Western Mass

The other day I took good old Amtrack from NYC to Amherst (a lovely ride surrounded by 20-year-olds returning to college) and I have spent the past several days here in western Mass with my father (Roger) and step-mother (Shirley). They live off in the country, and when I look out the window (as I did just a minute ago), we are surrounded by trees! I timed my trip to arrive in the height of the fall colors, but they aren't here! Well, to be fair, there are a several trees that are brilliant reds and yellows, and (my favorite) oranges, but most are either still greenish or brownish.

We went for a long beautiful hike yesterday (reminded me of the Windy City Hikers group I hike with) along an old rail like and over or past several fabulous stone bridges! The rail line was designed by the father of J.M. Whistler (and thus the husband of the woman in the painting). It was the longest (and the steepest (1.6%) I think) at the time. They didn't actually have the technology to get the trains over the mountains when the line was built! It was so impressive, in fact, that he (and his family) were summoned to Russia to design and build the Trans-Siberian Rail Road! (I will have to go and ride it (!) now I know it was designed by a local boy -- so to speak.) The bridges were spectacular! They were hugely tall (the tallest is 70 ft. above the water!) and built without mortar and still standing strong (and able to support trains of more than 200,000 tons!).

We've done some other fun stuff on my visit, too. We just got back from a jazz concert at Smith. Piano (one of my favorite instruments -- I liked it so much I begged my mother for a piano and lessons, which she gave me. But then I never practiced, so I'm not any good. It remains one of my favorites, though, despite this murky history) and clarinet. It was wonderful. The two men (Bob Sparkman and Jerry Noble) clearly like each other and love to play together. So much so that some of the songs went on longer than they anticipated. They wound up cuting some of the songs they intended to play out of the program, and still went long! I'm not any good at describing music -- one of you music people will have to teach me something about music one of these days -- so I recommend you check out one of their five albums (I mean CDs -- I'm dating myself) and hear it for yourself.

We also went for a walk up one of the local mountains (Mount Tom), but had to turn back for lack of light. And last night we went to a fund raising dinner for the Massachusetts-Cambodian Water Project. This is a very grass roots organization that has, over the past three or four years raised and sent about $15,000 to Cambodia to buy supplies that help three towns improve sanitation (i.e. dig pit toilets) and collect and store "clean" drinking water to make it though the dry season (via wells, water retention ponds and cisterns). They also buy books and pay for two English teachers in each town ($175/teacher/year -- makes my salary look astronomically huge!). It is a very impressive project -- all volunteer run. And I just have to say, both as a biologist and as a human being, that so many of the world's problems could be solved with decent sanitation! Everyone should have access to water that is at least free of human and animal waste! -- OK, I'm off my soap-box.

Finally, I can't end without mentioning the Contra Dance! WOW! I can't remember now who suggested it first, but Thank You! The dance in Greenfield, MA has (apparently) an international reputation (and I don't just mean Canada). And I've been told that people come from other states for the Friday and Saturday dances. To put the Chicago community to shame, they sometimes have five (five!) contra lines! On Friday, when I went, there were at least three lines for each dance. The dances seemed simpler than those called in Chicago, and there wasn't very much hot-dogging, but almost everyone I danced with was excellent! Nice firm, well balanced, smooth (though not fast or fancy) swings. Everyone was clearly having a great time and had great energy. And the Floor! smooth and soft. A dream! I highly recommend it to anyone traveling to the East.

One final note. I am not sure if I will be able to update this again before I go home to Chicago on the 28th. But I am looking forward to seeing everyone there as often as possible before I leave again on Nov. 1st! If not, I'll be back again (from Las Vegas!) on the 8th -- so save me a dance