Dirty Water

There's an entrance to the Riverwalk on our street down towards 'the bubble church'. The Riverwalk was developed years ago to make use of the land along the Charles and to provide some of us citylike dwellers with a piece of nature. I hadn't been along this stretch of the river in years. The last time I did I think I was in junior high and my Mom got really mad at me for using that sketchy footbridge off Calvary Street that came out near Ames (the Bleachery site). At the time it was a prime spot for drunk homeless men to hang out 24x7. Now they only seem to be there in the dark of night.

Here's some photos someone else took:
http://www.waltham-community.org/CharlesRiver.html

There were great efforts to clean up the banks of the river to make them more accessible to walkers, runners, bikers and folks with strollers. It took a long time for the city to catch on (because for the longest time, being along the river just wasn't really safe). We had the heyday of Moody Street where Waltham was the place to be west of Boston (before shopping malls started popping up) http://www.dailynewstribune.com/news/x1056000193 . Post shopping malls, there was a great recession and a good deal of South Waltham retail was vacant, with large numbers of homeless people loitering about the neighborhood. In the midst of this the MDC started cleaning up along the banks of the Charles. The Newton portion out near the http://www.paddleboston.com/main.php had always been well kept and the Newton into Boston stretch through Watertown (on the other side) was nice. Our stretch was just overworked and neglected. I guess Mayor Gately did get one thing right in his short time in charge of the city by hiring consultants to conduct some strategic planning around getting folks to utilize this gem:
http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/river/pdf/waltham_strategicplan.pdf . I was amazed at how many people were out and about last night in the small stretch that we did follow.

I'm glad we finally made it down to this stretch. We walked from Newton Street out parallel with Calvary, crossed near the Watertown Stop and shop and continued into Newton, ending over on Bridge Street. We went up Bridge into Nonantum and continued down Adams to Washington with plans to get Ice Cream at http://www.cabots.com/ . Alas, I was wearing bad shoes for walking long distances (Tevas - who knew?) and developed a quarter-sized blister that then popped on the palm of my left foot. We decided to head home back up Crafts Street, get the car and find ice cream elsewhere http://tishsdish.blogspot.com/2005/07/coney-island-1284-washington-st-west.html because given the state of my foot my walking was S L O W and Cabots was closed by the time we could get there. Coney Island didn't disappoint. The cute little knitting shop is still there too - "Putting on the Knitz", which is owned by an elderly couple that just sits there and knits together all day http://boston.openguides.org/?Putting_On_The_Knitz. I think I was in high school the last time I actually went in there with my Mom.

Ballet class should be interesting with this foot tonight . . .

Book Review

I've been reading And She Danced for The King - memoirs of a Rockette and should finish within the week. Its a fascinating look at what life was like for a woman working during the golden age of Broadway.

I know a good deal about that time period, but its been fascinating reading a first-hand account of the issues of the time through Peggy Morrison's letters to her family. In particular, I hadn't thought of the backdrop of both the great depression and the stirrings of WWII and its impact on the industry.

A few interesting quotes related to these themes:

( Read more )

Politically, things decline from here. I haven't even gotten to the point where Ms. Morrison is a Rockette, and she's already 7.5 years into her 10+ year long career. She's starting to wonder if she should get out of it for a 'normal' life. I know from reading the back cover that she'll eventually (finally) divorce her deadbeat musician husband, marry a military guy, and live a traditional homemaker life. She performed at age 90 in 2001 with The Rockettes at their 75th anniversary performance in the street out in front of Radio City Music Hall. What a woman!

Such an amazing story of an amazing woman in an amazing time. It warms my heart in a time where much entertainment seems so uninspired. Whatever kind of art form you're into, if you're interested in the arts at all or the history of the arts in America, I think you'd appreciate this book.