Trends and Entertainment

No Crisis in This Country

Ever since I left Manhattan for the quiet country life two years ago, I’ve missed the feeling of being in the center of the action: Buying the latest boots or colorful trench or micro-mini the morning it hits the stores, knowing about the hot new book before it’s on shelves because I met the author at a cocktail party, swapping ideas that just may become the next cultural trends. But being on the periphery is much more appealing these days. In New York City, everyone is talking recession. In New Paltz, the village up the Hudson where I live, everyone is discussing seed catalogues and tire chains and the estimated date for the last freeze.

The recession just isn’t happening with the same force in the Catskills. Sure, housing prices are down, grocery bills are up, and my babysitter just lost her day job at a non-profit. But most people in this laid-back, outdoorsy, grow-your-own-food-then-compost-it college town didn’t make or spend much money in the first place.

Living on the edge of the Catskills renders many urban necessities obsolete. Weekly manicures? Nail polish just chips when rock-climbing. High heels? Not in this mud. When you mainly wear clogs or hiking boots or Teva sandals, a few basic pairs last all year. Fashionable clothes sit unworn in the closet. Sometimes, on visits to the city, I break down and buy the latest fashion trend. But I never have had an occasion in the country to wear the leggings-and-tunic combo, or thigh-high boots.

We don’t rely on restaurants for all our meals and coffee. I grow my own food–or at least my own basil–and gardener friends are always giving away bushels of produce. I don’t need expensive massages because I’m not stressed out. Working parents in the city pay $800 a week for full-time childcare, then dole out more money for baby enrichment classes like music or gymnastics. “So the nannies will have something to do,” as one Manhattan-based father recently told me.

Suzy Sureck, a visual artist from Manhattan who moved upstate days before September 11th to take a job at SUNY New Paltz, says she’s not only saving money on clothes and cabs, but also on socializing. “In the city I’m always going to restaurants and shows with friends,” she says. “We have drinks, see films, go to museums. All of that costs money. Friendships in the country are based on shared interests, such as hiking. Or we go swimming in nearby lakes, streams and waterfalls. We go cross-country skiing right out my back door. None of this costs money.”

Then there’s the biggest savings of all: Real estate. Sureck bought her 1,000-square-foot log cabin with adjoining barn-turned-studio on 2.5 acres in 2001. Cost: $167,000. Today, she estimates her property is worth $350,000. “Or maybe $300,000 with the recession,”she says. She has views of the Shawangunk Ridge and Mohonk Tower, and can hike off her property into 300 acres of orchards, fields and woods. And, equally important from a money-saving point of view–her property is large enough that she can actually stay home a night or two without going stir-crazy.

I don’t know that I’ll stay up here for good, but one thing I’ve inadvertently learned from this experiment in non-urban living: If you’ve been living frugally all along, cutting back isn’t such a big blow.

Wendy Paris is a freelance writer no longer living in Manhattan.

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