C is for Canaan, the town in which I live. Canaan is a small rural town in eastern New York state bordering the Berkshire mountains in Massachusetts.

I moved to Canaan in 93, and it is one of the most unique places I have ever lived. When I first moved here my phone was a party-line, there was not one ATM machine in town, and it took me a full year before I was able to find tortillas in the grocery store.

Party-lines, I had no clue they were even still around. I only knew what one was from watching Lucy (I love me a Lucy). It was a very strange feeling to pick up the phone and have your neighbor already there in the middle of some “he broke my heart” conversation. I felt I was always waiting to use my phone. I was here a little over a year before I had my own true line. We now have one ATM machine in town, and don’t even get me started on tortillas. You still can’t find a decent tortilla in this Berkshire/Columbia area. And why couldn’t I find them, because they were in the dairy section - refrigerated. Hello!! Why would I even think to look there. Oh the awful carboard they try to pass off as a tortilla.

Getting back on topic. Canaan is very unique in it’s location. Everything is close, yet so far. We are about 130 miles from NY City, and if you go the other way it’s about the same to Boston. *Yet since I have lived here I have been to neither one. Pittsfield, Ma (15-30 mins depending on destination)is the closet **(big) city, and that’s were I do much of my shopping. Hudson, NY (the other big city) is about a 50 min drive (well depending on how fast you go). Let’s just say you do much driving here. I average 400 miles/week going nowhere.

Canaan is a beautiful place to live though. A couple of my favorite places are Queechy lake:

and the country store. Where they have the best soup and sandwiches

And on the road in which I live

you can find historical sites:

wild animals:

and nature

*^{Have been to both in the past, just not lately}
**^{By big, I’m talking in general terms, neither are actual big cities. Just big when compared to what else is around.}

Posted in ABC-Along on Feb 13th, 2006