I don't mean to hog this thread, but in 1977 my worthy employer (Foseco Ltd, Long Acre, Nechells) saw fit to post me to their US operation which was based in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. My wife and I leapt at the opportunity, with $-signs in our eyes - we were going to the land of the free and home of the brave, and the world would be our oyster. But -
Cleveland OH was, and probably is, a ghastly dump of a city. Downtown Cleveland had shops, an art-gallery, a concert-hall and everything else, but even in 1977 you took your life in your hands to go there much after 7.00 pm at night.
There were steel-mills pumping untreated waste into the Cuyahoga River, so much that one night in 1978 the river actually caught fire when a truck-load of molten slag fell off a bridge! You don't believe this? I saw it, folks!
It was not possible to walk after dark anywhere near the centre of Cleveland - you were either mugged, or the police would pick you up and try to charge you with vagrancy - this happened to me - twice!
There were no trees, no grass, no proper parks, no nothing, until you got way away from the centre of Cleveland.
After dark, Cleveland was a dead city!
When we came back to the UK in 1980 we spent hours and hours just walking around Brum to remind ourselves what a proper city is like - places where you could go and listen to music, eat out, have a drink, whatever - and above all reasonably safely.
I have to be honest and admit that these days we don't often go into Brum, but when we do we love to eat out in Chinatown, go to a concert, have a quiet drink in a nice bar - in fact, my wife has just come home from an early-evening jazz-concert at Symphony Hall. Such simple pleasures were not available in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, when we lived there. If things have changed in the last 30 years, then I humbly apologise to the good citizens of Cleveland, but give me good old Brum any day! Oh, I forgot the canals - we love the canals!
Times change, folks, and it's up to us whether or not we change with them...
Big Gee
Big Gee