Let me begin by saying that I like Boston. Actually I’m in Cambridge which is full of students and trendy places on MASS Ave spilling into Harvard Square. I’m staying at a funky Bread & Breakfast, the “Harding House” which used to be a grocery store in the 1860s and now boast 20 guest rooms. It sits on Harvard Street and is surrounded by student apartment complexes and old Cambridge homes. The streets are brick and naked trees line them. It is quaint.
Around 3:00, after checking in I went exploring meaning I walked outside realized how cold it was and immediately went back inside. Grabbing my coat I resumed my exploration. People were bundled up and most everyone wears black or grey. Right off the bat I noticed a couple of things.
First of all, I seemed to be the only person in this city who realizes that it is COLD!!! Everybody else seemed to be under the delusion that it’s spring. Evidently in Boston if the sun is shining that means it’s balmy.
Next I noticed that white people are a lot whiter here! I had to put on my sunglasses just to nod hello or ask for directions as the balmy sun glared off of their pasty white skin magnifying light to atomic proportions. We’re talking white people! Someone should be trying to figure out how to harness that energy!
So I did what I always do when I have a few hours to kill in a city. I found a local neighborhood pup which is one of the great things about urban living in old cities. “Callahan’s Down Stairs” is a one story building with a green façade with blackened windows. From the outside looking in it appeared to be an Irish Pup that had closed decades ago. But it was open so in I went.
Dark, musty with oak floors the bar ran from one end of the building to the other and the stools were filled with men. The bar itself took up a quarter of the room. A small dance floor was in the corner with band equipment set up for some time later. Real paintings of near nudes hung on the walls and were in sore need of dusting. Flat screen televisions showing basketball games were the only hint of modern anything.
Finding a stool I nestled in between two groups of men. Both groups were older and were drinking liquor in big glasses. Obviously friends, they slapped one another on the back, cracking jokes. One group talked news. The other watched basketball. Both sets were equally integrated.
When I ordered a beer and asked for a glass both groups stopped talking to watch Mike the Bartender serve me. They watched me pour in silence. The sound of the Miller Light hitting the glass was deafening. I looked up at them, shrugged my shoulders and took a sip. Several laughed and they all resumed what they’d been doing.
After a while I made my way back to the Harding House where I met my dinner mates and we walked to a trendy restaurant “Country Kitchen” which has nothing country about it. Another old store converted into an eatery the place was filled with students. Water was served in the tiniest glasses ever invented. Wine was poured into the largest goblets that I’ve ever seen. Organic food was piled in tremendous portions.
But it was a good place to talk and we did. Topics ranged from what’s been going on in our personal lives to opportunities for new things in an ever changing world. Afterwards I was reminded of another thing that I like about urban living. After supper you walk home or back to where you’re staying. It was a pleasant end of the day.
Then I went to bed. As night deepened, the freeze resumed its command of the city. I lay in a bed piled with comforters, warm and cozy but God forbid if I needed to get out for any reason. I must confess that this makes for good sleeping. The only thing that would make it better would be to have right person to cuddle with beside me.
It was a nice slide back into the urban life. In Louisville I lived in the inner city with my family literally alongside homeless people. In Savannah my entire career was working to enhance the downtown area. My work has taken me to most every major city in the United States, some in Europe and even Havana Cuba. I’ve seen a lot of urban in my life!
Today I will spend my time doing urban in detail again. There is this group that is working to develop curriculums to teach children with disabilities how to protect themselves against sexual assault. The rate of assault for kids with problems is twice as much as kids without a disability. Most often they happen in school or church.
Fun stuff, huh?
But important stuff!
Sipping coffee this morning I feel myself gearing up to dive back into it all. I’m still not finished with the self-journey to who I am but I understand that this is part of it. And while I miss the balmy eighty degrees of Tybee Island, I am glad that I am here today.
