September 2009
7 posts
“You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so...”
– MAYA ANGELOU
“The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.”
– CONFUCIUS
The SKaTeR Grls
Part 1
Bunched together on one side of a picnic table, four middle school girls talked amongst themselves in the courtyard of the Wilbraham Public Library. Sunlight streamed on their perfectly straightened hair as they talked a bit, stared around and sighed, talked a bit again, then stared around and sighed again.
Ironically enough, Tara and I had met these girls in our quest to track down some...
The SKaTeR Grls
Part 2
As we asked questions, the girls seemed to contradict themselves about their feelings toward Wilbraham and the middle school. At first they complained that the town was boring and the schools too strict.
“You can’t hug, can’t wear short shorts, tank tops…Cell phones are a big problem…”
“Most teenagers don’t follow those rules obviously.”
“A lot of kids get written up everyday…”
I...
“It may be that the satisfaction I need depends on my going away, so that when...”
– RUMI
August 2009
23 posts
Ricky SOBEY
Part 1
Ricky Sobey’s family lives on Longview Drive, where the view stops rather short actually at a row of houses in front of theirs. The driveways in this street have fascinated me over the years. It’s not any exciting events that interest me, but instead the predictable, cyclic flow of daily living, typical of suburbia.
When I was little, toddlers my age would litter the driveways of Longview...
Ricky SOBEY
Part 2
“Where I go to college is in the city. And it’s a completely different landscape. It’s a different culture…It’s so busy there. And then sometimes really hectic. I don’t know…” said Ricky, shaking his head as though dizzy just thinking about the hustle-bustle of city life. “Here it’s very calm and peaceful and sometimes I would miss that. Boston’s just really crazy and outta control....
“It is part of morality not to be at home in one’s home.”
– EDWARD SAID
Will CARUANA
Part 1
During dinner, recently back from college, my parents mentioned that a “young boy” was running for selectman. I asked who it was, and of course, the name eluded them all of a sudden. My dad, determined to remember, racked his brains for a name, any name.
“Mericana?…Maradonna?…” he sputtered.
My mom took a stab.
“Your science teacher in elementary school—her son…”
They were...
Will CARUANA
Part 2
Sitting at our kitchen table in the same professional-looking wardrobe, it was clear that, unlike his clothes, Will’s personality had not changed. He seemed aware of this fact, too, as he told us, “I don’t mind embarrassing myself. What it came down to was I was doing the right thing. I had nothing to lose.”
He was referring to a rather unique marketing ploy to raise money for a...
Will CARUANA
Part 3
Hearing Will’s experience entering the political sphere, it didn’t sound like he had fit in gracefully with the crowd. He had created a slightly less provocative, shall we say, “Hunter S. Thompson running for sheriff” category in Wilbraham.
“I looked at everything I didn’t like about politicians and politics and tried to do the exact opposite…I was told to push off issues like the high...
Will CARUANA
Part 4
Armed with facts and figures about green alternatives and money-saving strategies , Will was starting to sound more like a politician. I noticed, however, that unlike the average politician, I wasn’t as wary and “on my guard.” I knew Will well enough; I had seen him around at school, talked to him from time to time. He was an honest, well intentioned person at heart. When it came to other...
Will CARUANA
Part 5
Will did have to pester some town administrators a bit during his campaign.
“The town budget was hard to get at the start of the campaign,” said Will. “I went to the town administrator to look at the proposed budget for 2010. I asked if I was allowed to see it and I got a no three times originally. This thing is thick—I mean really thick and I only came out with three pieces of paper!”...
“He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.”
– JOHANN WOLFGANG von GOETHE
Llewellyn MERRICK.
Part 1
There was an air about Mr. Merrick I couldn’t quite identify at first. He was old and had wrinkles around his eyes, and he had sheer, white hair on either side of a bald head. He complained about knee problems, wore glasses, and said, “How do you do?” But there was also a sort of shiny quality about him too, similar to a teddy bear bought new from a store. Watery blue eyes peered out of a...
Llewellyn MERRICK.
Part 2
Lifting his arms to animate his stories, a silver watch slid from Mr. Merrick’s wrist leaving a strip of pale white skin where the watch used to rest, a souvenir of a weeks worth of farming. The work Mr. Merrick described was tedious and difficult, but he spoke with a sense of love for the tasks he did as a farmer.
My sister and I were just asking Mr. Merrick where he had learned to...
Llewellyn MERRICK
Part 3
His eyes were still immersed in the memory of his first moments motorcycling to work, perhaps reliving the high speed of the bike and a whipping wind across a younger face. It must have been a rare moment away from the farm and the familiarity of home in the small town of Wilbraham.
Exasperation was once again replaced by admiration. When was the last time I experienced something...
Llewellyn MERRICK.
Part 4
Referring back to his ancestors, who were also farmers, Mr. Merrick said that when he was working in the field, he would often look up into the hills and think about how many times his ancestors had done the same. Every action—the planting and gathering of harvest, driving the tractor, throwing out hay—it was all in unison with his ancestors. The bond between these ancestors was...