When in Brattleboro for 48 hours, you can...
...Stay awake after flying into the Manchester, N.H. in after flying the "red eye" from Los Angeles by drinking many cups of ice coffee.
...Set your car radio station WRSI, "The River" found at 93.9 FM or 101.5 FM
In fact, anywhere near Southern Vermont or Western Mass. border there is a magic FM station where you can hear precisely what music your subconscious absolute requires hearing at just the right moment.
The folks who create these play lists are completely psychic and will read your mind to feed your ears precisely what will become the perfect soundtrack to whatever your personal journey is at that moment. How great is that?
I mean, whatever the circumstances. From dropping in unexpectedly for a parent's birthday, to high school reunions to watching cows parade down Main Street. Whatever the reason. It will work.
Tune in. Leave it on. Listen. You'll thank me later.
When in Brattleboro for 48 hours, you can do any of the following.
-- Load up on very strong coffee at Mocha Joes on Main Street.
-- Pick up a bag of free freshly made popcorn at Sam's Army Navy Store, also on Main Street.
-- You can look at the stone angel that once took her place outside the railroad station which is now safely on display inside the Brattleboro Public Library.
-- Gaze at the first mountain anyone really sees once they cross into Vermont. The mountain that's looking over the small town nestled under it's protective gaze by the banks of the Connecticut River.
-- You can avoid terrible coffee at Dunkin' Donuts.
-- You can park on Flat Street across from where that horrible disco used to be and head into one of the best thrift stores on the planet, "Experienced Goods."
-- You can wander the aisles of Bakers Book Store and still smell the ink and look at the pens and pencils.
-- You can walk across the wonderful, industrial bridge from Vermont to New Hampshire (just past The River View Restaurant) and stare down into the same dark water and marvel that almost a century ago (1920) D. W. Griffith shot a Hollywood movie (Way Down East, starring Lillian Gish) out there in that water. The icy, cold, dark, river water.
Gish. The river in Brattleboro. 1920.
Check this out. That's Lillian Gish. On a slab of ice. In the middle of the Connecticut River. Spring, in Vt. Early spring, pre-mud season. For those who know how violent the ice breaking up on the river can be, it's astonishing to consider that any actress would agree to this shot. That's dedication.
You can turn down any street and check out some very wonderful architecture from pre-WWII and before.
-- You can look at the Memorial Park hill where some of us first learned to ski and think "What? That's not so steep after all."
-- You can eat a nice meal at a restaurant oddly called "The Backside." I recommend the tarragon eggs. The oil prints on the walls are very mesmerizing in an industrial, fantastical, Dali-esque way. Very good spot to people-watch the crazies in Harmony Lot just outside back door of Book store.
-- You can buy a uniquely opinionated bumper sticker at the book store just under Common Ground called "Everyone's Books."
-- You can go to downtown Brattleboro on Saturday, June 6th to see 100 cows strut their stuff down Main Street. A dairy festival follows the the cow parade. Apparently this event is always held during the first weekend in June. (Which I plan to do next year, since I missed it this one.)
-- You can stroll down to the Co-Op to eat a delicious meal prepared by local folk who know how to cook. (Almost as good as Common Ground used to be.)
-- You can look at the old BCPA and pray someone restores it to the fine theater facility it used to be.
-- You can walk with your mother up a dirt road and marvel how time changes almost everything, but mercifully not that which really matters.
For my mother's 70th birthday, I joined her for her daily stroll with her beloved dogs.
And then, almost as quickly as I arrived, I returned back to California.
Here today, gone tomorrow, and all because of that pesky thing called "life."
Important lessons learned from this particular trip home:
1. Tell everyone that you love, that you do.
2. Treasure the people who have been loyal to you through all the years.
3. Grab life at every opportunity to do that which you wish you had, but did not do before.
If there is a phrase more specific than 'Carpe diem' for this, I do not know what it is.
1. Tell everyone that you love, that you do.
2. Treasure the people who have been loyal to you through all the years.
3. Grab life at every opportunity to do that which you wish you had, but did not do before.
If there is a phrase more specific than 'Carpe diem' for this, I do not know what it is.
Comments
trip !!
Thanks for the photos.
I'll be there in 3 days !
cp