Binghamton

This weekend was a lot of fun. I went with Elissa and her family to a wedding in Binghamton, NY. I got to meet a lot of the family and a good time was had by all. I learned a lot about Binghamton and here is some history for you courtesy of Wikipedia.

The city was named after William Bingham, a wealthy Philadelphian who bought the surrounding land in 1792. Before that, the first known people of European descent to come to the area were the troops of Gen. John Sullivan in 1779, during the American Revolutionary War.


Binghamton was nicknamed the “Parlor City” for its neat streets and attractive homes, including many stately mansions. Ironically, many of those stately mansions are now funeral parlors. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, many immigrants moved to the area, finding an abundance of jobs, leading them to call it the “Valley of Opportunity.”

From 1923 to 1927 Binghamton was the Northeast headquarters of the Ku Klux Klan.[1]

Greater Binghamton is noted as being the birthplace of the Link flight simulator as well as IBM. Until the Cold War ended, the area never experienced an economic downfall, due in part to the generosity of employers (IBM and Endicott-Johnson) and also because of its defense-heavy industries. This concentration of the defense industry made the area the seventh most likely area in the nation for a nuclear attack during the Cold War [citation needed], and the population peaked at around 85,000 in 1950.

Binghamton refers to itself as the “carousel capital of the world,” with six antique Herschell carousels in the region - one of the world's largest functional collections of old-style carousels. The Binghamton Zoo at Ross Park is the fifth-oldest zoo in the nation. The Binghamton area is the home of the regional dish known as the spiedie, celebrated at the annual Spiedie Fest and Balloon Rally, held at Otsiningo Park. The area’s Kopernik Space Center observatory is the largest public observatory in the northeast, and Binghamton was named in 2007 as the 9th greenest city in the U.S. by Country Home magazine.

We got back last night and I was able to catch some of the Emmys. I noticed that the censors were having a little too much fun with their sensor button. They pushed it while Ray Romano was doing his stand up and during many other points in the evening.

Fall is in the air. Hope you have a great week!