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Last night we were royally entertained by old friends from 20 years ago at UCSC, a lovely family who cooked us a yummy Persian meal. It was great to renew that friendship after so many years. Hamid was always one of my favorite students. In all the years I worked at the university he had a special place in my heart, and that hasn’t changed!
Today we drove by back roads across Pennsylvania (my favorite way to travel – I avoid freeways). Somehow everything struck me as funny. The first thing was a pit stop at a very rural McDonalds where an older woman sat smoking in a booth. Her white hair was coiled in rolls across her forehead, row upon row, like little sausages. Beneath that, she wore rosy pink eye shadow, lots of it, under her deeply penciled, steeply arched eyebrows – think St. Louis arch in deep brown. Their shape bore no relationship to her head or her eyes, but were a construction purely of her own desire. Face was powdered a chalky white. Back of her hair looked as if she had run out of white coloring – it was a mix of many colors, not a pretty sight. She was as close to a Diane Arbus photograph as I’ve ever seen in the flesh. I longed to photograph her myself, but couldn’t think of a polite way to ask. We moved on.
Next were a series of places we passed: “Johnny’s Motel – Private Showers and Free TV” (as opposed to group showers??); ‘’Exotic Dancers Here Every Friday’’ (next to a falling-down building out in the woods, surrounded by abandoned and crumbling cabins; “Shy Beaver Boat Center”; “Snake Springs” (a town where goats were grazing freely along the roadside). “Clearance Sale on Display Homes” next to a row of dismal trailers rotting haphazardly along the roadside; “For Rent – Tower for Release” (on a peeling-paint billboard, topped by something that looked like angel wings); Hoke-E-Geez (a business of unknown content). Roadside sign: “For Sale: Fresh Fur Pelts, Home-Grown Beef, Ginseng”. We were mystified by the sheer number of houses that had a huge metal five-pointed star on the front of the house (perhaps 2-3 feet in diameter). A little internet research seems to point to them being Amish symbols for good luck and health. They were everywhere.
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1 comment:
I love your description of how you love Washington, DC. Yes, a great city to have a lifetime love affair with. I'm so glad you flipped the bird while walking in front of the White House. Even a surreptitious signal works.
Your journey sounds magnificent.
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