From Danbury to California

The red couch sits waiting for the conversation yet to begin in Glendale, California. On it sits the anxious and retired 62-year old Levon Yapoujian, a tall man with an intelligent smile on his face. He remains patient as his granddaughter prepares to interview him as he calls her name across the room. She excitedly hurries quickly next to him to hear about the history of Danbury Connecticut. He tells his stories like it was yesterday, remembering everything that had happened to him, from the smallest to the greatest things or events. The things he tells her convinces her to want to visit his small hometown and do whatever he’s done throughout his stay there. As he brings up the stories that come to his head, these were the times, he says, that he wishes to re-visit one day and re-live the old days.

I lived in Danbury in 1979 and the population was almost 28-30 thousand at that time. I only moved to California, because I have has this kind of arthritis and the pain started because the weather is cold over there in the winter. Otherwise the people are so nice.

The people are so friendly; I don’t know how to explain. If the people see somebody on the road that is stuck or their car broke down, doesn’t matter, they stop and ask if they need any help. Once I forgot my cell phone and I was stuck on the roadside with my car and all of a sudden I see three to four times, people stopped and tried to help me out and asked of I needed any kind of help like calling the tow truck. They’re so friendly. We have public schools, colleges, private schools, and the business is good. Most people have their own houses, not like here; all or most of them live in apartments and it’s a very safe place.

The people don’t ask you what your religion is or where you come from as long as they see each other and just lift up their head and say hello. They call each other to the barbeque. When you walk and want to pass the street in California you have to walk in special places, but in Danbury they just stop and say walk. It’s completely different. We had news and received it from the TV and the newspaper; it’s almost like here.

In Danbury, most of the people are American, Italian, and Portuguese. There are the Greek festivals, Italian festivals, Portuguese festival and also have a lot of clubs. Danbury is the richest place and is a base for the submarines Connecticut makes for the army.

We have the four seasons over there and the summer is beautiful. In my spare time I go fishing. Connecticut, like I said, is such a safe place and they have a lot of places you can go to. You can even go to the ocean, that takes us thirty-five minutes from the place you live in.

In the richest place there are the high class people. I wasn’t like a high class but its like a rich place and they have their own companies there. I worked over at there the IBM Company; it’s a nice benefit, nice company, and a nice business. They have too many businesses over there. There are no classifications for the poor people.

There was good education. Schools over there are different. The people are not like the crowd in New York or like the crowd in Lo Angeles. Compared to Los Angeles, Connecticut is a small, slow town. We don’t have teenage problems in public schools or high schools. It’s so quite and safe over there, everything is perfect. Like night time nobody likes to walk. Over there, you can walk after midnight, you won’t have any problems. It’s safety that counts.

We don’t have big apartments like California, only the big City Hall which is a little bigger because City Hall has too many offices for the public, but otherwise most of them are one floor or two floors. They’re like colonial houses, ranch houses, and town houses; but most of them are like colonial houses and ranch houses.

After when the pain started in my arm I went to the doctor and said it’s arthritis number 1. They gave me the choice to either go to California or either go to Arizona, because of its dry weather. Over there the winter time’s humidity is like 90%. Cold goes into your bones. That’s why I just move here.

There are lots of memories, the winter time especially. When its snowing in the winter, you get up in the morning to find 18-20 inches of snow covering the house. You can’t even open the door and you have to get out the back and go into the garage. Take the shovel and start to search for my car. That’s how much snow there was. It takes me three four hours to clean, but that is the fun part and also hard. For couple hours I would be sweating, exercising, it’s a tough time. Snow time, winter time we have a lot of fun. Summer time we go fishing after work and it’s just a relaxation for a couple hours. We have a lot of lakes and oceans. Snow time we go for the ice fishing when the weather is like the below five there. Then we know that we can stand up on top of the lake. We get the pole and make the hole and catch the fish. So it’s lots of fun.

I’m not really happy that I moved here but I’m still happy, I’m happy but, I still miss them over there and sometimes when I go over there for a week or two weeks I said time goes by fast. I miss it over there, because I lived most of my life there and I enjoy being there. Doesn’t mean I don’t like it here. I like it here, but still. Wherever you stay longer you like it more, especially that kind of place, quiet and safe.

You see less people on the streets over there, not because something’s not right. No. Because here it’s too crowded, over there, there are less people. That’s the difference. If I had two houses and I could afford them, I would live there in the summer and California in the winter. In the beginning it was a little was hard after I moved here. But after I moved, I said it’s alright. But I still go to visit my friends over there once or twice a year.