] first attending Boca Prep International School, but graduating from the Highlands Christian Academy in 2000.[5] Roddick played varsity basketball in high school alongside his future Davis Cup teammate Mardy Fish, who trained and lived with Roddick in 1999. During that time period, he sometimes trained with Venus and Serena Williams; he later moved back to Austin.

[tones]

Originally Posted by jamom

Thanks for the info about BT, omahamomma. And thanks for the entertainment, everyone else. I hope your banter is not a serious indication that we might be moving to a very race- and/or class-conscious community.

Jamom -- don't worry about Omaha - the kooks on this board get a little testy and defensive - but it doesn't spill over in day to day life.

[smithy77]

Originally Posted by jamom

Thanks for the info about BT, omahamomma. And thanks for the entertainment, everyone else. I hope your banter is not a serious indication that we might be moving to a very race- and/or class-conscious community.

Omaha, like most of the rest of the country, is becoming increasingly diverse, although it is light years away from the amazing ethnic/national/racial/religious diversity you and I take for granted every day in NoVa. This isn't a criticism of Omaha, it's just reality. A relative, visiting from Papillion (a popular suburb of Omaha---94% white, native born) couldn't stop mentioning the fact that he would hear a dozen or more languages spoken at Tyson's Corner Center in the space of a half hour or so. This is normal to me now, and I don't even notice it----I don't even notice the diversity much either since my office is peopled by immigrants from every corner of the globe. I have friends from all over the world. That's just Washington. Most of the rest of the country still resembles Omaha---nothing wrong with that, but you will still find that large pockets of West Omaha and its suburbs are still very homogeneous, and that environment, I think, engenders a fear/suspicion of the 'other'. They're good people, but they haven't been exposed to much outside of their own small universe.

[McBain II]

Originally Posted by jamom

I hope your banter is not a serious indication that we might be moving to a very race- and/or class-conscious community.

It's not. With the renaissance of Downtown, Midtown and Benson all in the last decade, the lines that seperate the east and west sides have become pretty blurred. That said, you'll still have those on the west side who look down at the east, but that will happen in any city really.

[jamom]

Well put, smithy77. My mother in law from Cape Cod, when she toured the Tidal Basin with us, commented (in her thick Boston accent), "It's a regular United Nations around here!" My brother, from Kentucky, after walking downtown with us for an afternoon, muttered (in his Southern twang), "Doesn't anybody speak English around here?" I know Omaha will not compare to DC in terms of diversity, but a relative lack of diversity is not a bad thing in and of itself as long as people are tolerant when they do encounter it.

[Omaha Rocks]

Originally Posted by jamom

Well put, smithy77. My mother in law from Cape Cod, when she toured the Tidal Basin with us, commented (in her thick Boston accent), "It's a regular United Nations around here!" My brother, from Kentucky, after walking downtown with us for an afternoon, muttered (in his Southern twang), "Doesn't anybody speak English around here?" I know Omaha will not compare to DC in terms of diversity, but a relative lack of diversity is not a bad thing in and of itself as long as people are tolerant when they do encounter it.

Truth is, tolerance of diversity has everything to do with familiarity. We fear what we do not know. That fact is made clear just by some of the comments made on this thread.

Omaha is no East Coast metropolitan area. It's not a miniature United Nations. What you will find is that the overwhelming majority of racial/ethnic diversity lies in the east half of the city. Specifically, east of about 60th Street. The further west you go in Omaha, the more white it becomes. That's not all bad, and it's not all good.