imagined-community

Well, after griping about the weather on Friday, I gotta relent. Today was lovely; I even got sunburned. Spent the afternoon cheering on the walkers for Project Bread’s 39th Walk for Hunger. (Put a megaphone in my hands and this whole submerged Ringling Bros. personality comes out. I think my ears are still ringing from the sound of my own voice : )

If you walked 20 miles today you should be mighty proud! This year over 43,000 people turned out to walk and they raised a record setting $3.3 million! You can read more about Project Bread and today’s Walk for Hunger here.

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Windblown flag in front of the Rosebud Diner

I used to be quite the complainer. I complained about everything. The morally bankrupt state of our government, the banality of consumerism, revolting radio station DJs, neighbors with anger issues at 3:00 a.m., petty bus drivers, egomaniacal drivers, people who don’t screw the ketchup lid back on, the excessive cost of everything, rich people who believe everyone below their income level is their servant, all traffic and parking tickets and especially traffic cameras, mean people, and the weather.

Over the years I have had the good fortune to be befriended by easy going and sweet-tempered souls, much sweeter-tempered than myself. Along the way a bit of their gentleness rubbed off on me. I can honestly say that I have evolved from a ruthless complainer to a near non-complainer. EXCEPT, that is, for the weather. Oh, and Massachusetts drivers.

First, for all you Massachusetts natives who don’t know any better, let me tell you, the weather in this state SUCKS!!! I swear that if you were to add up the total number of solidly pleasant Massachusetts’s days in one year you would come up with no more than 30. Take, for example, today. Gazing out the window the day appears gorgeous. Sunny and 56 degrees. Just don’t listen too closely to that HOWLING wind! Yet another Massachusetts’s day that is nearly nice, if you don’t pay attention to that stinging, brutal wind. Aaargh.

Anyway, today I took the day off (so I should stop complaining, right?) and spent the afternoon at Davis Square running errands and meandering about. I went to my favorite café, Diesel Café, and my favorite craft store, Spark Crafts. A walk down the community bike path, which runs behind Brooks Pharmacy, kept me sheltered from the wind. And I have to admit that the sight of the tulips coming up in the Bikeway Community Garden did brighten my weather-darkened mood.

And then of course, there is driving in Massachusetts. I used to complain about Massachusetts’s drivers every time I got into my car. Then it happened. I guess it was inevitable. Eat or be eaten. Become a Masshole or spend the rest of your life stuck on a side street. Exactly how the transformation from reasonable, considerate driver to Masshole actually happened, I don’t know. Perhaps it was a slippery slope of disintegrating respect for the traffic rules that impeded my progress from point A to point B. In the heat of a traffic moment, nice gal from Wisconsin temporarily forgets to signal. Well, that wasn’t so bad. After all, I was able to quickly dart across two lanes. A few weeks later, frustrated considerate Wisconsin gal cuts off a lane of traffic so that she can turn left, blithely unaware of the terrible transformation unfolding in her personality as she thinks that it is not at all unreasonable to ignore people trying to cross in the crosswalk or honk at someone sitting at a green light for a 1/8th of a second. (I think I did that just after someone pulled beside me — into the right hand turn lane — at the red light. When the light changed they sped out in front of me. Basically, they got into the right hand lane so they could pull out first at the light. I was so disgusted I couldn’t even honk). Sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, but if you drive in Massachusetts, you too will become an ass on the road. Check out Headless Vector’s funny riff on 5 different types of crazy MA drivers.

Now, for the tolerant few who are still reading, I have posted the “You Know You’re From Massachusetts When” list to make up for my bitching. The list is old, but always funny. #12 & #17 are my favorites. Oh, and here is a link to a January article in the Phoenix entitled, “Bad Boston: 27 things that drive us crazy about the city we love.”

You Know You’re From Massachusetts When:

1. You think crosswalks are for wimps
2. You think if someone is nice to you that they either want something, or they are from out of town and lost
3. You know how to cross four lanes of traffic in five seconds
4. You’re amazed when traveling out of town that people at McDonalds actually speak English
5. You think it’s not actually tailgating unless you’re touching the bumper of the car in front of you
6. You know that a yellow light means that at least five more people can get through and a red one means two more can
7. The transportation system is known as the “T”
8. You could own a small town in Iowa for the cost of your house
9. Subway is a fast food place
10. There are 24 Dunkin Donuts shops within 15 minutes of your house
11. When people talk about “The Curse Of The Bambino”, you know what they’re talking about, and believe it, too (well, at least you USED to)
12. You believe using your turn signals gives away your plan to the enemy
13. If you stay on the same road long enough, it eventually has three different names.
14. Someone has honked at you because you didn’t peel out the second the light turned green
15. You have honked at someone because they didn’t peel out the second the light turned green
16. All the potholes just add to the excitement of driving.
17. Stop signs mean slow down a little, but only of you want to.
18. Six inches of snow is considered a dusting.
19. Three days of 90 degree heat is definitely a “heat wave” and 63 degrees is “a little on the warm side”
20. You cringe every time you hear some actor or actress imitate the “Boston Accent” on TV or in a movie…if you don’t have it, then you’re never going to get it, even if you were born here
21. At the ice cream shop, you call chocolate sprinkles “jimmies”
22. You can go from one side of town to the other in less than fifteen minutes and see at least fifteen losers you went to high school with doing the same thing they were doing when you saw them last
23. The person in front of you is going 70 MPH and you’re cursing them for going too slow
24. You know how to pronounce towns like Worcester, Haverhill, Gloucester, and Cotuit
25. You know what they sell at a “packie”
26. You have never been to the Cheers bar
27. You’ve slammed on your brakes to deter a tailgater.
28. You still try to order curly fries from Burger King
29. You keep an ice scraper in your car all year round
30. You know at least three Tony’s, one Vinnie, and a Frank
31. Paranoia sets in when you can’t see an ATM or CVS
32. You’ve pulled out of a side street and used your car to block oncoming traffic so you can make a left
33. You’ve bragged about saving money at The Christmas Tree Shop
34. You know what a “regular coffee” is
35. You can navigate a rotary without a problem
36. You have been to Fenway Park
37. You refer to the New York Yankees as the ‘evil empire’
38. You feel the rest of the world needs to drive more like you
39. When someone calls you a “masshole”, you take it as a compliment
40. You use the words “wicked” and “good” in the same sentence
41. You know what a frappe is
42. Saint Patrticks Day is your second favorite holiday
43. You are proud to drink Sam Adams and think that the rest of the country owes Bostonians a thank you
44. You never say “Cape Cod”; you say “the cape”
45. You went to Old Sturbridge Village and Plymouth Plantation in elementary school
46. You can drive to the mountains and the ocean all in one day
47. You have a special place in your heart for the Worcester Firefighters
48. You know the Mass Pike is some strange weather dividing line
49. You almost feel disappointed when someone doesn’t flip you off when you cut them off or steal their parking space
50. You actually get all of these jokes

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I am going to a conference this weekend in Natick and I was hoping that I could do some local stuff on Sunday afternoon. At first I was a bit discouraged by my research on Natick. Is the only activity in Natick running laps round the Natick Mall? Then my time scouring the web began to pay off as I started learning about Natick’s history. (Warning: The following is probable old news to native New Englanders. ) Believe it or not, there is a reason to visit Natick.

Natick is now a town but once it was a language, an Algonquian language more commonly known as Wampanoag, the language spoken by the Mashpee Wampanoag Indians who greeted the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1620. Rick Lee sang about the tragedy that befell the Natick language and the Wampanoag people in his song “Natick:”

Natick was a language, Natick is a town.
No one speaks the language, all of them are gone.
They lived here by the hundreds and grew upon the land
And welcomed some white strangers and offered us a hand,
But only their shadows remain.

John Eliot, a preacher, came to see the ones
Who sang and danced in worship of the morning sun.
He taught them trust and English, they taught him of the times
When only air and spirit abounded in these climes,
But only their shadows remain.

A language was invented to suit both families’ needs:
To preach a Christian gospel and speak to whispering reeds.
A language known as Natick was spoken here by tongues
Of natives and of settlers: a new world had begun,
But only their shadows remain.

A generation later or two there came a war
Of Englishmen and “Indians,” and racism and more
Then spilled upon the people who had welcomed us before
And had trusted Reverend Eliot, but now they are no more.
Only their shadows remain.

– Rick Lee

The very first Bible printed in the United States was in the Natick language — translated by English missionary John Eliot and several Wampanoag, including Job Nesutan. (The first book printed in the United States was the Bay Psalm Book, to which John Eliot also contributed, and which was printed in Cambridge in 1640.)

The town of Natick was founded by John Eliot in 1651 as a settlement for the the “Praying Indians,” Wampanoag who had become Christians. You can learn more about the Wampanoag of Natick and see the Natick Bible at the Natick Historical Society and Museum. One thing though, the museum is closed on Sunday.

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