Happy Thanksgiving!
We in college-town Amherst and our friends in artsy Northampton, MA are put asunder by a four-mile stretch of commercial and farming land known as the Town of Hadley. Incorporated in 1659 and largely Polish-settled in the 1800's, Hadley is small-town America at its finest.
DREAM SEQUENCE ALERT:
INTERIOR. Hadley American Legion Hall. Evening. Autumn, 1965.
Two aging Hadley-ites on barstools - who could be named Waskiewicz and Matuszko, or Gronastalski and Wanczyk, or Zagrahdnik and Perczak, but who in our tableaux are named Sienkiewicz and Gralinski - knocking back a couple of Miller High Lifes.Sienkiewicz farms "Hadley Grass" (asparagus), also operating a vegetable stand (Stan's) on the property where it abuts the main road.
Gralinski grows tobacco in his fields across Route 9, and half a mile up the street he leases a corner of his land, close to the Coolidge Bridge, to Barsellotti, who operates a red-checked-tablecloth and candle-in-the-chianti-bottle joint called the Aqua Vitae.
SIENKIEWICZ:
(groans)
Tractor needs fixin'
GRALINSKI:
Yep. Be a good harvest if the frost holds off.
Gralinski grows tobacco in his fields across Route 9, and half a mile up the street he leases a corner of his land, close to the Coolidge Bridge, to Barsellotti, who operates a red-checked-tablecloth and candle-in-the-chianti-bottle joint called the Aqua Vitae.SIENKIEWICZ:
My daughter JANEY's passed her driver's test this week. Y'remember she served a burger to PRESIDENT KENNEDY, a month before he was killed.
GRALINSKI:
(sniffs, but not disrespectfully)
Yeah that's nothin' - I had LIZ and DICK in the restaurant last week, boozin' it up.
No words for a half minute.
SIENKIEWICZ:
"Think we'll get that frost?
Ramsey Lewis Trio's "The In Crowd" plays over the jukebox. Sienkiewicz picks at the label of his Miller.
 |
| Stan's, 2010 |
 |
| Aqua Vitae, 2010 |
Don't know.
But either way, ... y'better git that tractor fixed!
But either way, ... y'better git that tractor fixed!
Don't let it be forgot
That once there was a spot,
For one brief, shining moment
That was known as Camelot.
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