Is Shtat an Island?

I consider my self to be, what some would call, “a smart kid.” I love to read and learn and ask questions. However, sometimes I can’t see the most obvious things right under my nose. Last night was one of those occasions for me where I said to myself, “You are definitely an idiot.” For the first time in twenty five years of living on this earth, and Staten Island, I finally asked my mother the following question at dinner. What does Staten Island stand for? She said she did not know and that all she knew was the joke about it (which I also had not heard) – Two men with deep accents were on a boat, they pointed at Staten Island and said “Is shtat an island?”


Ironically enough, in the paper, was a link to the following website: http://www.si350.org/1661-why . I encourage every Staten Islander, current or former, to go out to the website and read a little bit about the history of Staten Island. There is something for everyone on the entire site. I offered an article that I found particularly interesting to me to link above. The reason I found it so interesting is it spoke about Walloons, who were French-Dutch settlers here. One of my good buddies, and volleyball teammates in High School, lived on Walloon St. in Mariners Harbor. Sometimes it’s fun to take a step back and think, “Man, imagine what it was like when they were designing all this.”

Now Staten Island today gets a lot of negative publicity, and I understand why. Many people in Staten Island have a narrow, shallow view of the world. Many people on Staten Island are also spoiled, for instance we drive more than any other borough. However, despite all this, Staten Island does have things that every good old fashioned town should have. We have good- well defined neighborhoods. You have to look no further than my street for an example of this. On Saturday, two blocks down from wear there has been brutal violence, we had a block party. Families of all different backgrounds, races, colors, religions came together and enjoyed each others company. I had a barbecue and saw some old friends I had not seen in over ten years! Staten Island also has the ferry, what I believe, is the best way to commute. It’s nice to just look at the city having just left it after a long days work, leaving the fast pace behind and returning to a much more subdued island.

All in all, I think where you live has a lot to do with what you make of it. I think we as Staten Islanders need to go back to our roots, and that’s why I encourage people to take a gander at that URL above and learn about Staten Island whether you live here or not. It might change your opinion, as most what we know about Staten Island comes from what we say from the Jersey Shore cast.



P.S. - I could not write a sports blog again. Let me just make it specifically clear. The Mets should win an Emmy for best Drama on TV. It’s like not even a sport any more, strictly a soap opera.