BuffaloExPatYou can take the person out of Buffalo, but…
(..You know the Rest)
Reflections of a Buffalo Ex-Pat on The Bills, Braves, Sabres and All Things Buffalo
(Below are excerpts from the complete essay now featured at our new BuffaloExPat site.)
I grew up thinking Buffalo was the greatest city in the world....
I joined my fellow Buffalonians in outrage at Sports Illustrated for publishing an article in ’67 or ’68 berating Buffalo, and showing a photo of a trash strewn parking lot at the Old Rockpile.
When the NHL and NBA expanded to Buffalo in 1970, I sat by the radio listening to every Braves game that wasn’t on TV...
I remember the great Braves teams-- those three great seasons when they were inthe thick of the playoffs and could have easily won it all.
..But Buffalo isn’t just a place, it’s a state of mind, a religion, a cultural overlay that works like ethnicity even though it isn’t exactly. It isn’t but it is....
..Being Buffalonian is like being Jewish in a way...
..And therein lies the bulk of my experience. The ex-pat. The Diaspora. If there is a Jewish bar in Tehran, I can imagine the comradery there. Pretty much like what you’d find at the Buffalo Nickel Bar in Tampa or the Buffalo bars in a hundred other cities that get less snow. It’s instant kinship. Run into someone with a Bills or Sabres baseball cap or t-shirt or jacket, in the airport, on the beach, in some other city’s stadium when the Buffalo teams are not even playing, and it’s always the same. It’s like meeting the twin you never knew you had....
..I wish (the Bills would) go back to the old uni’s permanently, like the Jets did. That retro look fits Buffalo, in the way Buffalo is eternally retro, always was retro before retro was retro, sort of iconic in a way that’s both quaint and a little musty...
Back when those were our uniforms, we had dreams of making the Superbowl
without the accompanying nightmares, without the creeping, nagging suspicion that the Bills may have morphed into the Cubs of the NFL....
..And the Sabres seem equally cursed....
...But there's a lot to see and celebrate in Buffalo. The cultural scene. The architecture. (Such as Our Lady of Victory).
Throw in the Falls, the scenic drive on the Canadian side—the Candadian suburbs in general—and Buffalo can hold its own against any city anywhere. I know, cause I’ve been there...
...Tim Russert will always be The Sultan of Buffalo Ex-Pats