Way Over Yonder

A month ago, I was in the first few days of my first visit to the States since I moved to England in December 2006. I know living in the States is easier, but that awareness has moved to the background since I first moved here.

I was on cloud nine for the entire twelve days of my visit. The weather cooled off a little just in time for me to get highs of only about 90F in southeast Texas. Colorado gave me a couple of days around 90F, some cooler days with a hint of autumn in the air, and nights with just the right bit of high altitude chill. It was sunny and beautiful the whole time, in both places. Carole King’s rendition of Way Over Yonder ran through my mind over and over.

The main reason for my visit was to finalize a business deal in Colorado, but I had plenty of time to relax and enjoy.

In Texas, my mother was recovering from surgery. She had just gotten well enough to be able to drive again and was sampling different foods now that she could leave the house and eat anything she liked again.

Since I was eager to eat everything I hadn’t tasted in nearly four years, we had a perfect excuse to make the rounds of favorite places to eat. I continued that theme in Colorado too. It was all wonderful! Tex-Mex, Cajun, Lebanese, American… I didn’t realize how much I miss some of those dishes until I got to eat them again. The only thing I would have liked to eat that I didn’t get around to was a buffalo burger. British cuisine is not as grim as it used to be, but it certainly isn’t “like home.”

I wrapped and mailed holiday gifts I had brought for family in the States. Then I went shopping. Compared with British prices, nearly everything seemed cheap, almost free! I stocked up on things that are impossible or terribly expensive to get in the UK.

I saw erratic economic signs. Although unemployment is still high, the overall sense of prosperity in southeast Texas was a stark contrast to anything I have seen in the UK for the past couple of years. When I looked more closely, I saw some shuttered businesses. I saw some homes and commercial buildings that have not been repaired since hurricane Ike two years ago. But most people carried themselves with an energy and bustle that shouted optimism.

Colorado did not look beaten down, as some high streets here do. But Denver and Colorado Springs were building four years ago, and that stopped abruptly. In some places, my brother could point out an exact line where a developer stopped building.

Colorado Springs, the Rocky Mountain version of Silicon Valley and site of the USA’s Cheyenne Mountain missile defense center, seemed to be hurting more than Denver.

Newspapers claimed Colorado Springs is no longer turning on street lights except where wealthy neighbourhoods band together to pay extra for the lighting. That’s an exaggeration. Over lunch with a friend there, he said street lights are on, but not all of them. Every second or third light is disabled to save money.

Some Denver firms are still releasing workers, but often in a trickle that does not make enough noise to reach the newspaper. The city lost most of the oil related firms that rushed there a few years ago. Denver’s economic base is more diverse than Colorado Springs’ and that has kept it looking somewhat more hopeful.

But in Colorado, I heard more anxiety about job security than in Texas. I noted people there still changing their living arrangements to reduce costs. I did not see as much bustle and confidence.

Putting together admittedly small anecdotal signs, I have to reluctantly say that my bellwether client’s recent good news does not mean the entire USA economy is recovering at a pace everyone would like to see. Recovery there is still spotty, with some sectors thriving and others struggling to catch up. That doesn’t bode well for Britain, which would love to be able to ride the coattails of a swift American economic recovery.

There are some places that have managed to mostly avoid the tribulations of the last couple of years, but both the USA and Britain are right in the thick of it, and it isn’t a fun ride.