At first, I thought it would pass quickly. Then it didn't. Then Oakley got excited, as if to say, "C'MON! WE'RE MIGRATING!!" I pulled myself together and investigated. Note my bedroom window on the right.
"Um, what's going on??"
"The Northshore Cancer Walk...we've been advertising this for months. Where have you been?"
"Charlotte?"
She was a snooty person, but I let it go. I took a short walk to Ziggy's, the locally-owned donut shop on the corner, and found out that I live at the one-mile marker for the 6-mile walk. There must have been at least a million people. I ran into a coworker, and got to meet a few more neighbors. So far everyone seems nice, if a little suspicious at first. Apparently everyone knows who I am, being the newbie. I passed a few lemon cucumber seeds to my upstairs neighbor, who is not only an italian chef, but grows a garden against the fence near the parking lot. Talk about making it work.
I met the cable guy, who said I wasn't the ONLY person in Salem who had no idea this was going on, and took a quick ride to the visitor's center, determined to convince myself that there are nice people who work there, instead of the snarky ranger who cut me off with "THERE ARE NO WITCHES" when I asked where the witch memorials were. I was pleasantly surprised by a new yorker who enjoyed my pestering questions about boat memorabilia. I told her to stay on her toes because I'm coming back with more questions. A belayer. Who knew?
I watched some of the 6k run and hopped on my bike back to the Willows for the Walk's grand finale, but never got there. Instead I found a yard sale, a 68-cent endtable, and a really great older family who wanted nothing more than good conversation and feed me peanut butter taffy. I'll tell ya, the older folks here, the older townies, the tradesmen, the northshore people...what have you... they love this town. And they really love the power plant. The guy who runs the Friends of Winter Island committee, the yard sale people, the trolley driver who showed me how to sneak into the Peabody Essex Museum bathroom... And it's not just because it keeps their taxes low. A lot of them have worked here, or knew family who worked here, and they really felt the pain of the deadly accident that occurred 3 years ago, instead of harping on Salem to shut the place down. Salem seems to appreciate the plant. Marblehead on the other hand.... that's another story. :)
That afternoon was spent celebrating Father's Day, Graduation Day and a 3-yr old's birthday in Plymouth with my family and Brendan's girlfriend's family. After being away so long it was nice to see everyone together. :)
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