If It's Called Tourist Season, Why Can't We Shoot Them?

When I lived in NYC, this quote was one of my favorites.  Tourons are the bane of every New Yorker's day, particularly if you live and work in the midtown area - as I did for about 10 of the 17 years I lived in NYC.  Tourons annoying stroll the streets in large groups, blocking sidewalks, looking up at the big buildings, "ooh"-ing and "ah"-ing and generally making a royal pain of themselves.  There are approximately 2-3 months out of the year when it isn't tourist season in NY and those are during the dead of winter - from January through March.  Otherwise, these annoying creatures prevent NYC residents from going about their day smoothly.  I kept wishing the City would enact a law which kept tourists from being on the streets from 8-10am, noon-2pm and 5-8pm, but apparently that is not a law anyone is willing to pass. 

This week is Yankee Homecoming Week in Newburyport.  Don't ask me what Yankee Homecoming Week actually is, except that it's a tourist mecca for the north shore that has been going on for 54 years.  There is a multitude of events happening this week which include concerts, wine tasting, fireworks, a parade, etc.  I have heard several Port residents complaining about the 'crowds' of people who invade the Port and how annoying it is.  I have to laugh at these statements.  Really??  These people do not know crowds until they have tried to make their way home through Times Square on New Year's Eve or gone to the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade.  If you can walk the sidewalks with comfort and still find a seat on a bench, then it's not crowded.  Although parking is a little bit of an issue this week, but I've been fortunate as no one appears to want to park on my block.

It's interesting.  When someone has lived in New York City as long as I did, it can really affect the way you view the rest of the world.  New Yorkers don't blink twice at paying rents that are four times the costs of the rest of the country, will sit next to a homeless man on the subway and not bat an eyelash and push their way through thousands of people just to get to and from work.  I'm finding that the things that annoyed me in New York, don't bother me at all here because New York always has the extremes of everything - good and bad.  If this is tourist season in Newburyport, then I can hang up my imaginary rifle for good!