Mansions and Ghettos and Top Pop

I came across an article today, CNN's "25 Top Earning Towns in the Country."



Listed at no. 1 was New Canaan, Connecticut, a place I once lived. Actually, I believe I technically lived in Greenwich, CT, but I knocked on doors in New Canaan, Greenwich, and Darien. All three were in the top fifteen wealthiest communities in the country. The average family income for New Canaan is $231,138.

What's funny to me now is how I had no idea about any this when I went into Connecticut. I didn't even know where Connecticut was on a map. I was a missionary in New York City, but we had small section of CT in our mission boundaries because it was a part of the New York City Stake, and the MTA subway trains went there. I soon learned that all the people too rich for Manhattan commuted there every night. I was transferred to CT because of my shoulder surgery. They wanted to keep me in a driving area until I recuperated. I had never seen such palatial mansions and wealth outside of movies and TV. I still recall driving around these neighborhoods and seeing dozens of Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Vipers, Bentleys, even Rolls Royces... High school kids were driving BMWs. Escalades were the typical soccer mom minivan.



Out of curiosity, I did a little more research and discovered this:

"Census Bureau Cites Bronx Continues to Be Poorest Urban Neighborhood in U.S."



No kidding!

So yes, all missionaries love to brag about either vast poverty/wealth of their respective areas. And yes, different reports will list different places in the U.S. for each. But I'm proud to say I served in the richest and poorest places in this country. They were only a few miles apart, too.



A bishop in Connecticut once took me and my companion out for a birthday dinner with his son and wife. His son was allowed to pick two people and the kid chose us. He was a very kind man and his family was wonderful. Dinner was superb, and at the end of the meal I glimpsed the check. It was, as I recall, over eight-hundred dollars. A good meal to say the least, but it didn't hold a candle to a slice of Cross-Bronx Pizza for a buck seventy-five, fifty cents for a Top-Pop.