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I liked the Rome/Utica areas...especially around Fireman's carnival time - best sausage and onion sandwiches ever. Kind of a big-small-town feel to them.

I left Rochester in '74 to join the AF and never went back except for family visits. My brother still loves there and he and I are the last of the original family...my son just added a baby boy to the mix and he's the last chance to carry the name on - my cousin and I are the eldest Blaze Boys and both hitting 68 years.

I remember going back after being in the military a few years and it seems that Rochester and surroundings had turned into and enclave of Appalachia - could almost hear the dueling banjos...

Rome is pretty quiet, and that's one thing in its favor. Rochester on the other hand has changed drastically over the years. The last time I was there was in 2011 when my sister passed, when I had to clear out her apartment. Gates has gotten pretty bad. Irondequoit too. After my brother died, my sister-in-law eventually sold the house, and moved into her family's home in Ontario, New York, after her mother died. My oldest son lives in Troy, New York. My youngest lives in Carmel, Indiana.

My niece and her husband have to go into Rochester for work. She runs one of the labs at Rochester General Hospital. Her husband has worked for the City Recreation Department for years, and the rec center he works at is in a bad section. Since COVID, and with no kids coming to the centers, his hours were greatly reduced, and about his only job now is to feed the homeless and crackhead's who have come to rely on the food. What happens if, and when they reopen those rec centers to the kids? How do you get rid of the homeless and druggies once you've made them reliant on your handouts? They shouldn't be any where near those kids. It's all so crazy. Democrats...they always make problems bigger than they have to be.