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I’m very familiar with the US city of Boston. I’ve walked its streets many a time and today I had just a few short hours to reacquaint myself with this city that feels so familiar to me.
From North Station I would ordinarily walk into the city, but today, as time was at a premium, I jumped on the T (subway). On an old and screeching train I rode to Government Center where I took todays picture amid the jumble of period buildings and soaring skyscrapers. As the cold air quickened my steps I walked to the open air bookstore on West Street where people wrapped in warm coats, hats and scarfs, browsed the selection of cut price books that must be dreaming of warmer days, if indeed books could dream.
Not far from there’s the wide open space of Boston common where grey squirrels scurried around my feet begging for morsels to fatten them over the cold winter months. Crossing Charles street I wandered into the Public Garden that always manages to look beautiful, like a film star who somehow hasn’t stepped beyond the era that made them famous. A busker with a guitar bellows out songs from the bridge over pond with the swan boats. His animated enthusiasm earns him two dollars from my pocket, he nods in appreciation and continues to sing so loud that even the nearby statue of George Washington might somehow hear him.
- “Mellow down please young sir, I’m trying to look regal and imposing here.”
On Commonwealth Avenue I look at the beautiful townhouses and wonder who might live on such a princely street. It looks to me like the kind of place where people have double-barreled names and weekend home. I won’t be joining them just yet, I’ll save that for another life. I continue my walk, finding my way to Trinity Church where I grab a hot apple cider from a street vendor, then sit on just in front of the public library looking up at the John Hancock tower as the apple cider warms my cold hands.
I like Boston. I like the people and their accents, the sound of the city that echoes down the long and open streets. I like the way they have fairy lights in the trees, and people walking around in period costumes talking about the history of this old town. I like the way the T trains clatter and screech, and the romance of the ‘green monster’ at Fenway Park, home of the Boston RedSox baseball team. Coming here today was like visiting an old friend I hadn’t seen in a while, and you know what, I like that too.
If you’re curious where I am, you can find me on a map. Simply click the ‘About Simon Jones’ link at the top of the website then click the ‘Find me on a map‘ link.