Vikings Tower on Norumbega Road
near Brandeis University MA
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I was informed about this by, and saw it with, a visiting scholar from Nordic Europe, around mid '80s. There was a plaque in masonry informing visitors about Viking history on the continent, how they visited and lived and traded from as far inland as Watertown, for several centuries, circa 11th century AD. They left due to loneliness since no mass migration was happening at the time. The place was beautiful, and still was a few decades later in 2011 when we visited the last time.
The place is eye opening in view of popularly taught history of much later discovery of the continent, and later on reading I found convincing details about how Norsemen and Vikings and indeed fishermen of Northwest Europe knew about lands across Atlantic, not only Iceland and Greenland but also the continent, which knowledge was kept a secret because it was a question of livelihood for the fishing community. The distance is much more in latitudes closer to the equator than closer to the pole, so one can easily surmise that it is all very likely true.
As I read other two reviews, I am unsure about veracity of the church, it was probably a watchtower as I recall reading on the plaque, a church after all needs a community and an official and is not merely a site to worship, but a tower is useful in looking out for ships and more.
The other review is a bit saddening, I recall this place as being serene, green and clear with the noise of the highways close by receding into a dim hum, conducive to peace and thought and more.
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Filene's Downtown Boston
I am not sure when Filenes closed, if it did. Google maps shows no department store across a small road from Jordan Marsh in downtown Boston when one looks now, and if it did close it must have been a nostalgic day for the many women used to finding treasures especially in the basement, so much so elsewhere there were stores called Filene's Basement that were totally above ground. Their policy of offering increasing discounts (25% first week, 50% next, 75% third week, fourth week donated to charity) had women gamble and hope they got more discount on what one wished one could afford, but looking at crowds of others doing the same it was hard not to grab it the first week if one really liked something. Once I have seen things fought over, albeit without physical attacks on the other person, but with firm claims on the object fought over not giving up physically.
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Later other discount stores came up, I moved to the other coast, and then the era of online shopping. When did Filene's vanish without my noticing it? Last time I shopped at Filene's Basement was in NY in 2000 on a work related visit, and found treasures then too. Then I found other stores with more discounts on brands, one near WTC which then was still standing and we visited on my insistence. I am glad we did.
I am not sure who else misses the drive or otherwise arriving at the store and walking through it physically looking at things and trying them and balancing the budget with needs or simply temptations, but it was also educational for someone not of the place, and perhaps even for local women in some ways. And the walk to the place in winters was definitely bracing, exhilarating even.
A lot has changed and now the place is a café. Hope it offers as much to its customers as the store did, in joy if not in merchandise. If it is the same management, that is quite likely too.
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Galeries Lafayette
The first visit to Paris was memorable in so may ways, and Galerie Lafayette was one of them, surprisingly - having visited Boston and New York NY and more, Midwest with its separate stores, and London too, I did not expect a surprise with so much wonder and pleasure. And that too after visiting the lovely and stupendous sites of Paris, Louvre and Eiffel Tower and more.
I almost did not go there. My hostess told me this was a place worth a visit and I went in spite of doubts, and spent time in a smaller store across the road under the impression that this was it, and thought yes I know it was no big deal. Then I saw a store across the road and thought, let us see this one. And the wonder started.
It is difficult to describe the beauty of the place, the several floors with a circular gallery in middle overlooking a ground floor plaza and - was it? - a skylight overhead. To my surprise and delight, I found a few things worth buying even on the then very stringent small budget of a student, and they were lovely, and on huge discount. Which satisfied my self restrictions so as to not squander the little money I had.
The memory of the store remained forever as lovely as the cherry blossoms on a road across the Seine from Louvre we found on a spring visit much later.
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La Pyramide Inversée
and the
Pyramid du Louvre
My first visit to Louvre in '83 was before this pyramid came, and I had gone with a south American visitor who I met just the day before at the hostel. We came up out of the metro behind the whole complex of Louvre and I saw it as perhaps it should be seen, walking through the quadrangles of the once palace and seat of rule of France, before entering at one of the then current entrances of the palace. There was a good deal of repair and reconstruction going on and Venus de Milo was not to be seen.
Next visit was in another millennium and much had happened, the pyramid and its inverse inside, and Venus de Milo was on view too. So were other treasures of Louvre albeit I did not find some of the small things discovered in the earlier visit.
But the pyramids create their own space and atmosphere. Visitors queuing up to enter - and a long queue it is on a good day too, perhaps on a rainy day with hailstorm as well, who knows - have fun, what with children playing happily around the pyramid, young couples sitting relaxed, and some water features, everyone calmed and expectant about what treasures are on display one may see.
The inverted pyramid inside after one enters sort of continues the outside for a while, what with the pyramid inverted and light streaming in, and one usually does not notice it is in a different place unless one is paying attention. It forms a transition nicely, on the way to comparatively dark but full of wonders interior.
And if one has read Da Vinci Code, one feels just a little thrill, who knows - at any rate it is the historic longitude even if there is no crypt deep down under.
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Au Bon Pain
When Au Bon Pain was new in Boston area it was a thrill, finding so much so delightful, unlike the usual eateries with little on offer for a vegetarian. Not only Au Bon Pain had breads and sandwiches but lovely croissants to go with coffee and some really nice offerings - a favourite remained over years their cauliflower and cheese soup.
I remember stopping at Harvard square for breakfast between second and third bus to the early work hours, a one hour or more commute each way, just to have some respite and delight in the coffee and croissant. And on the way back for lunch with the cauliflower soup and a sandwich. Then onwards home to work on the thesis.
Recently we visited Burlington Mall and found Au Bon Pain to my delight, and it had gone exponential in variety of offerings, all delicious.
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Musée Marmottan Monet
This museum then was described as a good one in an excellent guide book I had bought before leaving for Europe and after seeing excellent museums of Boston, Chicago, New York, London, Louvre and Jeu de Paume in Paris (I am not sure if Orsay was a museum then but it is another good one since in this city of wonderful museums), I was hardly expecting more wonders.
Arriving after a delightful walk through quiet neighbourhood from the metro station, I wandered leisurely through the ground floor, looking at the furnishings - good - and other things on view, and went down the wide winding stairs almost as an afterthought, since I was used to museums storing much of their treasures and putting on display only a few things due to limitations of space. And there were some artworks on the ground floor, so I did not expect much more downstairs.
I am glad - oh, am I glad I went in spite of not expecting much! One really has to see it to know what I went through, and then have the same resonance with the art of not only Impressionists but Monet.
I don't know if I was there for more than an hour, probably was, sitting and standing alternately, and almost in tears before some of them for their beauty, sheer beauty. Later in the souvenir store I let all caution go to winds and tried buying all I could rather than the one card or so others in queue were buying, and the French resentment for US visitors was visibly restrained as they disapproved and said nothing. But I couldn't let the opportunity go.
I am still waiting for the home good enough to display the reproductions bought then and hope one day I can relax with them surrounding me in all their beauty.
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Boston Ballet
Somehow it does seem that four stars should be more than liked it, and five should be absolutely superlative. With Boston Ballet there were some very precious and treasured evenings of watching lovely performances.
The first time we went a colleague had invited and Rudolf Nureyev was to perform in Don Quixote with Paris Ballet, and all dressed up with high expectations off we went. Halfway through the performance I was wondering why the title performer seemed less of an attraction and the young lover more so, was I not artistic enough to know subtleties of ballet? I had assumed Nureyev would be doing the title role.
Then on it was an addiction not easily satisfied what with meagre economic resources and high costs of the evening, but then a few years later it became possible, just about, and I went ballistic, buying a year's subscription when offered on phone. So it began for the short year that it was.
There was the eternal superlative Swan Lake, and that was the first one we saw, with me a friend with her Russian heritage and therefore much more knowledgeable in ballet. I loved it, she had seen better and merely said she had as much or more fun watching me.
I don't remember which was the third one, because Sleeping Beauty I saw in NY with American Ballet, but in Boston I recall vividly performance of Romeo and Juliet, with its poignant music and its conception of Death as a character.
In between I was fortunate enough to see a film about Kirov Ballet in downtown Boston, and a performance of Swan Lake by Bolshoi on cable - then it was new - in the friend's home on their small television. It was a revelation, and remains the peak of my ballet appreciation so far.
What with beginning with Nureyev in Paris Ballet and finale with Bolshoi, still, the Boston Ballet with the two memorable performances we saw remain memorable. The music, watching them take flight as swans and perform as humans, everything fairy tale. As it is meant to be.
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Shopping Malls and Stores
A later addition to the place across the road from Watertown mall, Arsenal Mall was even those days a bit more pricy. Now it is far more glitzy, and one almost forgets the original purpose of malls when one visits the new glitzy ones.
Watertown Mall was everything a mall was originally supposed to be - a place where one could do necessary shopping (so there was a supermarket and at least one store to buy reasonably priced clothing and other household necessities), a couple of places one could stop and eat if one needed or wished to (pizza, frozen yogurt that was new then), and benches around central greenery amidst the aisle that connected the stores so one could rest if needed or wished, perhaps with a cup of coffee.
The new glitzy malls have little on offer to rest and often no stores for necessities shopping, only high priced glamorous and often not quite useful clothes and accessories, and one is expected to walk in, do little or no browsing and out with or without shopping - seemingly they do not care.
I have memories of waiting for an hour in freezing rain at bus stop after shopping for necessary stuff at Watertown Mall, or in cold winds in winter at bus stop near Fresh Pond Mall - but the new glitzy ones are for those that can park, hop in, buy a couple of things for a hundred or so, and leave, unless they indulge in ice cream (not food that sustains but only tantalises and leaves one unsatisfied).
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Jordan Marsh, Downtown Boston.
I don't now remember after over three decades if Jordan Marsh was the first department store I saw, but it was impressive for a good reason.
Other stores were closer or slightly less so, and certainly needed one to use a bus, so one often was waiting after shopping for necessities with heavy bags in a freezing rain or a cold wind making one shiver and questioning if one was wise to have decided to come to this place, is one going to survive, and so on, existential questions for the hour one waited or twenty minutes. But they were more affordable and one needed then to save every red cent one could, what with meagre salary and heavy rent in the city in those beginning days.
Jordan Marsh downtown was closer to the place of work and one could and did use the T, and it was a warmer travel what with the discovery of a direct entrance from the subway albeit one missed the thrill of a chill bracing wind one walked through if one went up to street level instead and saw the buildings around that were somehow reassuring.
And one could browse at leisure while salespeople were around to help if needed - which one did some times, being new. That was the memorable thing discovered accidentally but quite vitally.
I was battling with winter and needed warm boots, and a colleague had taught me to wait for discounts and look up prices until one could judge them to be right for one's budget, and of course one could not wait for ever, not for necessities. So it was a gamble. I bought waterproof boots in Jordan Marsh one of those winter days and wore them for a while.
But for what reason I could not fathom, for they had no hole or tear, my feet were wet - and so I went to Jordan Marsh apprehensively, and was apologetically narrating my reasons for doing so as I returned the boots.
It took me a couple of minutes to realise that the courteous salesperson - or perhaps one in charge of returned goods - did not need those reasons, that he was not questioning my honesty, and that he was listening out of courtesy.
This unquestioning acceptance of the customer's honesty in dealing with one's own needs, and helping courteously whether buying or returning, above all remains more in memory than the excellent clothes at reasonable prices - which have since gone up so much I wonder how poor students can afford them, and if not what do they wear.
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Waltham Supermarket
Those days it was simply Waltham Supermarket, and advertised right there on the board over the name as "the largest supermarket in the world". It seemed strange that anyone could say such a thing, after all internet was a few decades ahead and how would anyone know what size supermarkets were anywhere else in US much less in the world? Our European colleagues laughed about it.
But that was only for those that thought this was what it was about. For us living there and not wealthy enough to posses a car it was a lifeline, walking to the supermarket and walking back with groceries once a week if one could carry that much, else more often. Some people brought the carts home and left them on the curb, and the supermarket had employees collect them from all over the town and wheel them back. We thought that was infra dig. My housemate had a trolley, and if I needed it could borrow it.
The supermarket was not fancy but was plenty, there was never any shortage of things one needs or variety thereof. Later they set up a gourmet coffee counter where one could buy and grind fresh roasted beans, and we at home decided to share coffee and costs, and bought varieties in turn. I had by then been refined enough to understand if not imbibe the difference of instant vs fresh roasted and ground filtered, but that year of sharing it with my housemate, who was in a non judgemental and gentle way refined if anything, left no possibility of my ever again seeing instant coffee as anything but compromise. Later came Gevalia, and then I left town for a position across the continent.
I don't know if I can describe details or how it was special, but it was relaxing in a way now that I think back, and forever since I have this expectation of feeling better after shopping in a supermarket. Perhaps that was the gift of the Waltham Supermarket.
We visited a Hanaford supermarket in NH recently and it was more extensive in more fancy things. Is it just passing of time and people getting more aware, or more, I am not sure. Hope it is positive in any case.
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