After reading E.B. White’s Here is New York, I was impelled to observe my surrounding more carefully. I am unaware of the stores existing on my way home to the subway station, even though I pass them five days a week. The stores I will be talking about are located on the Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria. I do not know that some stores really exist there. After carful observation, I realized that there was a fresh meat store on the Ditmars Boulevard. I know that Trade Fair supermarket sells the packed meat, but the idea that there will be a separate butcher shop around does not come into my mind. I also do not know that a medical center is located there, too, despite of being next to a bagel and coffee shop that I noticed before. How oblivious I was.
Ditmars Boulevard is only two and a half blocks away from my house and Astoria-Ditmars subway station is eight blocks away. Let me list some of the stores that I noticed on Ditmars Boulevard between Steinway Street and 31st street. There are four groceries stores, three 99 cents stores, four hair saloons, two nail polishing stores, a barber shop, two bakeries, two seafood restaurants, a Japanese restaurant, a diner, Brooklyn Bagel and Coffee Company, Dunkin Donut, a Laundromat, a hardware store, and many more.
By looking at this, I couldn’t agree more with White’s statement: “each neighborhood is virtually self-sufficient.”
Have you done any close observation of your surrounding? I believe you will find something new if you do.
