Newton Scenes
Life, being the stressful thing that it is, is highly helped by living in a pleasant place. For instance, unless the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and everything is totally going my way, quite a few areas of Brooklyn (a place I used to live in and still visit often) can get you clinically depressed; drab brown tenement buildings, cracked pavements, scary Brooklynites with even scarier accents, in short, the works. Luckily enough for me, I live in a place called Newton in the commonwealth of Massachusetts. The joys of residing in Newton are many and warrant an enumeration:
- A relatively affluent population translates itself into attractive abode homes. A key thing about this place is that, regardless of weather, the panorama does not turn depressing. Rain, snow or sunshine, the colonials, capes, Tudors, and the ranches look lovely. Green and tree lined, it is always a pleasure to walk or drive through.
- Variety. Newton is composed of 13 villages. Each has its distinct character, manifested in types of homes, style of trees and town center.
- Library. Like Brooklyn, most public libraries need to have a Prozac dispenser at the door. They are usually dingy, slightly fetid affairs, with dingy, slightly fetid books. The one exception I am aware of is the one in Newton (excluding, of course, major city libraries like the one in NYC and Boston, as well as libraries in academic institutions). Our library is huge, clean and amply stacked.
- Back to Variety. There are a great variety of people. Most of them are professional, intelligent and interesting. American born Newtonites lack the different varieties of Boston and Massachusetts accents (I speak with an accent, but I was not born here, so I have an excuse). The good school and clean living attract people from all over the world, so there is a great national, ethnic and religious variety as well.
- Just the odd things that people end up doing around here – there is a willowy Orthodox Jewish guy that is constantly jogging. He is either wearing a black caftan during the day, or an absolutely improbably multi-colored robe when he runs after dark. His face has an expression of slightly mad exultation, with arms (he appears to have more than two, somehow) flying in strange directions at unnatural angles.
- It’s not suburbia! Or at least it does not feel like something the Leave it to Beaver world. Sans traffic it’s about a 15-minute drive to Boston. One can get Indian, Japanese (best Sushi EVER), Mediterranean, Italian, French and endless Pub cuisine without leaving the town (actually, it’s a city, with over 80,000 inhabitants).
- Lowest crime rate in the States for a city of its size.
- Our own Symphony Orchestra
- Total lack of provincialism.
- Great bookstores. Besides the requisite B&N, there is the New England Mobile Book Faire. There is nothing mobile about it – it’s been standing in the same spot since ’47 if I am not mistaken. Inside, it’s a cozy, huge warehouse filled with books. One needs to get over the organization – books are organized by publisher, and by title within the publisher. The great thing is that you can get most books there. If they don’t have ‘em they’ll order ‘em for you. The bonus? All books are at least 20% off.
- Lakes. There are quite a few of them. You can walk and swim (in the winter) – there are actually quite a few walking trails. The lakes also provide amusing sites. For instance I saw a man in his late 30’s or early 40’s teach his 73-year-old father in law how to wind surf. As both men were Russian, the exchanges between them proved to be highly entertaining to me (it’s fascinating how one can be rude and commanding while at the same time using the formal address – the Russian equivalent of “Vous” versus “Tu.”) I also bumped into a woman who used to date the son of the previous owner of my house back in the 70’s!
- A variety of cafes. I am partial to Pete’s, but there are at least two more just in the Village center I go to. People are chatty (great opportunity to increase my blog readership), and you never know whom you’ll meet. For instance, I bumped into someone I went to graduate school with. Once this scion to a rather old family (his name sounds rather Mayflowerish) got his PhD in Russian literature, he met a nice Jewish girl, changed his religion to hers (Oy Vey) and is now in a masters program in Jewish studies upon completion of which he will be teaching Jewish kids Judaism in Sunday school.
And the list goes on. All in all, the place is pleasant without being dull, it’s intellectually challenging without being obnoxious about it, and feels young because of all the families having kids and college students.
6:44:24 AM 
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