In/Out
I gave directions today, and they went something like this.
"Okay, you see where they're tearing up the road over there? Just after you pass the concrete truck, make a left and follow the street down past the new student apartments they're building until you see a strip mall fenced off for demolition. If you see a second construction zone, you've gone too far."
I think I'm finally getting the hang of this place. Towns in the midwest breathe in cycles, and here there are seasons for planting, seasons for construction, and seasons for sitting quietly at home and drinking hot cocoa.
I've had people tell me that all of this is due to the weather, and that in a place with seasons as extreme as ours, construction happens in the brief respites between cold snaps. But Boston was never like this. The routine of digging up and tearing down and repaving and building up happened all year round, and there were snowstorms there as bad as any I've seen here.
The truth is something nobody from this city will ever admit to. For all of the pretensions of urbanism, this is a farm town at heart. Farm people know that there are days when the crops need picking and the cows start to calf, and if you want to build something, well, you've got about a month between the end of morel season and the start of squash planting, so you'd better start it then, hadn't you?
I am getting it. I may never be one of you, but I am getting it.
"Okay, you see where they're tearing up the road over there? Just after you pass the concrete truck, make a left and follow the street down past the new student apartments they're building until you see a strip mall fenced off for demolition. If you see a second construction zone, you've gone too far."
I think I'm finally getting the hang of this place. Towns in the midwest breathe in cycles, and here there are seasons for planting, seasons for construction, and seasons for sitting quietly at home and drinking hot cocoa.
I've had people tell me that all of this is due to the weather, and that in a place with seasons as extreme as ours, construction happens in the brief respites between cold snaps. But Boston was never like this. The routine of digging up and tearing down and repaving and building up happened all year round, and there were snowstorms there as bad as any I've seen here.
The truth is something nobody from this city will ever admit to. For all of the pretensions of urbanism, this is a farm town at heart. Farm people know that there are days when the crops need picking and the cows start to calf, and if you want to build something, well, you've got about a month between the end of morel season and the start of squash planting, so you'd better start it then, hadn't you?
I am getting it. I may never be one of you, but I am getting it.
posted by Peter at 11:59 PM
2 Comments:
Peter,
Would love to talk to you about all this. I endured a similar transition moving to Vermont a few years back. Snow? Bring it on.
THe most fun is moving back to a place where it snows once or twice a year, and watching 'em scurry like cockroaches in the light. Better than the Road Runner. Beep beep.
Alas, I am now moving to Madison this winter. (Where the hell are those snow tires? I know I put them in here somewhere... Better yet, snow chains... ahhhh)
Can we chat?
suxynexus@gmail.com
Am nervous about the move.
(BTW: Am friends with Plin.)
I'd be happy to, but your email is bouncing.
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