“I’d like to spend Christmas in Elmira with my family.”

“In the 1946 film It’s a Wonderful Life, the character of Carter, the bank examiner (played by Charles Halton) mentions Elmira, NY by saying, `I’d like to spend Christmas in Elmira with my family.'” (Elmira, New York [wikipedia, accessed 20110804])

My friend and colleague Dave Lewis, after years in which he would occasionally punctuate our conversations by impersonating the bank examiner uttering this line (as well as the contemptuously dismissive remark “I suppose they do those things”), recently had occasion to visit Elmira with his family.

Somewhat disappointingly, Dave reported that Elmira has seen better days, it looks a bit “sketchy,” he actually felt the need to somewhat hastily take his family and get out of Dodge.

According to the wikipedia article cited above, in 1950 Elmira’s population peaked at 50,000, but today the population is 30,000. Wikipedia attributes the decline to “the national decline in railroads and manufacturing.” I suspect otherwise. Here are my thoughts on the topic, as expressed in an e-mail to Dave:

Hate to say it, but it seems like your visit to Elmira proved Potter was right. If Potter had prevailed, Elmira wouldn’t have a discontented, lazy rabble but would instead have a thrifty, working class. Seems the bank examiner got exposed to George Bailey and some other starry-eyed dreamers down in Bedford Falls, when he returned to Elmira to celebrate Christmas with his family the contagion spread to the whole of Elmira, and the folk got stirred up to the point their heads are full of a lot of impossible ideas.