You're moving TO Toledo?

Our house nestled in those trees

In New York City's subway cars there used to be an ad for a storage facility that went something like this:  "Sure, you could get more space by moving out of the city, but then you'd have to live in America."  So when my wife and I broke the news to our friends that we were leaving New York for Toledo, the scoffs did not surprise me--many of them had probably never acknowledged its existence.

View from our living room window

Entrance to the park fifty feet from our driveway

The reaction of our friends and family in Cleveland was much more complex and interesting.  The initial stage of the reaction was denial, which gave way to moment of abstracted concern punctuated by earnest admonitions, and finally resolved into a sort of determination to show courage in the face of some inevitable catastrophe.   I thought I had misspoken and told them I had contracted some terminal illness or been the first inductee into a renewal of the military draft.  I think the citizens of Cleveland reacted as they did in part because they believed Toledo to be a crime-ridden suburb of Detroit, but mostly because of the perception that, outside the crime, Toledo is an abyss of boredom.  Reminded me of John Denver's "Saturday Night in Toledo, Ohio."  Still, we were undaunted.

My daughter enjoying free
museums and ample elbow room

What I found most discouraging were the reactions of folks who were actually from Toledo.  Two weeks prior to moving, my wife flew out for business and I came along to watch our daughter during the day.  One quote from a hotel receptionist was, "Wait, you're moving from New York to Toledo."  Shortly after moving, I had to show my ID for a credit card purchase, at which point the cashier asked, "So, what brings you to the armpit of America?"  Finally, one person in Toledo had the audacity to do what everybody else wanted to do but felt uncomfortable doing.  He raised an eyebrow, and in a voice dripping with skepticism and contempt asked, "Why would you do that?"

The pictures in this blog post are my response to that question.