Andrea Goes to North Adams

Late this afternoon, Andrew and I arrived home after spending a few days in North Adams, MA, where he was interviewing for an assistant professor of History position at MLCA (Massachuetts College of Liberal Arts). While Andrew attended meetings and such, I had the pleasure of spending the day with Sally, one of the professor's wives, who gave me the lowdown on all things East Coastal, Massachusetts-ian, and North Adams-esque.

North Adams is a very small town of about 15,000 located in the scenic Berkshires. It is a curious blend of the very old and very new, the very old-fashioned and the very progressive. For example, you would be hard pressed to find a house built after 1950 and many appear to be crumbling into the hills, yet one of the formerly derelict textile mill buildings has been turned into the nation's largest center for contemporary art, MASS MoCA; and the complex also houses a world-class hotel, a concert venue, a cafe, a movie screening room, and a restaurant/bar. Nearby MASS MoCA, there are a bevy of Catholic churches, each specifically designed for the ethnic groups who would've settled in North Adams to work in the mills: there's the Irish church, the Italian church, and the Polish church. There are two very nice coffeehouses, a secondhand bookshop, and a writer's resource center; a Euro-style bistro that serves a very tasty antipasto plate; and a fairly large natural foods grocery. The public library is an old family mansion, which has been completely refurbished with a spacious and welcoming children's area, but it's defining features, like the heavy wood staircase, have been left intact.

In North Adams, I saw an indoor aviary. I shopped at a thrift store called Sanford and Kid, and came across a fur coat, circa 1940 something, with a tag from a shop which no longer exists in North Adams. I ate a lemon tuna sandwich with Sally, who told me about the good work she did volunteering in the prison system, and the good work she does doing taxes, and she pointed out the upside down maple trees strung up on cables outside MASS MoCA-- I agreed it wasn't a good way to treat trees, but we agreed that the "Upside Down Maple Syrup" available for purchase was brilliant marketing. In North Adams, you can also shop at Wal-Mart.

And, in a town called Williamstown, which is far more snooty than North Adams but only about 6 miles away, Sally and I went to a shop called "Where Did you Get that?" and I bought a Foucault finger puppet for Andrew to beat up when he gets angry.

Massachusetts: gay marriage is legal. Masschusetts: underfunds state colleges. North Adams: post-industrial East coast American town, a little beat-up but still a very shiny girl, wearing secondhand high heels and swinging her hemp purse on a golden chain.