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Hey Vegas, The coincidence here is amazing. My older, and only brother, has the exact same opinion. I can’t even get him to go to check it out. He really does think I’m crazy. So far we visited twice. Once each of the last two years, and like you want to taste every part of CR. So far we’ve done the central valley and some of the Pacific coast. I also have done extensive research on Costa Rica and have probably read ten books on the subject. To show you how I think we were meant to live there, I’ll give you a little insight into how full of coincidence our odyssey is. It started about 7 or 8 years ago with a phone call from someone in CR looking for relatives in NY. This guy calls me up with the same last name as me and says he’s from CR and asks me if I speak Spanish. I say no, my relatives are Italian not Spanish and no I don’t speak any Spanish. He says you’ve got to be kidding, He goes on to tell me that CR is loaded with people with my last name. I’m thinking this guy is nuts so we just talk for a few minutes and I forgot about the call for years.
Then when trying to trace my family history, to help find out the possibility of where my last name started, I had some DNA testing done. What I found out was that a lot my genes are closely related to Spain. Oddly enough my closest recent DNA match is to a Sicilian in Westbury NY, and we might have shared an ancestor about 600 years ago. Anyway, I started to do Internet research on my last name and kept coming up with all these hits in CR. Now I’m thinking this guy with the phone call maybe isn’t so nuts. After about a six month of looking at all this information I find CR has the highest population of people with my last name in the world. About six to ten thousand there. So I said to my wife we have to go there and check this out. Because like what I’ve heard from many people, Costa Rica is a place you just feel drawn towards and can’t explain all the reasons you feel you should be there. So I checked it out by going there two years ago and picked up a book in Juan Santamaria museum about families living in Alajuela from the 1700’s. There it was in black and white, tons of ’em. Who would have thought? So that’s my crazy reason for going there in the first place. Pretty weird huh? But for some reason it just feels right to be there.
So if you are ever bored and want to drive yourself crazy do a DNA test and see what happens. You may not like the results but you certainly will have a lot of fun with it! I’ve contacted some people in CR with my last name and someone from the genealogy society there who is still looking for a newsletter that has my family name history in it. Things move slower down there and I haven’t heard from him in a couple of months. But he told me when he finds it he’ll send it up.
So that’s my weird story for the day. Hopefully we’ll meet up down there one day. Christmas or New Years eve sounds like would be great. Our permanent move is still along way off. Until then we’ll just keep on visiting and looking.By the way, I think I’m going to play “5151” today. Seems like too much of a coincidence to pass it up.
Oh yeah Vegas, Sfogliatelle, Cannoli, San Giuseppe, Ooofah! That and fresh Italian bread are some of the things I might miss in CR. We always called espresso “black coffee.” Now I make it with Costa Rican beans exclusively. I will always remember Christmas Eve though. We always opened our presents on Christmas Eve. My in-laws especially had the seafood thing covered on Christmas Eve. Then afterwards we’d go out on the block where they lived to look at the lights. When we first got married we lived in their house and let me tell you, you could get a sunburn from the Christmas lights on that street! Every house tried to out do the other. One family was beyond beating. It took them two weeks just to set up the lights. And this was a 25 foot lot in front of their attached house. The balcony was even done up to overflowing. Con-Ed loved these people. They had an extra bank of outlets installed outside just for the lights. Every year the ornaments were redone with a new theme. This woman and her husband started decorating the next years ornaments in March to get ready for the next Christmas. Their son told me it took their entire basement to store them. On Christmas Eve the husband would come out dressed as Santa and give candy to all the kids. It went on all night long. The nightly traffic jams on the block lasted till well after New Years. The more we talk the more I remember.
Yeah, they can squeeze all they want, but the memories will always remain!
Funny how this thread totally morphed. I for one appreciate everything we’ve talked about here and feel somewhat validated for why I LOVE COSTA RICA! Another thing. Everyone, when I talk to them about CR, if they haven’t been there themselves, thinks I’m crazy. But you and I know better.
C’mon, anyone else have any stories about their middle class life, middle class squeeze, Costa Rica, or are me and Vegas gonna have to carry this thread alone!
Oh man Vegas, This is like my own personal walk down memory lane. It was always Sunday dinner that was the best. And we always said “macaroni” and “gravy”, not pasta and sauce too. We did a lot of the same things you did. It was probably the best times of our lives. Not a lot of money and you didn’t care about it. We knew all the store owners, Tony the butcher, Benny the grocery store owner, The twins that owned the pharmacy and all the others. What a shame its gone. A real piece of Americana gone to the big box stores and malls. It brings a tear to my eye when I think back at all the memories of my family, Christmas at my aunt’s, Easter at our house. Thanksgiving was always subdued because my Grandfather died right after eating Thanksgiving dinner in our house. That was way before I was born but it was probably why Thanksgiving doesn’t have as festive a meaning to me as it probably should. Three generations were raised in that house. My Grandfather came from Salerno in 1903 at 16 years of age with $10 in his pocket and no relatives on this side to greet him. He managed to learn English, open his own business, and buy his family a house. And did it all before he died at 51 years old. Oh crap I’m 51! That’s when, to me, America was at its high point. You could be whatever you wanted to be.
Costa Rica reminds me so much about when I was younger I feel like a kid again when I’m there. I just hope it stays like that a little bit longer for guys like you and me and everyone else that wants to go there for their own reasons.This started out as a thread about middle class squeeze, but its evolved into a personal recollection of all the good things I have to be thankful for. I think if we ever meet up down there we will have a lot to talk about.
Now everone else, JOIN IN WILL YA! If you want to post about the squeeze, go ahead, if you want to post about you personal life experiences and how Costa Rica represents some of the things in your youth, well go ahead and do that too.
All of a sudden I feel Like Scott asking for input on a thread. Long live the czar!
Vegas, Looks like we had similar upbringings. I too had my parents, sibling and my grandmother living in the same house. Sundays we always were together to eat dinner. Being Italian, that always started at around 1 o’clock and lasted the rest of the day. We didn’t have much in the way of money either but we never lacked what truly mattered. My mother was a housewife and therefore she was always home when we arrived from school. We always knew that everything our parent did for us they did out of love, not worrying about having to have the same things the neighbors had. In fact I think we were the last on our block to get a color TV. I also did my part in volunteering. Neighborhood patrol where we lived at nights until I got married, adult counselor at church with my wife right after we got married. I saw a lot of kids there who had parents who didn’t care all that much, and they were into drinking and drugs at age 13. Some of them did do alright and one in particular grew up to be a NYC cop.
Today I’m still married almost 30 years to the same childhood sweetheart. My father in-law came to live with us after my mother in- law died, and before that my mother lived with us after my father died until she passed away. Today you’re lucky if kids even talk to their parents after they leave the nest. Extended families in my neighborhood growing up were the norm. Today where we live its the exception. It does seem like a long time ago since we lived that kind of life and yet it seems sometimes like yesterday.
I guess a great part of the reason my wife and I like CR is the fact that it brings us back to a time much like our childhood when things were simpler and family mattered.By the way, I had a bag of those same green army men too. I just have to ask you, did you ever put one of them on top of a bare lightbulb to watch them melt?
Boy, do I miss those days!Vegas, You’re right on the money! We all have been “educated” into thinking its the other guy’s problem. The “me” society we’ve created will come back to bite us in the butt. Katrina was an eye opener to that extent and it looks like the carpet gets pulled over every situation like that. Most politicians didn’t realize the situation, I think, because they never looked for it! Too busy campaigning all the time to stop and figure out how to fix what we’ve gotten ourselves into.
Just to show you how much they don’t give a rat’s rump up here. I live in a fairly Republican district. Last election the local assemblyman was unseated in the primary by a guy who was trying to out “Republican” him. The incumbent lost the primary and the guy who wins goes and does a 180 degree turn the next day on his website and turns into a liberal. He just knew his constituency would vote the other guy out and now all those promises he made, like lower taxes, I’m sure are going to go down the tubes. Sometimes you just can’t trust these guys.tropicals, It was your earlier post on another topic that prompted me to start this one. I have a cousin in FL and I know what you mean. Costs are rising much too quickly and wages are becomming stagnant. The concept of retirement is changing very quickly. From the last generation to our’s the amount of time you have to work until retirement is taking people into a situation where health issues may start to crop up. Then enjoying the “Golden years” may not be a reality for some.
Scott, Did you see Friday’s AMCR? Same as what you said the other day about the more Spanish you learn the more English you forget.
It might be nice if we were to get some conservative rule. Don’t think we’ve had it since Reagan… that’s going to make me a lot of friends. We in the US are divided more now than we ever were, except maybe for the Civil War. Everything is being politicized to the max. Americans are not well liked around the world. The term “ugly American” is well known. It could be possible you did not have much contact with Ticos when you were there Dwaynedixon, but my family and I have. Also we talked with many Expats. The Ticos say they do not have a problem with us, its our government they take issue with and they say they realize we have no control over it. The Expats we have met all seem happy, many living there over the supposed two year limit. I know of Ticos who have lived in the US and returned to CR permanently. One is now starting a family. I’ve met Argentinian, Cuban, American and Canadian expats while there. None of them said they would ever move back to their native countries. I’m familiar up here with a Tico from Limon. In a couple of years, when he retires, he is going back for six months of the year. A friend of ours has a Tico IBM co-worker who went back to live in CR upon retiring. If it is so bad, why do so many want live there.
according to Escapeartist.com more people are leaving the US than ever in history. Not just the Boomers either, families with young children are concerned and trying to raise their kids where they think it might be better. Even Jane Fonda has 600 acres in Uruguay I believe. She said she would go there if the US ever became a dictatorship…imagine that.We all are aware of the lousy sidewalks, substandard bridges, difficult legal system and a host of other things we don’t have problems with in the “First World.” But warts and all, I still love Costa Rica. And you ain’t gonna convince me otherwise!
By the way My Spanish may not be up to standard, but I can get around. Also Ticos are very accomodating when you at least try to speak their language. If they know English they will let you finish what you are saying, even if in halting Spanish, before telling you they speak English. Kinda polite I think.
Lotus, Thanks again for the info. I don’t like taking those steroids much myself. What you said about the tincture sounds interesting. I have tried some homeopathic remedies but they have not worked all that well. I will check these out and give them a try.
Thanks again,
AlI had a feeling this was going to blow up like the last time. I want to state for myself, that I am proud to have been born, raised and still living in America (USA). I’m not a crybaby nor will I ever be. I just have seen things over the past 51 years that gives me concern. I still am an American and most likely will always be. Like everyone else here, I appreciate the opportunity Scott has given me to express those concerns and opinions. I will defend the USA when I feel she is right, and I will question her when I feel she is not. This is my right as an American.
The thing that concerns me is that those rights are slowly slipping away. Whether by apathy or by design. As you may not know I am a Conservative, Not a Neo-Con, but a Viejo-Con, if there is such a word. I have fought for my country, not on the battlefield, but have so in many other ways since my youth, trying to preserve a way of life given to me by my Immigrant Grandfather.
I will not question anyone’s patriotism or lack thereof concerning the USA. I have had conversations with Liberals and Conservatives alike. If an intelligent argument can be made on either side, I will Listen. Some of what I have read here has gotten personal, and not in the spirit of honest exchange. This is a forum of ideas, opinions and maybe even aspirations. Let’s try, as Scott reminded us, to keep it civil.My reasons for loving Costa Rica are not the same as everyone elses. They cannot possibly be. We are all different. I can only tell you I love Costa Rica for its people first. The way they act and have treated me, their family structure and humble attitude that has endeared them to me. The country’s natural beauty and the relaxed feeling I get while being there is also high on my list. There are numerous other reasons which I will not get into now.
Love Costa Rica, the USA or any other place on Earth, it is your priviledge.
Just realized I may have been trying to speak for others in my previous post. Would not want to do that. Just change the we’s to I.
Dwaynedixon, Like everyone else, you are entitled to your own opinion. Some people come here to praise, others to bash. The curious thing is why so many of us lately are even thinking of leaving the US. Most people posting here, I think, are “Baby Boomers.” I believe we are looking at the prospects of retirement and what is happening day by day in the good ole USA. Costa Rica is a fairly young democracy, and as such should get better given time. No, its not the panacea for every issue we have with whats going on back home, but we like it too for it’s differences.
Well go ahead and tell him to get that oven done! Hone your baking skills in the US, then open your bakery in CR. This way we can have real Italian bread when we all get down there.
Can’t wait to taste the first loaf. But please no granola or whole grains in mine. I like it original. Organic flour is ok though.lol
