Six things I learned about Dunkirk, N.Y.

From my visit this past July, I learned:

One: That this looks like the factory where despair is manufactured;

Two: That the shrubbery at the James Turk Murphy Volunteer Fireman’s Training Ground looks fine from the front,

but from the side, makes my inner 14-year-old giggle;

Three: That we didn’t find A Wright Park; we found THE Wright Park;

Four: That this half-Lab, half-Border Collie is adorable;

Five: That the Coburn Block building in downtown Dunkirk

has a unique color scheme

and is made of parts marked “Dunkirk Iron Works. Dunkirk N.Y. 1868”

and has seen better days;

Six: That the Lake Erie beach at Dunkirk is near this defunct power plant

and is maybe just a mile from a beach marked with this sign

and is labeled

and smelled like rotting fish when it didn’t smell like chemicals, but had dozens of people wading and swimming on the day I visited, including these people below,

and my friend who lives near Dunkirk, but who does not frolic on the beach, commented, “Those are some people making the most of their lives. God damn them. I mean, God bless ’em.”