Published: August 05, 2008 06:29 pm            

LUCINSKI: It’s August: We’re on ‘staycation’

If you’ve ever seen the 1959 musical “Gypsy,” you might remember one number that was way ahead of its time. It’s titled “You Gotta Get a Gimmick.”

During it, three strippers urge the young Louise (the future Gypsy Rose Lee) to make her act something special by introducing some sort of “gimmick” (If you’re gonna bump it, bump it with a trumpet). She took the advice (her gimmick was stripping with style and class) and the rest is history. Gypsy Rose Lee became the preeminent striptease artist of the 20th century.

Using a gimmick, a buzzword, a catch phrase or some sort of hook for an idea or a concept is a basic tool of public relations and advertising. Quite frankly, we’re suckers for it. It gets our attention.

The tourism industry has a new buzzword, a gimmick if you will, spawned by rising gasoline prices. The word is “staycation.”

Sure, it’s a made-up word. It drives the old spell-check haywire. It’s a merging of “stay at home” and “vacation.”

Jumping into the family car and driving halfway across the country to see something new is an American tradition (Wally World, anyone?). But driving a thousand miles or so at $4 a gallon is not all that appealing to some people. So the travel/tourism folks came up with the concept of the staycation.

It’s pretty simple: Take a look around at what you might consider your own back yard, or at least an extension of it. See if you can find enough fun things to do in your own hometown town to keep you and the family occupied for a few days or a week.

The staycation concept hit home after talking to some friends this weekend. Now these people are world travelers: They recently spent a couple of weeks in Egypt and are planning a trip to Ireland later this year. And, while they’re not senior citizens yet, they can see that hill on the horizon.

They are embracing the staycation idea. So far, they’re toured the caves in Lockport and experienced the Cave of the Winds at Niagara Falls (”better than any water park” was the ringing endorsement). It’s been so much fun, they plan more local getaways.

Whether you do it on a piecemeal basis or plan a week of activities, Niagara County and Western New York is fertile ground for the staycationer.

First, there’s the stuff that we locals once said was only for the tourists. For example, to my embarrassment, I must admit that in my 59 years in the Niagara Falls area I’ve never visited the Cave of the Winds. Shame on me. That’s now at the top of my personal staycation list. Unless you’ve had out-of-town guests you’ve hosted over the years, there are probably local attractions you’ve never seen. Now’s the time to do it.

And now, there are the local festivals and concert series. The list has grown. If you plan it right, you could be a summertime perpetual motion machine and never leave Niagara County. There’s the Canal Festival and the Italian Festival and the Peach Festival and the Lewiston Art Festival and the Jazz Festival.

And, speaking of music, there are sounds for every taste all season long; the big free concerts at Artpark on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the concert series in Lockport and the Tonawandas.

But wait! There’s more. There also seems to be as many weekly concert series as there are local communities. Virtually every town and city has one; the Town of Niagara on Monday, Niagara Falls Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, Wheatfield on Sundays and music on various nights of the week at Hennepin Park in Lewiston. Youngstown has its own series. If I’ve left any out (and I’m sure I have) I apologize. It’s just that there’s so many of them. So much to do, so little summer.

The price of gasoline seems to have stabilized. The cost of crude oil had dropped by more than 15 percent in recent weeks. But even if it goes substantially lower, this staycation thing could have some staying power. High gas prices have opened some eyes as to what’s around here. There’s a lot. All you have to do is look around.



Dick Lucinski is the managing editor of the Niagara Gazette. His columns appear on Wednesday and Sunday.

        

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