More fun in Delmarva!
I have met some people who grumbled about the trend toward “Patel Motels.” I don’t have a problem with it, myself. I admire anybody who moves from a familiar culture to seek their fortune. That takes courage, by the barrel. How many of those immigrants bought dying businesses, I wonder, and are now trying to squeeze a profit out of a stone?
I think the Patels named in the article should put up a sign with the exact wording as the people who put up this sign. They are American citizens, after all. Their business is just as much American owned as the other.
What’s a Delmarva and why do I care if one business owner attempts to make a big deal of it? Clearly, he is proud of his citizenship.
Oh wait, this is MPSIMS. Mundane? Check. Pointless? Check.
Delmarva Peninsula - the stretch of land between the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay on which sits Delaware, the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and a little bit of Virginia.
For those of us who have been to Delmarva (or grew up there), insular behavior and persons with heavy solar radiation dosages on the dorsal surface of their throat come as no surprise. It’s a peninsula with no Interstate highways, where the chickens outnumber the people by the highest ratio anywhere in America (in my county, it’s at least 500 to 1). Pickup trucks, gun racks, country music, and Proud Ta Be Uh-Merkin bumper stickers abound.
In other news, Canadians prefer ice hockey to water polo, and most residents of Boston prefer the Red Sox to the Yankees.
I am not a citizen. I pay ALL the American taxes the government takes. However, I am not eligible to benefit from the money that I pay into Social Security. Hmm.
I too have noticed this phenomena (immigrant-owned motels). What these folks are trying to do is next to impossible today. Take it from me (I’ve been in the hotel business) running a motel on a shoestring is a killer. If you buy a run-down old motel, you will be competing with newer chain-owned properties. All you can offer is a lower price…and none of the amenities. Plus, the maintainence on an old motel is a huge expense…that is why chains like MOTEL-6 totally renovate their properties every 5-7 years.
Can you grind out a living at it? Yes, but at the cost of 24/7 hours, and many headaches!
OK, I don’t have a whole lot to add here, but I feel compelled to post anyway. I grew up in Silver Spring, and now reside as my location indicates.
OK - so there may not be an interstate (though 95 passes thorugh New Castle County) but DE Route 1 paralells Route 13 and that’s at least a 4 lane toll road!
I think it depends on your circle as well. I mean, there are plenty of ignorant, backwards people in major metropolitan areas, they just get covered over by the intelligentsia.
The chickens are really only found downstate anyway (although the VA part of Delmarva is pretty scary).
Hear! Hear! We had a Patel family come into Rock Hill, South Carolina, and do the same thing. They started with one motel and by the time I left town, they had three and were adding more.
Yes, they did it by having family members work, but they’re working and doing it in a place that would not have been serviced by the major chains. Plus, they joined the chamber of commerce and made public donations to charities like the other businesses in the area. They moved in, adapted, and were making good.
That sh*t in Delmarva is not unique to the area. Arthur Fromme’s Budget Traveler magazine did an article on this type of racist crap within the last year, so it’s not a local phenominon by any means. I was also glad to see that in the next issue’s letters section was a good number of comments from travelers who liked staying at Indian-run motels, because they gave good service for the money.
I’d say more, but then you’d have to Pit the thread.
Ginger of the North, are you sure you can’t collect Social Security benefits? I understood that if you were in this country legally, and had SS payment deducted from your paycheck, you could collect after age 65.
This site http://www.ssa.gov/international/Agreement_Pamphlets/canada.html sure seems to imply you can collect.