Work-Life Convergence

I wrote the story below for the office blog today, and I think it may end up being my all-time favorite work post, for reasons that will quickly become clear. And, since I have no plans in mind  for this blog today, I thought I’d let it multi-task by cross-posting it here. I did give it a new title, though, since I’d rather have search engines picking up the work blog.

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I became a preservationist in the 5th grade. We were doing a unit called “The Built Environment,” wherein we traipsed around on field trips, locating the oldest buildings in town and learning to spot architectural features like urban bird watchers. One of the buildings we studied, the quaintly-named Rose Mansion, was slated for demolition, with a hotel being planned in its place. If memory serves, we wrote letters to the mayor asking that it be saved. We didn’t succeed — the mansion came down, no hotel was ever built, and a preservationist was born.

In that same year, something else happened that would end up defining another aspect of my life – I discovered Bruce Springsteen. As strange as this may sound, I have a very specific memory of the Solid Gold Dancers putting their unique spin on “Hungry Heart” when it landed on the pop charts. (You can laugh if you want. I know it’s absurd.) The dancing didn’t do a lot for me, but the music did, and I started down the road of lifelong fandom.

A decade of employment at the National Trust for Historic Preservation and nearly 20 live Springsteen shows later, these two passions finally came together. Yesterday, a colleague sent me an article about the New Jersey house where Springsteen wrote Born to Run, which has just been purchased by a trio of fans who want to ensure that the house remains intact. Though I don’t have the means to do such a thing myself, both my preservationist side and my Springsteen-fan side understand (and wholeheartedly support) the impulse.

The three [purchasers] have no plans to alter the property, though they would eventually like to “restore it correctly…”

Their immediate aim… was simply to keep the house from falling into the hands of someone who would take advantage of the property’s commercial zoning by knocking it down and replacing it with a business structure.

“Would it be turned into a parking lot or a condo? Not on our watch,” she said.

One of the new owners goes on to quote from the opening lines of the first song from Born to Run, “Thunder Road”

The screen door slams
Mary’s dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays

Thanks to the work of these three preservation-minded fans, the porch where Bruce Springsteen may have envisioned Mary dancing will be saved. And someday, when Madonna’s childhood home in Michigan is preserved, the colleague who sent me the article about Bruce’s house will get to write his version of this story.

Anywhere

Whenever there is one of the now all-too-common mass shootings, one of the staples of the news coverage is shocked residents talking about how they never thought this sort of thing could happen in their town. It’s one of the things I always shake my head at; sadly,  there can be insane, morally bankrupt people with guns pretty much anywhere.

Anywhere. Including my small home town.

Binghamton, New York spent most of yesterday as the lead story on cable news, as a gunman opened fire at the American Civic Association, an immigrant service center just across the bridge from downtown, around the corner from my high school. I couldn’t stop listening to the coverage, as all of the pieces that make up these horrifying situations — dead, wounded, hostages, SWAT teams, evacuations, school lockdowns — were attached to places that I know, places that I have been. I was unprepared for how much more personal it felt, how much more real. I spent most of the day alternating between frustration at the lack of news  (I heard the same uninformative eyewitness accounts — from a high school truant, Binghamton University student, and elderly neighbor  — repeatedly) and sorrow for my fellow Binghamtonians.

(I had, by the way, accounted for my family — Mom, and my sister, who is visiting for the weekend — quickly. They were at lunch with friends on the South Side, blithely unaware of what was happening across town, until my brother-in-law called from Texas to check on them. My text message, and follow-up call, came moments later, when they were catching up via CNN in the restaurant.)

I found out late last night that one of the victims is the mother of a family who lived just a few blocks from me. I went all the way through school — from the first day of kindergarten to graduation — with one of the boys in the family, and was in Girl Scouts with one of his sisters. I lost track of them after high school, but nevertheless, my heart is breaking for them as they deal with an unspeakable tragedy. I know that losing a beloved parent is a crushing experience under normal circumstances — I can’t even imagine what they, and the rest of the families impacted, must be going through. I wish for all of them the strength to focus on the wonder and beauty of the lives they lived, and not on the unspeakable way in which they died.

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Ongoing local coverage can be found on the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin website.

Falling for Fall

Ah, just when pickings were getting awfully slim here in Sweetpea’s Garden, a meme appears to save the day!  (And by “appears” I mean I stole it shamelessly from fellow northeasterner and fall-fan sprite.)

The hills around Binghamton showing their color, taken by my sister-in-law, Jen, in 2007.

When does fall begin for you? The first Wednesday after Labor Day. It was always the first day of school, and I still haven’t gotten over the urge to wear a new sweater and corduroy pants on that day. Alas, here in the much-warmer Mid-Atlantic, this isn’t possible — I’d melt.

What is your favorite aspect of fall? Here in DC? Probably the welcome arrival of cooler weather and lower humidity. Back in New York? The beautiful foliage and the apples.

What is your favorite fall memory? I don’t have very many specific fall-centric memories, but I do recall a blur of countless fall days spent in the kitchen with any combination of Grandma, Mom, and Eileen, learning to make applesauce and apple pie.

It’s not an official question, but my least-favorite fall memory is when I realized that leaf piles were full of dog pee (and worse) and jumping in them — which I had, to that point, loved doing — became unspeakably nasty. Innocence lost, right there.

What do you like to drink in the fall? Fresh-pressed juice. The farm stand nearest to where I grew up always had apple cider and concord grape juice, and it’s hard to say which is better.

What’s your favorite fall food? There is no way to choose between apple pie, apple crisp, caramel apples, cider donuts, Halloween candy, and the entire festive spread that is my family’s Thanksgiving feast.

What is fall weather like where you live? Unnaturally warm, to me, and not nearly colorful enough.

What color is fall? Mostly the warm end of the prism — red, orange, and yellow — with a little green and brown thrown in. Initially, the colors are brilliantly intense, and then they fade to softer, muted versions.

What does fall smell like? Dried leaves.

Holiday shopping in fall: yes or no? Not really. I think about it, and know I should do it, but rarely put that knowledge into action.

If you could go anywhere in the fall, where would you go? To my hometown; Binghamton doesn’t have a whole lot to recommend it, other than the fact that it is absolutely gorgeous in the fall.

What is your favorite fall sport? Anything that isn’t football. My goodness, I do not get the football love.

Do you have a favorite fall chore? Given that my favorite fall memory is cooking/baking with my family, it’s not going to come as any surprise that carrying that tradition into my own kitchen and producing large quantities of apple-y goodness is far and away the thing I look forward to most.

What is your least favorite thing about fall? It’s a toss-up between the fact that it gets dark so early in the evenings and the fact that it turns into winter.

What is your favorite fall holiday? Thanksgiving… Family, turkey, stuffing, pie, gratitude — what’s not to like? (It is, in fact, my favorite holiday overall, not just in the fall.)

What’s your favorite kind of pie? A really simple apple pie, with perfect apples, cinnamon, and homemade pastry.

Which do you prefer, the Farm or the Fair? There weren’t a lot of fairs where I grew up (or maybe we just weren’t fair people?) so I’m gonna say the farm. One of my town’s best farm stands is just a couple of miles from my parents’ house, and it’s always on the must-visit list when we’re in town.

Do you have a favorite fall book? It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! (Yes, I realize it is actually a tv special, but we had books of all the Charlie Brown specials for some reason when we were kids, so I think it counts.

How about a favorite fall poem or quote? Not that comes immediately to mind.

A closeup of the fall colors, taken by my sister-in-law, Jen, in 2007.