Apple Juice Living

Home Sweet Home is Best Place to Live???

This friendly town has a strong Irish flavor; youngsters can learn Gaelic football and cheer on one of the largest St. Patrick’s Day parades in the state. Residents hop on the commuter train to New York City right in Pearl River. Schools are strong here, and there’s a shop-lined town square. On the negative side, Pfizer—the town’s biggest employer—is downsizing its operations here, leading to the loss of at least 1,250 jobs by 2014.

This is what Money magazine had to say about the town where I grew up….otherwise known as the Town of Friendly People, when they listed it as #78 out of the #100 best places to live in the U.S.

In my excitement to see this info published, I made a mad dash to send a quick email to my family about the very Irish town of my youth, and this was my dad’s response:

“Yasmin, you must have too much time on your hands. Try creating a new website; cure for cat allergies; music symphony; etc. We ALL know about Pearl River, remember, NY’s best kept secret????”

Thanks for never letting my head get too big Dad!!! :-)

Lower East Side Tenement Museum

C. and I utilized our day off yesterday and visited the LES Tenement Museum. It was something we added to our ‘To Do’ list (something we started compiling when we started dating), and finally had an open day to do it.

If you have $20 and a free day, definitely go to the Tenement Museum. We took the Moore family tour (the Irish immigrant experience) and happened to have some people from Dublin in our tour group. Our tour guide, Anne, explained to us that the streets of the LES during that time (late 1800’s-early 1900’s) were bustling with activity full of people, pushcarts, horses, and “steaming piles of horse manure.” Talk about creating an image.

I don’t want to give too much information, but I thoroughly enjoyed the tour, found it extremely informative and I LOVED their bookstore.

My favorite historical fact learned: St. Mary’s Church on Grand Street (my neighborhood) is the oldest Roman Catholic church in all of Manhattan.