Heaven, Hell or Hoboken?

That was the inscription on the top of a war memorial in the city of Hoboken outside of John F. Kennedy park. The bottom of the monument had the inscription “Freedom isn’t Free” and the center the seals of each of the armed services including the Merchant Marine.

I’d like to focus on the “Heaven, Hell or Hoboken” question though.

If I had my choice, I’d take Hoboken. From what I’ve heard of Hell it sounds like a downright nasty place and, if Christianity is right, it’s going to be awfully crowded. On the other hand I expect Heaven to be rather sparsely populated with insufferably smug and self-righteous morons. I don’t want to have anything to do with the people Christianity claims are getting into Heaven. I wonder if you can get demoted from Heaven to Hell for acting like a jackass in Heaven?

That leaves Hoboken. The city is Greenwich Village west of the Hudson. One of my regrets is that I will never live in Hoboken. The place is narrow street crisscrossed by narrow street lined with brownstones or modern apartment buildings designed to fit in with the surrounding architecture. There are little parks tucked away in unexpected places and the main drags near the Path Trains are lined with an assortment of bistros and sidewalk cafes. Then there’s the train hub and the open area along the Hudson River. I could be very happy there for a very long time.

Yes we’re talking Yuppieville to a large extent and it’s probably not a great place to raise kids, but it would be a really nice place to live during your single twenties and maybe into your early thirties. That’s the new formula. The old formula of married in your early twenties and a four bedroom house in the suburbs complete with kiddies by the time you’re thirty was my generation’s formula. I did it that way and I never got the chance to live in Hoboken or Greenwich Village. I did live for a year in the Brighton section of Boston but that’s not nearly the same thing.

If you head north out of Hoboken along the Hudson River you encounter a whole ‘nother lifestyle. There are row after row of luxury condominiums, townhouses, luxury apartment buildings, what look to be very expensive restaurants and fancy area names like Port Imperial.

I don’t want to know how much those places cost. I’m certain that’s New York financial district living territory as it seems to radiate out from the ferry area. We have to be talking very high six figures, or even seven figures, of income oozing out of 100 hour work weeks. It’s a lifestyle beyond my comprehension.

So last weekend I got a peek at two lifestyles I’ll never know. Now it’s back to my four bedroom house on a half acre lot on a cul-de-sac. God that’s sounds insufferably dull doesn’t it?