Friday, March 21, 2008

Plus ca change

We took a quick trip up to Stowe, Vermont last weekend for some cross-country skiing and to attend our nephew’s christening up in Burlington. If you haven’t been in New England lately, I can assure you, it’s reassuringly the same. And it’s nice to watch the lines of politics and music shift on the drive back south to Jersey.

To wit:
  • the older girl’s Obama button, a fixture on her parka, got kudos in the Trapp Family Lodge even as I got ribbed for imposing my beliefs on my child.
  • In heavy rotation in Stowe, every morning there’s a halo hanging on the corner of my girlfriend’s four-post bed: nothing like a little sweet, white-guy sentimentality...years ago, in Maine, it was the Spin Doctors
  • Meanwhile, rural Vermont was rocking out to “We’re an American Band” (we’re coming to your town/to help you party down….)
  • The pro-Tibet protesters were out in force in Northampton (good for them, of course, but it'd be hard to preach to a more receptive choir...)
  • Rap begins in New Haven, but it’s Naughty by Nature’s O.P.P, which was playing in New Haven when I left--in 1994
  • Spanish radio begins in Bridgeport,
  • but you have to wait till the traffic jam on the GW Bridge to get info on how many albums 50 Cent sold last week…
I love and miss New England and being back there--in LOTS of snow--was a lovely tonic.

1 comment:

Anne Camille said...

What an interesting observation. With all the time I spent in NY/NJ last year, I don't think I ever listened to any radio but NPR. Not sure if that was because it was habit, or because it was familiar and not tied to a specific locale. I always like watching local TV news whenever I travel because of the odd sense of it being different yet very much the same. But, the newness of it wore off after so many visits to the area.

On a completely different subject: Lately, I have thought frequently about a comment you made when we met last summer regarding how having good, sensible people in the military is something we should hope for. It's something that I have reminded myself of several times recently as my son has moved forward with joining the USAF. Thank you for that bit of wisdom.