The Public Square

My town has a Public Square. It is a scary place, this square, for visitors; every friend who has ever come to visit me, and my sister, has been frightened by driving around the square. I navigate it at least twice every day, so I no longer fear the square. I simply accept it, and drive on.

The centerpiece of the square is the county courthouse. Unspectacular, architecturally speaking; in fact, the most notable detail about the building is that different sections were obviously constructed using different kinds of bricks. Not an attractive building, inside or out, but I suppose it serves its purpose.

Surrounding the courthouse are parking spaces, the diagonal kind. Outside the parking spaces, the road, then more parking spaces angling toward the stores and shops that make up the outer part of the square.

Four roads lead into the square: West Main, South Main, East Main and North Main. Traffic on the square moves counter-clockwise, except for the occasional newcomer to town, usually someone who has accidentally exited from the interstate onto the highway and then had to keep going, through the heart of town, until he or she could meander back to the interstate. One of my co-workers was laughing and laughing one morning: He had not lived here that long himself, but the sight, on his way to the office, of someone going the wrong way around the Public Square was a funny one, for sure.

At the corner of each square, there is sort of an alley which takes you to a bank (in the southwest and northwest corners) or a parking lot (the other two).

Navigating the square is difficult because there are no traffic signs, except for those pointing you to this highway or that, this landmark or that. There are no stop signs, not even a yield, and if you live here, you NEVER use a turn signal when you enter or exit the square. Though an occasional signal would be helpful.

Someone told me, once, the secret to navigating the square:

“You should constantly be moving,” she said ... or maybe it was a he. “You should never come to a complete stop.”

This is not always possible, as cars are constantly pulling onto or out of the square. Sometimes you will find yourself in the midst of 3 lanes of traffic. Like I was today, and I tried to exit onto North Main, behind a PT Cruiser that was inching, inching, inching along, and from the middle lane, I sort of edged over, but a van that had entered the square from East Main kept trying to nose in, but I kept edging, edging forward, until the Cruiser finally pulled forward and I was able to floor it for a second or 2, giving me just the distance I needed to pull away from the nosing-in van.

: )

One time not as long ago as you might think, the Ku Klux Klan held a rally on the Public Square.

“More tattoos than teeth” was how one of the journalists covering the rally described most of the people in attendance.

My girlfriend and I left town for the weekend. Spent some quality time, somewhere, shopping.

: )

Driving up North Main today, listening to my absolutely fabulous new Mannheim Steamroller CD, I started to feel The Christmas Spirit. Just a little, and mostly because the music is so gorgeous. I know, I know: How many times can you remake a Christmas song or carol? And besides, I already have 4 or 5 other Steamroller albums, some of which contain some of the songs on this new one?

Well, I have no answer, other than I adore their music and their renditions of the songs. And in a couple of them, whoever plays the piccolo is simply outstanding, and it just makes me smile to hear those notes.

Anyway, when I was a little kid, I used to wait for this magical Christmas spirit to hit me. And on a cold late-November, early December day, if I were outside at recess and a snowflake or 2 happened to fall, well, then, yes, sometimes this so-called spirit would hit me. For a minute or 2, at least ... but never in the way that some people seemed to think that it would, or should, or did.

I always kept waiting and hoping, but it never really seemed to take hold. So, today, when I drove and listened, I felt a little warm and fuzzy, and that felt pretty cool. Especially since it was such an incredibly gray and gloomy and rainy and crappy day outside.

The kind of day that is just perfect for type-type-typing away in a journal. Or shopping for shoes, online.

: )