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July 29 today's summaryWoke up at 11am(because yesterday we went home at 1am after watching "dark knight" on IMAX, that was the second time i fell asleep during THAT MOVIE)
 Had breakfast, then i headed to bed again, had a nap until 1:50pm.
Had a shower and went to the children's home where i'm babysitting.
They pretty much swam and grilled burgers while i was there. Dustin seemed smarter than before...but there were always some crazy stupid things he does around me, like today, he put his foot in his mouth after he drank chocolate milk. I told him it's dirty and he spitted out in the sink, then grinned. Most of the time, he is very smart for a six-year-old.
I left their house at 5:40pm.
After that I headed to Buffalo Wild Wings, it's wings tuesday after all. wings are only half price compared to other days. I had 15 wings, Asian Zing, Sweet BBQ, and Wild flavors. The waiter asked me twice if I want a box during my meal, i had tears in my eyes and told him that i only needed more napkins. Haha!
I left the restaurant with no wings left in my plate! And i thought for a moment whether i should do laundry tonight or go to the library to use the wireless connection(my new apartment won't have internet until August!!!)I could do the laundry tomorrow morning.
I am feeling content with wings in my stomach.
 July 11 发现一个惊天大秘密 听起来都不像真的。那就是我下要住的Town of North Tonawanda历史上是个sundown town。Sundown town就是太阳下山前所有黑人必须离开的小镇，根据当地不同情况，有些sundown town还要在太阳下山之前驱逐其他非白人或者犹太人的。
下面是两个former tonawanda residents的回忆：
Former Tonawanda Resident:
"Lots of blacks in the area, such as Buffalo to the South and Niagara Falls to the north but not in Tonawanda or North Tonawanda. Erie Canal, renamed NY State Barge Canal, passes through Tonawanda, and blacks worked on boats going along it, so it was a major route. Some black man allegedly did something bad; whites drove out all blacks or forbade them to live there after that." Former Tonawanda Resident: "I was wonderng if you looked at the town I grew up in. Tonawanda, NY. It is located along the Niagara River about half way between Buffalo and Niagara Falls. There are three Tonawandas. One is the Town of Tonawanda in Erie County which has a population of 60K , the next is the City of Tonawanda in Erie County with a population of about 20K, and the city of North Tonawanda in Niagara County. The two cities are the focus. They are split by the mouth of the Erie Canal into the Niagara River. The cities have a much older waterfront/downtown areas which have homes from early 1900s or earlier. The rest of the towns built up during the late 50s and early 60s. Tonawanda is fully developed (since the late 60s) and North Tonawanda still has land for new home exurb development. The homes within about 5 blocks of the water are over 100 years old. The others were built in the 1950s and 1960s. In North Tonawanda there are some new development sections. The cities have had a football rivalry in high school that has gone on for over 100 yrs. The older sections of the towns have a small town mentality even though it is in the heart of suburbia. The older sections of the cities generally are made up of multiple generations where people stay close to parents and everyone knows gossip about everyone else. During the early 60s the city of Tonawanda was known for the racism with cross burnings. When I went through school in the mid 70s and 80s there were probably a handful of minority families. The high school had about 2 4 minorities (from 2 families, one black an one Laosian). The one thing the city did out of tradition was the ringing of the the 9pm horn that would be heard throughout the old section of the city. Its purpose was to vacate the town of backs after dark. In the city the racism has changed. Instead of being overt, like you could find in the rural south, it has become more subtle. It is more based on stereotypes and the idea that one could work with, or talk to blacks but they wouldn't see themselves being close friends with them. They would also say stuff when in private that were more stereotypical than blatant racist. I grew up in the outer, relatively newer areas of the city of Tonawanda. My parents following many who moved to the suburbs from the city. My father spent his career as an inner city Buffalo high school which was mostly minority or immigrants and English was a second language. When I was a kid and you would hear that horn, you started realizing a pattern of it going off at the same time. Initially it may sound like an emergency siren. I don't even recall when I learned, but I learned about it from friends or their parents that the horns original purpose was for the town exit. I may have learned about it roughly when I was when I was around 12, early 1980s.（根据这人的年龄看来North Tonawanda在70年代末还是sundown town阿） As I said before, people would talk in private some things that they would never say in public." 还有个现代人回忆他曾祖父年代的North Tonawanda：
My Great Grandfather owned a construction company in North Tonawanda, NY (just north of Buffalo) during the early-ish 1900's and he had in his employ a large number of blacks. Every night he had to bus them to the edge of town and every morning he had to bus them back. Pissed him off, I guess. He tried to get the law changed, but no luck. It wasn't until he was long gone that it was finally was corrected.
sundown town理论上早就没有了，不过现实中是否还存在是个谜。
有人写了一本关于sundown town的书，这里有开头的节选：
July 06 学校找工作网站招聘启事一则Aquasol Corporation
July 04 Jakob Dylan演出前后 我们Buffalo这里每个夏天的周四都有Thursday at the Square, 是在Lafeyette Square举办免费音乐会。以前经常邀请Goo Goo Dolls(因为他们是Buffalo本土的），今年的大牌一个应该算是Bob Dylan的儿子Jakob Dylan,还有一个是Zappa啥的。我今天是头一次去那儿参加这个活动。到了地方发现已经人山人海了。因为是老少皆宜的活动，所以看到有老年夫妇一起，也有中学生。
演唱会如期举行，挺精彩的，Jakob Dylan的嗓音很像他爸的沙哑，歌曲很流畅上口，我最喜欢“Evil alive and well". 我今天主要说的不是演唱会，而是演唱会之后看到的令我惊讶的景象。。。
我以前到downtown，那里总是一幅ghost town的无人景象，原来到了夏天，尤其是thursday at the square这种性质像大型露天party，这里就热闹得不得了。这里的步行街有无数中学生走着，道路两旁有旁若无人弹着吉他的，还有跟朋友抽烟聊天的，还有酒后呕吐的，还有酒后说胡话的。。。年轻人居多，因为老年人普遍提前离开或者还留在舞台的前面。
Buffalo的地铁这是也最大限度发挥着作用，今天坐地铁的人太多了。基本都是中学生模样的小孩子。吵吵嚷嚷的，不过还挺有意思的，这边的青少年会专门因为法律对饮酒年龄的限制而对酒精好奇所以上中学就饮酒，或者吸烟，还认为这样很酷。
今天在步行街的地面上看到有人画的跳房子的格子旁边还有这么句话，哈哈，好可爱！在附上几张downtown大街人多的照片！
后来回到家后又跟Sue去Denny's夜宵了。因为是美国国庆节前夜，所以Denny's里的人奇多，大家都昼夜颠倒了。
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