I love my new place in Harvard Square. I live in a nice, quiet neighborhood; I have great housemates, and the river is only a couple of blocks away. This is definitely an upgrade from my previous apartment, where the walls didn't know how to stand straight, and the hallways always smelled like morning breath.
However, I miss living in Central Square. I dropped by today to shop for groceries and watched an amusing scene unfold at the bus stop:
A middle-aged woman, heavy-set, blonde-braided hair lies down on a slab of raised concrete, two feet from the curb. She is prostrated with her face down and arms sprawled as if she has just finished a boxing match and is too tired to lift even an eyebrow.
Next to her, two people sit on the bench. One is an elderly woman with a blank expression on her face. She is eating a piece of bread and staring off into space. The other is a middle-aged man. He is yelling.
"Get up, Debbie, get up!"
Debbie doesn't respond.
"Debbie. Debbie. Debbie!" He moves closer to her and leans into her ear, "GET UP! You want to be taken away just like your husband did?"
The defeated woman continues to lie on the concrete. She is either extremely drunk, high, depressed, or all of the above.
The man eventually gets her to sit up from her stupor and he tells her that he needs to go home, or whatever it is they call it. She begs him to stay.
"You want me to stay?" The man exclaimed, "Psh... I got three wives and five kids; two of them died! You want me to stay?"
I couldn't follow the course of their conversation, but somehow, within the next two minutes, they were singing love songs together -- love songs, that is, about broken hearts.
Comments (3)
ah central... how i miss thee..
that's amusing and sad all at the same time :& :) :( ?
on a brighter note though, guess what? i'm doing research at harvard this summer, i was just in harvard square on wednesday :) i'm working at the grad school of education every monday, tuesday, and thursday from now on, so maybe we can meet up sometime! my cell phone's (770) 289-9405, i'd love to get to see you again!
wow! great scene.. i too love the realness of Central. and the absurdity of it in the middle of that which almost pretends the real isn't there.. yay, for the urbanness, for the willingness to live life out loud! keep on lubie!