I’m so glad I escaped Rochester.
I grew up in Syracuse. To me, Rochester was a gleaming, high-tech jewel. When Ronald Reagan spoke of "a shining city on a hill," I visualized Rochester on a hill.
Kodak, with their wonderful advertisements showing a Kodachrome world. Bausch & Lomb, makers of beautiful lenses with their sexy blue fluorite coatings. Xerox, high-tech world leader, darling of Wall Street. The Eastman School of Music, the Eastman Wind Ensemble.
I got to spend a few days there in the fall of 1972 (I was in the All State Jazz Ensemble that year). As my parents drove me home, I cried silently as the city receded behind us.