Beverly Living
Beverly bothers me greatly. It's part American dream, part retirement community. The contradictions of its existence are staggering. Blacks and Whites living in a sort of harmony yet everyone has a Mexican lawn care service with an Irish name.
And the lawns! Oh my god the lawns. Big beautiful green grass carpets everywhere. Perfectly clipped and all the clippings dragged away discreetly. I'll be damned if I don't smell manure all the time. It is the same stink I used to pick up all the time in Macomb coming in off the farms. Out there my friends said it was the smell of money. If it was a pig farm, it was being scooped up for sale. If it was a plant crop then, it was the secret ingredient to get a better yield. Here in Beverly its the stink of disposable income, The odor of appearances.
Then there are the coffee shops. Independently owned coffee shops mind you. No Starbucks here in Beverly. And what do these nifty locals do. They open just before the first trains go into town in the morning and close shop just after the first trains come home in the evening. No late hours! Except for one cafe that hosts live music once a week. I'm sorry but I think I'm going to need alcohol if I'm going to listen to half talented unpracticed people sing badly.
No alcohol sold in Beverly. No bars, no liquor stores, no six pack of beer from the corner market.
Change seems to be coming but slowly. Last year we got this excellent Italian deli: Calabria Imports. They make a mean beef sandwich. We also got a CVS, with which I have a love / hate relationship. It's convenient in location but not 24 / 7 because that's not done in Beverly. The service is lousy and they are terrible about restocking my Lipton iced teas but the pharmacy people are really helpful.
Now that its summertime there are roving packs of preteens. They seem to have no purpose but to hang out in lawns and parking lots. This may be because there is nothing to do in Beverly Arrrrgh!
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And the lawns! Oh my god the lawns. Big beautiful green grass carpets everywhere. Perfectly clipped and all the clippings dragged away discreetly. I'll be damned if I don't smell manure all the time. It is the same stink I used to pick up all the time in Macomb coming in off the farms. Out there my friends said it was the smell of money. If it was a pig farm, it was being scooped up for sale. If it was a plant crop then, it was the secret ingredient to get a better yield. Here in Beverly its the stink of disposable income, The odor of appearances.
Then there are the coffee shops. Independently owned coffee shops mind you. No Starbucks here in Beverly. And what do these nifty locals do. They open just before the first trains go into town in the morning and close shop just after the first trains come home in the evening. No late hours! Except for one cafe that hosts live music once a week. I'm sorry but I think I'm going to need alcohol if I'm going to listen to half talented unpracticed people sing badly.
No alcohol sold in Beverly. No bars, no liquor stores, no six pack of beer from the corner market.
Change seems to be coming but slowly. Last year we got this excellent Italian deli: Calabria Imports. They make a mean beef sandwich. We also got a CVS, with which I have a love / hate relationship. It's convenient in location but not 24 / 7 because that's not done in Beverly. The service is lousy and they are terrible about restocking my Lipton iced teas but the pharmacy people are really helpful.
Now that its summertime there are roving packs of preteens. They seem to have no purpose but to hang out in lawns and parking lots. This may be because there is nothing to do in Beverly Arrrrgh!
More laters
posted by Rich Rosenthal II at 8:20 PM
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