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Its too darn hot
Aug. 3rd, 2001 04:03 pmIts the first day that "flex time" has actually worked for me. The first time there was a baby shower to run and the second a mandatory meeting at 1:00 PM . . . today after some toasted ravioli at The Chateau I headed home.
It is a daunting task trying to keep a rabbit cool in a stuffy apartment with no air conditioning. I called my Dad again and asked for advice on which kind of AC to buy (i.e. one that fits in the funky wall frame). After cleaning the apartment a bit (ah I'm an anal neat freak) I settled down to read through the last week's worth of newspapers.
The first interesting one included an article on the history of theaters in Waltham. At the hight of the city's entertainment times there were 6 of them (5 on Moody Street and one on Elm Street). One could get a movie and a show for $.15 and watch silent films accompanied by a large organ or see a Vaudeville performance. The building that my old dance studio was in served as a rooming house for the performers at the Waldorf Theater (which is just commercial rental space now though the face looks reminiscent of its original purpose).
Its definitely interesting to watch the growth of a city over time - going from industrial mecca to a center of shopping and entertainment to a poor dirty city to an up-and-coming yuppie town with many restaurants, luxury apartment buildings on the Charles and a neat movie theater. Change is inevitable but I wonder about the people that are being left behind or forced out.
There was another article about a restaurant in Nonantum that has installed bocce courts in the back recently. If there's one thing that reminds me of old summer family cookouts its bocce. We used to live in my Grandmother's back yard in the summer - there was the ugly yellow umbrella with orange flowers and tassels over the picnic table, the tacky coiled metal drink holders (you stuck them down in the dirt and the large coil up at the top would fit a soda can) and there was the old clothes line that the kids would run circles around (you know those ones with a pole in the middle and rows of rope stretched across the top in a square?).
Bocce makes me think of the men, the large and powerful men in brown pants and short sleeve dress shirts (white undershirt underneath, of course). They would play in the space of yard behind the garage after cooking up for the rest of the crew. I never did figure out how to play but we children would play around with the balls in our own way before the "official" games started. And when the sun went down we would lay on my Grandmother's front lawn with the goodies we just got from the ice cream man. We'd discuss things from relatives, to dance lessons, to vacations and to who had the 'cooler' school.
I miss the feeling of community and family that there used to be abound around us. We all live within our little universes each day - going to work or school, home to apartment, condo our house. We are so busy with things that used to be less important. How did this happen?
Do you have any stories about community or any things that bring back clear memories of it?
It is a daunting task trying to keep a rabbit cool in a stuffy apartment with no air conditioning. I called my Dad again and asked for advice on which kind of AC to buy (i.e. one that fits in the funky wall frame). After cleaning the apartment a bit (ah I'm an anal neat freak) I settled down to read through the last week's worth of newspapers.
The first interesting one included an article on the history of theaters in Waltham. At the hight of the city's entertainment times there were 6 of them (5 on Moody Street and one on Elm Street). One could get a movie and a show for $.15 and watch silent films accompanied by a large organ or see a Vaudeville performance. The building that my old dance studio was in served as a rooming house for the performers at the Waldorf Theater (which is just commercial rental space now though the face looks reminiscent of its original purpose).
Its definitely interesting to watch the growth of a city over time - going from industrial mecca to a center of shopping and entertainment to a poor dirty city to an up-and-coming yuppie town with many restaurants, luxury apartment buildings on the Charles and a neat movie theater. Change is inevitable but I wonder about the people that are being left behind or forced out.
There was another article about a restaurant in Nonantum that has installed bocce courts in the back recently. If there's one thing that reminds me of old summer family cookouts its bocce. We used to live in my Grandmother's back yard in the summer - there was the ugly yellow umbrella with orange flowers and tassels over the picnic table, the tacky coiled metal drink holders (you stuck them down in the dirt and the large coil up at the top would fit a soda can) and there was the old clothes line that the kids would run circles around (you know those ones with a pole in the middle and rows of rope stretched across the top in a square?).
Bocce makes me think of the men, the large and powerful men in brown pants and short sleeve dress shirts (white undershirt underneath, of course). They would play in the space of yard behind the garage after cooking up for the rest of the crew. I never did figure out how to play but we children would play around with the balls in our own way before the "official" games started. And when the sun went down we would lay on my Grandmother's front lawn with the goodies we just got from the ice cream man. We'd discuss things from relatives, to dance lessons, to vacations and to who had the 'cooler' school.
I miss the feeling of community and family that there used to be abound around us. We all live within our little universes each day - going to work or school, home to apartment, condo our house. We are so busy with things that used to be less important. How did this happen?
Do you have any stories about community or any things that bring back clear memories of it?
