Since my parents came from New York City and we visited there several times a year, I knew almost from the get-go that My Home Town and the Rotten Apple were polar opposites. But I was clueless about everywhere else. For all I knew, everyone outside the city lived in a town just like mine. The first time it dawned on me how wrong I was happened when I was still in single digits. I was at a cousin’s house in the ’burbs (which I thought existed only around NYC) and some of his friends were hanging out with us. Somehow, the conversation turned to where I came from. Once I started to describe the Adirondacks I realized the kids weren’t tracking. As far as how far north it was, to them it might as well have been Hudson Bay. And when it came to our flora and fauna, they had no idea. Finally one of the kids asked, “So do you have bears there?” The answer was so obvious to me I didn’t know why he’d asked it. But I answered anyway. “Sure,” I said. “Of course.