A beach day In New England

Wow, this what an experience.  I recently went to the beach in Old Lyme, CT with my girlfriend and, holy crap, was it weird.  The east coast is so bizarre and I thought I would just give a run down on why.

West Coast Beach Experience

A day at the beach in Orange County or Malibu or Santa Monica mainly revolves around actually getting in the water.  Folks bring boogie boards, surfboards, fins, snorkels, the works.  And even if they don't go in with anything, they'll still body surf or something.  I will concede that some folks are just hanging and getting tanned but for the most part they are engaged in some sort of activity, whether it be in the water or tossing a football/frisbee around.

In addition, the demographics of these people are usually white and then some sort of minority, hispanic, black, or maybe asian.  Groups of each tend to be inter mixed unless they are families but for the most part there is a fairly decent mixture of people.  Not to say that southern california is a poster city for integration, because it isn't, but the ethnic divides are fairly blurry.  In addition, folks genuinely seem interested in themselves and what they are doing.  The surrounding population may have some relevance for "mate seeking" but more often than not, a beach trip involves some sort of purpose and groups tend to focus mainly on themselves, rather than folks around them, or at least that has been my experience.

East Coast Experience

Now, the reason I point these things out is that the east is so fucking different.  First off, there are soo many different kinds of white people and this makes sense.  If you look at the way the US has developed, the different ethnic populations congregated on the east coast from Europe.  Some of them got itchy feet and headed westward but, for the most part, the ones that stayed really stuck with their ethnic identity.  This is why I believe you have such large populations of Italians and Jews on the east coast and on the west its a lot harder to draw those lines.  White people out west are such a mix, probably because they all had babies as they headed westward and now its a giant melting pot.

In growing up in Southern California, I developed a fairly narrow view of what people were like, which makes sense, but in picking up and moving across the country, wow, are things different.  At the beach here, everyone looks the same.  It seemed like the major demographic was Italians and WOW, talk about some cliches.  First off, they all dress the same.  You have your buffed out males with their blown back hair.  They all have a cross around their necks (good catholic boys) and have dark sunglasses.  Lastly, they all have have tons of tribal tatooes which I find so ridiculous because if I were going to label my body, I wouldn't want something everyone else has.  Now I will concede that perhaps people all looked the same with their blonde hair and board shorts where I grew up, but man, these folks are so similar.  

As for the women, they are basically the same as well.  They all have tons of makeup on (at the beach?), they have really dark hair but light skin, which kinda looks weird, and they all have the same bikinis.  I think I saw at least a dozen women wearing zebra print bikinis.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  Are you guys trying to look alike?  It was so uncanny.  

And to sum it all up, no one was in the water.  it's like they all came just to be seen.  They layout and just sit there.  No one moves.  A few folks are tossing the football around or playing volleyball but 90% of the population is just soaking up the sun.  Oh and a bunch are smoking. SMOKING?!?!  At the beach?  Thats like drinking at work, in the sense that they were using a stimulant that seems to go in the opposite direction they want.  At the beach you are supposed to relax and all these people are sucking on cancer sticks.  It was sooo weird.

I suppose what makes things even weirder is that I have an italian roommate.  I get to see first hand how these folks think and I can't believe the conformity they follow.  Matt grew up in Philly and is half italian and he has no desire to live anywhere but the east and he wants to marry an Italian woman.  I find this so amazing because he has such a narrow view of the world.  He voluntarily blocks out several options and goes for what every other person like him goes for.  He even dresses like every other italian guy and works on his biceps in the same manner.  Not to say this is bad, because he genuinely wants this and knowing what you want is the best thing in the world.  But, I just don't understand it.

Conformity

I suppose it all comes down to being comfortable with who and what you are and a lot of these people have strong ethnic ties and I suppose thats a good thing.  I definitely think that out west people are more individualistic because their ethnicity is not nearly as prevalent.  I suppose that is why I am hell bent on being different from everyone else.  I hate the idea of being pigeon holed or being pegged as this kind of person or that.  I am a scientist but you've never guess if you hung out with me.  I'm also a social juggernaut which you couldn't tell from my career choice.  In the end I just want to be my own person, like none that has ever been (or that I've come across) and in looking at hoards of like minded people, I think my lucky stars that I am who I am.

In the end I guess this is what happens when you pack up and move across the country.  The east coast and the west are  basically different countries and I suppose the South, the Mid West, and Texas are just as different.  It's amazing how different our county is and while it might be advantageous in resources (ie farming, industry, etc..) but being so large definitely offers problems with culture clashes.  I am glad I moved all the way to New England because now I have a perspective on this country that is soo rare.  For the rest of my life I will be able to integrate cultural differences or at least appreciate the difference between my life and those around me.

just my thoughts

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