a.k.a. V.J.

There is an episode of M*A*S*H in which Hawkeye is tending to a patient and talking about that man’s hometown. Hawkeye describes a number of the town’s landmarks including an American Legion Hall, a restaurant that serves “the world’s greasiest French fries,” and a Studebaker dealership that heralded the arrival of new models with searchlights. When the patient confirms that his town fit that description and asks Hawkeye when he visited the place, Hawkeye responds, “Never. I grew up in the same small town in Maine.”

I was reminded of that exchange a couple days ago, when I visited the city of Dunkirk, New York. I had never been there before, but so many aspects of the place reminded me of Oswego that I felt like I might as well have grown up around Dunkirk.

Dunkirk is in Chautauqua County on the shore of Lake Erie. It’s that corner of the state on the other side of Buffalo that I call Western Western New York. Jen and I went there as a side trip on our way to the National Comedy Center in nearby Jamestown. We were there to visit Dunkirk’s lighthouse, thereby expanding the scope of our Lake Ontario Lighthouse Project to include the next Great Lake over.

In addition to being home to a Great Lakes lighthouse, Dunkirk has a lot more in common with Oswego. The two cities are comparable in size, with Dunkirk being a bit smaller. Both cities are stops on the Seaway Trail. Both places used to be larger manufacturing centers than they currently are, but have managed to retain some industry. Both are small cities lying on the outer fringe of larger metropolitan areas (Buffalo and Syracuse respectively). Like Oswego, Dunkirk was the site of some fighting during the War of 1812. While Dunkirk is not a college town itself, SUNY Fredonia is only a few miles away in an adjacent town. Dunkirk’s lakeshore even features a (now defunct) power plant that looks a lot like Oswego’s lakeside steam-generating plant.

When we were leaving Dunkirk, I went on social media and joked that Dunkirk the city was much less exciting than the movie of the same name. That cheap shot aside, I had developed some affection for the little city during my brief visit there. It seems like a place where I would perfectly happy to live. Any time you can travel 200 miles from your house and still feel at home, it’s quite nice.