Petty Annoyance

Work hard, annoy a liberal ~ Bumper Sticker

I haven’t seen this bumper sticker for a while but it popped up again this morning. It’s one that I have never really understood seeing that I’m a liberal and I work hard. Pat’s a liberal (well, really he’s a socialist) and he works hard. I have liberal friends; smart, educated people. They’re hard workers too. See not so much with the making sense.

So, I started thinking: If hard work doesn’t annoy me as a liberal, what does?

Oh, here’s one. I hate being preached at about “family values” by politicians who live secret lives while trying to deny basic human and civil rights to others. How dare I sit here in my “traditional” marriage, with my one boy and one girl, working hard to earn a living and trying to teach the children crazy “family values” like self-respect, tolerance, acceptance, and love. Holy Moses, we should be shot or indefinitely detained for spreading the crazy notions that the gays and minorities are equal and deserving of love and respect. That’s crazy talk! Crazy liberal talk. Why it’s practically socialism (everyone wave to Pat!).

The Light Box

From the light box in front of Southgate, you could see Hyde Square to the left, to the right you could follow the trolley tracks all the way to Forest Hills; Boylston Street was straight ahead and Moraine Street was at your back. Sitting on the light box was like being in the middle of EVERYWHERE! ~ Melissa Brady

The light box ruled my life. Of all the places from my teenage years, this is where many adventures began. Whether we ended up at Daisy Field, the Pond, or Parley Vale, the Connelly Library, or Kelly’s Rink, we generally started out at the light box.

Southgate is gone, so is Greasey’s. Ditto Kelly’s Rink. Different people live in our homes. Yet, the light box remains, waiting. It stands as the guardian of our youth, a witness to our hopes and fears, our triumphs and failures. It was our gathering space, the hub of our universe.

Jamaica Plain (JP) back in the 70s and 80s was starting to change. It, like many Boston neighborhoods went through a difficult, turbulent metamorphosis. Busing altered the schools and the communities. Many families moved their kids to Catholic schools while still others left entirely. There was a lot of turbulence and violence, poverty and addiction.

But it was always beautiful, even with urban blight. There was, and remains, an incredible array of natural landscape to serve as our backyards: The Emerald Necklace, which includes Daisy Field and Jamaica Pond. Of course we had the Arboretum and other, smaller, urban oases.