Out In The Cold

(Some stuff that didn't make it to the last post, due to my going off on that tangent about sledding) ...

I wasn't the only one in the park at the base of Poet's Seat Tower in Greenfield on Sunday.



A woman in thin, taped up, white cover-alls stood a few feet away from me. She was just standing there when I arrived, and was just standing there exactly in the same place when I left, just after sunset. Free time was a theme in the last blog post, but this is an entirely different type...(see comments below for some more info on her story)...

The dark and the cold was coming in fast once the sun disappeared.



Bringing with it the realization that there's much to be thankful for.



Before heading back I made one more stop in downtown Greenfield. Walking down the sidewalk for a bit barely scratched the edge of Greenfield's very long, locally owned retail strip and side streets.



I can't think of another area of locally owned shops and stores as big as this one, anywhere else in the valley. This downtown is a throw back to a few decades ago, before malls and then chain stores first enticed us with convenience, but ultimately numbed us with impersonal-ness.

In the heart of the way-back machine that is Main Street is four story department store called Wilson's. It's a living relic of how things used to be, it's like coming across a retail mastodon.



I wonder who will fare better in the coming economic downturn, the small local shops or the big chain stores...





...the big banks or the small ones...



...the entertainment megaplexes, or the small theater. In keeping with the unchanged vibe of Main Street, is the neat looking Garden Theater, still in business, still original, still $6.50.



It was getting late, and the weekend was just about over...



It was time to head back, to my own warm home...