Susan C. Larkin

In 1972 my husband Tim and I moved to a house on Bailor Road, east of Ithaca, in the town of Caroline. Bailor Road ascends the west side of a hill, steep at times, and our house is near the top.

In 2008 I finished a book called Our Neighborhood, a collection of photographs and stories about people who live on Bailor Road. Many of these neighbors were connected to Cornell University, and we had all arrived after 1970. One might call us newcomers.

But there is another way to climb our hill. Buffalo Road, also steep at times, ascends on the northwest side. Many families on this road have lived in the same area for generations.

For the last two years I’ve been asking our neighbors on Bailor and Buffalo Roads the same question: “What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think about living on our hill?”

Neighbors from Buffalo Road shared stories I’d not heard when I wrote Our Neighborhood. Topics ranged from farming to car repair to tales of youthful escapades on land I now think of as mine.

This book is a collection of stories from people on both roads. What I’ve learned from asking everyone the same question is that there are more intersections between us than we might have imagined.