You might be from Western New York if...

After living outside of Western New York for several years now, some distinct qualities of the area come to mind when we visit.

So here is my brief list of "You might be from/in Western New York if...."

Oldies or classic rock are your go to radio stations.

"Wide Right" reminds you of what could've been.

You're Italian.

Blizzard conditions means you still go to school. And walk. Uphill. Both ways.

Snowmobiles have their own street signs.

You call the interstate the thruway.

"Garbage" reminds you of a delicious plate of food.

Your tax rate is highest in the nation (New York state quality)

If you have an apple orchard in your back yard.

Your truck rusts out faster than you can pay it off. And you're proud of it.

:)

So there you have it, my quick list to help you determine if you're truly from, or in, Western New York.

Shout!

Happy!

This December, my wife and I will have been married 10 years. That's right, a decade. It has been an amazing 10 years of marriage with the love of my life, Elizabeth. I constantly tell younger people to marry someone who is married to Jesus first. I can give them that advice because its what I did. Liz was married to Jesus before we ever got together, and so was I, and it has made all the difference in our relationship.

Over the next few weeks leading up to our anniversary, I am going to post some pics and reminisce about some of our times together. As a teaser and a warm-up so to speak, here is a throw back photo from back in the day. I had to scan this in as this was before our digital camera or smartphone days!

Lead-in... this is a shot when Liz and I were a few months into seeing each other. We were headed to a Garth Fagan dance production at Nazareth College [my Alma mater] in Rochester, NY. [you can tell it is early in our dating years by the size of the twitterpated grins on our faces!]