Have you ever been to New Amsterdam? If you are from the Northeast or a hungry, upwardly mobile, capitalist or anti-capitalist, you have been there or live there now.
How about a visit to its name sake? The old world version of the megalopolis of today, Amsterdam in addition Den Haag and Rotterdam set the stage for what is today one of the economic capitals of the world, New York.
We owe a lot to the Dutch. First and foremost is international trade. The Dutch were more interested in this aspect of life than anything else. When the British crushed their navy and took all their colonies, they did not suffer as did Spain and France. They stayed on in the countries they once held and made themselves useful taxpayers for their new “masters”. They never lost sight of the ultimate necessity, profit.
Look at how they began. Several tribes of Germanic origin that were forced out of Europe proper into the Swamps we now know as The Netherlands. Did they starve, obviously not! No, they took soil from the mainland for fill, employed the windmill as a pump driver and dried out the land even when it was lower than the North Sea. Their ports became the easiest and safest in Europe for trade. By handling the goods of others and profiting from every item, they soon became both a military and a financial power house.
So next time you visit the place known as the US’s first city, remember who got it and the US started.
I know, because my family’s first American inhabitant other than a Mohawk young lady was Dutch. He worked his way north from New Amsterdam to a place eventually called Newburgh and began to trade with his father-in-law for furs and other things the Europe of his day wanted. The Hudson’s Bay Company was the first commercial concern in the US. When the British came the Dutch just stayed and have been here for the last 350+ years.
I know, because my family’s first American inhabitant other than a Mohawk young lady was Dutch. He worked his way north from New Amsterdam to a place eventually called Newburgh and began to trade with his father-in-law for furs and other things the Europe of his day wanted. The Hudson’s Bay Company was the first commercial concern in the US. When the British came the Dutch just stayed and have been here for the last 350+ years.
This bit of history is not the theme of my offering in words. A Lion in New York is somewhat simpler and more complicated. Things haven’t gone perfectly for the financial giant. Discount 911 and the latest downturn, the city is bankrupt. What do I mean? Without the US Government and the rest of the State of New York they would cease to exist. “The City” is running in the red for it cannot generate enough revenue to pay for itself, its welfare and its politicians.
That brings me to the point I guess. There is something missing in all this glitz and political smoke and mirrors. I have lived “up-state” and can tell you there are those who would give the city back to the Indians. Any tribe other than New Yorkers could open some casinos; sell un-taxed cigarettes and gas, supporting the rest, easily. That is if they felt philanthropic.
My first associations with New York were with my maiden aunt who took me there to see musicals from the age of 10. She would take me to the best smorgesboard in an older section of the city. It was a real taste treat and made me love foods from everywhere. Even earlier, as a child of 4 and 5 in Newburgh, my father’s uncle Jim was a conductor on the New York Central Railroad. His run was from the City to Newburgh. So my mom and I would go to the rail yard and visit him most days. As many others in town, we got many things that made life better from uncle Jim. He could buy things “down-state” that were not available in a little river town. So I always wanted to go. Once just before we moved south he let me move a switch engine with several cars around the yard for about 15 minutes. OSHA would have been scandalized.
Then we went, right on by to Trenton, well Lawrenceville so my dad could build a sewerage treatment plant. So there I was, growing up 55 minutes by train from the City. When I got into high school, sneaking up to the City was something we did along with cutting Fridays in the spring to go to Point Pleasant and Manasquan to swim and get a tan before school was out.
So I learned young that I had a tie to the City. Then a long time later I had the fortune to work there for UPS at 43rd Street and 12th Avenue to replace and then finally remodel an old truck transfer station called Manhattan South. I spent many nights there working late and staying in a company apartment. In the morning I would run to Central Park, sometimes taking the subway up to be able to run through the place. It fascinated me and became a central part of my story.
I finished my Lion in New York about 10 years ago, but stopped efforts to publish it because of Disney’s interference. Madagascar showed the park and its zoo in a light I did not want to follow. Now that 2 and 3 have come out it is probably safe to say something more realistic, but not completely about the park I learned to love.
As for a bio: I currently work in the Oil and Gas industry on a project based in Moscow, the Russian Federation. My wife is Russian, but has a love affair with the City too. We live in Moscow and Samara about 1,000 kilometers East and South of Moscow, as well as, Sugar Land, Texas. I have had the good fortune to live in Cameroon, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kazakhstan as well.
Tune in next time for the start of my tale to see how you like it. There are three books to this tale but only one in the park.
Bill Patton, alias Willy Chastain
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