"The Great Neck Idea"

Ariella Aghalarian

English 110

Professor Schwartz

“The Great Neck idea”

The “Great Neck” idea

“So, where are you from?” asked the young African American who was guiding me through the subway system. With much embarrassment because of my lack of knowledge of this apparently well known system I replied “Great Neck”. Knowing that his response would involve his disbelief in my lack of this knowledge and comments on what he has heard about how “Great Necker’s” live.

To my surprise, I was not offended when he said that the spectrum of our knowledge on public transportation included: The LIRR, a private taxi and the bus by the village school which “only our housekeepers take”. Not to mention that our other means of transportation were by car (which most of us demand by the time we turn sixteen and can barely afford).

With all of this happening within seconds of my first subway ride (ever), I finally get on the subway and I notice myself instantly tense up at the site of all these different faces and I wonder why I have been living in a huge bubble my entire life. I'm thinking that living in the "real world" is the same as living in Great Neck, but it's not. Here, the worst thing we've witnessed was a few robberies when who knows what's happened everywhere else. I mean, the closest that some residents ever got to what they think is the “ghetto” is steamboat road (which is even put in the same category because the majority of it is occupied by “non-white” Americans who had the brains to buy houses and cars they can actually afford), and the closest some (including me) ever got to even taking a bus was when we had to think about how to commute to and from college. Because of course we would rather take a bus than have to drive in something other than a Range Rover that our parents put all their savings towards and we are limiting ourselves to affordable colleges for.

Oh, and as far as school is concerned, for the past six years, after I left yeshiva, I have not gone to a school farther than walking distance from my house. I went to Great Neck North Middle/ High school. These two public schools were populated with so many white, predominately Jewish, people that many were amazed when a few African American kids started walking through our hallways. We were so pampered that even when some kid (who was conveniently of Spanish decent) brought a knife to school (which may be a daily occurrence for some), we all had assemblies and “counseling if needed” for the next three days. I couldn't understand what had this kid so much against my brother that he would resort to threatening him with a knife. Each student had their own parking by the time we were able to drive. There was a “designated smoker’s” section. And the guy at the deli near school even knew everyone who went there by their first names because they’d spend between forty-five minutes to an hour there everyday. Thinking that only “North Students” are like that? Think again. There’s been a “rivalry” between North and South students since the beginning of time (for no apparent reason), and most of us didn’t even know where south was. The worst part of it all was, with all this going on at North and South schools we still all always thought that only “messed up” kids go to the Village School, when it was really just a different school for more artistically expressive kids.

What do we do when we’re not being pampered in school? Go to town. EVERYTHING is there. Whether it be going to the movies, out to one of the very many restaurants there are here or just walking around and shopping in overpriced clothing stores- mostly everything we need is right around the corner. Or even just go to king’s point just to drool over the billions of houses you wish you had, but you can’t afford. Don’t get me wrong, we are normal people living normal lives, we’re just suffering society’s thoughts about what’s socially acceptable and what’s not. After all, once you go Great Neck, you can’t go back.