Visioning

The Upper Delaware River Corridor

Mixing the past and the present

I came to the Upper Delaware 28 years ago because the man who later became my husband had property here that he purchased to satisfy his need to fish on a regular basis. After a heart attack and a series of stressful events related to his job as a theatre consultant, he decided one day to quit the city and live here permanently. He brought me here several times to spend the weekend on the river and to visit the area. I was always ready to go back. He spoke often of how beautiful it was here. Unlike most people who are instantly wowed by the beauty here, I was harder to impress. After all, I grew up in Maine, some parts of which are unrivaled in the beauty department.

However, with each trip I did fall a little more in love with the Upper Delaware, and particularly with Narrowsburg for reasons other than its beauty. This was a place that was weirdly tolerant. I had thought I never wanted to live in a small town again for what I perceived to be lack of opportunity, tolerance or diversity. This was also a place where one could do business with a handshake, where the population was diverse (more diverse than today) and where people, for no reason at all, would stop in and give you vegetables from the garden or a fish that they had caught. I stayed.

Two years later I was widowed and expected to stay only long enough to get things in order with my own life and with the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, which I had founded with my husband and a few handfuls of good citizens. But the Upper Delaware continued to seduce me despite the entreaties from my parents and others to move. I’ve been here ever since—by choice.

In envisioning the future of the Upper Delaware, I’d like to take equal parts of the past and present mixed with good planning to form a foundation for the future. Our historical buildings and cemeteries, our folkways and our “collective memories” as recorded by our local historical societies make us unique as citizens of the Upper Delaware. Our present day attempts at balancing growth with quality of life, of mixing the arts into our everyday lives, of searching out creative ways to make a living, of preserving our precious river and of finding new business paradigms may seem a struggle now but places us firmly on the road to a future that keeps our small town sensibility while allowing our young people to make their place here, too, if they choose.

I feel privileged to have lived and worked here for twenty-eight years. I want others who may come upon this place and set down roots to have the same positive experience.

[Elaine Giguere is the Executive Director of Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, the arts council for Sullivan County, New York.]

This bi-weekly feature is part of a visioning initiative to develop and encourage smart growth as a means of enhancing and preserving the Upper Delaware River corridor. If you are interested in contributing to this column, email editor@riverreporter.com or call 845/252-7414.