Rome, New York was the place I grew up...

And I grew up a long time ago.

Essentially, I left Rome, NY in the Fall of 1964 to go to to the State University of New York at Cortland, which I spent the next four years. And from 1968 on I have been in the South of something. The first stop was Quantico, VA for The Basic School and then, after a stint in language school and Psy Op school it was to South Vietnam.

Since 1971 it has been South Carolina. My parents remained in Rome so I did a lot of visiting. Recently, Mike Colangelo, a Roman has started a Facebook group showing lots of old photos of Rome. One of the many visitors to the group just included a blog post from someone who reflected on the growing-up years in Rome. While I am from the more Irish side of the Roman experience (St. Peter's not St. John's) the blog spoke volumes to me. In some ways it may point to why I believe so strongly in the need to continue building your community, wherever

your community might be. If you click the link, I think you might enjoy the visit to one of the city's that was on the front lines of the cold war.