Raindrops
This must be what it’s like living in Florida. The weather can only be described as sultry, with little thunderstorms punctuating the afternoons like exclamation points. Sultry! Only without the palmetto bugs.
I thought earlier today that I’d really need a meeting tonight. But then, partway through the afternoon I came to realize that it was way better for me than any meeting could ever be. Sort of like going to see a revival of a bad play where I’d once starred. The characters were all the same, the players too. The lines predictable as ever. Only the venue differed. And that I was in the audience, not onstage.
A brief quarrel with my understudy nearly pulled me into the drama. I relented upon realizing how addictive the drama was, how tired it is, and how I really enjoy better parts these days.
I gave up all this nearly five years ago? I thought. Thank heavens. Go me!
It was very weird at the cemetary. The gravesite is perhaps 100 yards from the house I owned from ‘87 to ‘96. I recognized the tree first, then the roads. The stone, although brand new, carries a date in ‘97. Are a year and 100 yards less than six degrees?
There’s something not quite right about eating piping hot lasagna under a tree on a sultry afternoon in one’s funerary best. Even if it is followed by cheesecake smothered in strawberries. When I figure out what it is that’s not quite right, I’ll let you know.
Greece is a good town to be from. Not for what it contributes to growing up, (after all, they let sitting Presidents into the schools,) but because of what it is. Friends don’t let friends live in Greece.
My first memories are from when we lived off Ridge Road. I remember the civic pride when our Ridge Road, Ridge Road West was widened to four lanes at the same time as Irondequoit’s Ridge Road, Ridge Road East, gained only a “suicide lane” in the middle.
Greece was a Republican town even then. Irondequoit remains in Democratic hands.
My parents sold the house in 1963 on the first whiff of the rumor that a new shopping center would be going in. The region’s first mall opened in 1969. On an island in the middle of the parking lot stood the maple tree that was in our neighbor’s back yard.
Greece is the town which, just a few years ago, sold its landmark Town Hall to developers. A Ruby Tuesday’s and Pier One now grace the location. And 13 years from now, when they start paying property taxes, the citizens will realize what good sense the town leaders had.
They’re having a much harder time with the Pioneer Cemetary. Each widening of Ridge Road claims a few graves. This time, they’re widening from seven lanes to ten plus a median. And another few pioneers who chose to be buried in an inconvenient location are removed.
As are all the trees. Except for a quarter-mile where a few pines remain for no apparent reason, there’s not a tree for miles along the Ridge. Not surprising really, when you consider that around the same time they sold the Town Hall, they eradicated all the trees on the Welcome To Greece signs.
There are also no people on the Welcome To Greece signs.
They’ve built a temporary pedestrian bridge over I-390 during the construction. If one is foolish enough to use it, it leads to the on-ramp. And if you can ever cross that, there is no sidewalk on the other side. It’s been claimed for the on-ramp.
However, a crushed-stone path leads directly into the lot of the Lincoln-Mercury and Nissan dealer, now under new management, where they’re having a huge grand-opening sale. Save thousands! Hint, hint.
Yes, like all wastelands, Greece is a good place to be from.
