A drive to the western part of the state to get some new
views,...
A drive to the western part of the state to get some new
views, we paused in a town called Greenfield to put blood in our legs and see
what was there. Mid-march, still cold, the first Saturday since Daylight Saving
had lengthened the days. On the drive, I thought about all the other drives
west out Route 2. The Wagon Wheel in Gill. A picnic table across a bridge. A
leather and lambswool depot on the side of the road where everything is soft. Now and then-ness. So, a
beer, why not, in this unfamiliar town. A place called Seymour pulled us in and
we sat at the bar which was quiet and golden in the good five pm light. A man
and a woman played cards a few stools down; a trio sat at a table and laughed.
A box of Trivial Pursuit cards, original edition, was there on the bar and we
asked each other questions. What U.S. state is named after a Greek island? How
many feet in a fathom? Who’s the patron saint of Scotland? Who made it big
with Tiptoe through the Tulips in
1968? Do you know? Can you answer? (I guessed Georgia for the state. Wrong.
Rhode Island.) I remember the box in our house as a kid, dark green, somehow
stern, definitively adult. It’s not humbling in a good way, the way tripping on
the sidewalk sometimes is. Though maybe there’s an argument to be made for getting
a reminder of how much you don’t know. What sort of wood is this, I was asked about the bar at which we sat.
Cherry, I said. It was good to touch. Good to place your hands upon, as though
it was touching you back. But then I second guessed. What sort of wood is this,
I asked the bartender. Cherry, he said. Sometimes you don’t know how much you
know. I got most of the trivia answers wrong. I was glad I was right about the wood. We
slipped out before it was dark, the bar filling up, St. Patrick’s Day. If I’d
known who the patron saint of Scotland was, I would’ve asked, do they celebrate
St. Andrew?
