New England Charm

 I have a few days still left of my spring break. It was full steam ahead before and it will be full steam ahead from Monday again, but in between we've a mandatory no emails kinda break because of the furloughs. Even this small break has been delightful. It is always delightful when I have nothing to take care of other than the things I genuinely want to. It makes me long for the real break in summer. I have been having so many Kerala dreams, and I miss my people. I am pretty certain that we will make it to India this time, even though we probably won't get our vaccines until May. 

In the meantime, we make do with local adventures. Last day, we went to Manchester again, and instead of driving through, we parked the car and walked around. Mike has finally started to appreciate Massachusetts a little more. He's still first and foremost annoyed with the local driving practices. And Boston as a city is quite lackluster compared to NY, but, he qualifies, there are many pretty towns all around, and that's unique to Mass. Usually the places we visit have a few old public buildings, like churches or libraries, that anchor the town and give it character, a historic district with some dignified and sometimes splendid old homes, and a town center. Sometimes the center has a few shops and restaurants and sometimes it has many. The towns are usually by the beach, so there would be a dock close by and boats sprayed across it. 

There is a push for new development in all these places given its commercial potential- which also means that there are signboards saying no to over-development in each of these towns, including Salem. Common to all home owners is the fear of oversupply and a dip in property values. Many of these towns are, however, close to Boston or connected by rail. So, in the dream scenario, with development, a place like Salem would turn into a mini Cambridge. A particular issue for Salem, however, is traffic. Road blocks and congestion were an ongoing concern even before the signboards started popping up. The town is trying to promote alternative commuting for people like me who live and work locally, but I am not sure if it will compensate for the added congestion brought on by more people.

Then there are other concerns, some people like the peace and quiet, others want to maintain their town's exclusivity. For instance, roughly a month ago we visited Little Nahant. We walked along the beach, and checked out the houses along the town's winding lanes. We then drove over to (the bigger?) Nahant- it looked grand and we were excited to explore it. We looped several times over in search of parking, but couldn't find a spot. What we did spot were these rather aggressive signboards of a husky with a bleeding bird in its mouth. Turned out, these were put up in protest of Northeastern's plans (the husky being the university mascot). It wants to expand its Marine Center in its own property, which includes a gigantic laboratory and parking lots. Given that Nahant did not even want visitors around, what with residents-only parking spaces, I don't see why they would find sympathy beyond their little clique. 

Still, there is no knowing what these towns will end up being in the future. On my part, I hope the new buildings are as pretty as the old ones. The next week, since we had nothing better to do with our lives, we decided to avenge the snub. We parked at little Nahant, returned to forbidden Nahant on foot and explored it to our heart's content.