Last night my husband Buster and I went to the City Museum for a party sponsored by The Riverfront Times in celebration of their 2009 Best of St. Louis issue. Since I wrote a few blurbs for this, we got to go to the VIP area and taste some marvelous 17th Street Grill Barbeque without waiting in line. The City Museum qualifies as one of the coolest places on earth, and an opportunity to go there for free after dark is something to be jumped on. So we jumped, and wandered around watching people, playing pinball, enjoying the amazing exhibits, and swilling rotten wine out of paper cups. A favorite exhibit was the Urban Archaeology one, where interesting stuff dug up out of old privy holes is on display: face-shaped ceramic pipe bowls, china dolls, bottles, marbles, and of course, chamber pots. Seeing these artifacts made town life of 150+ years ago seem so human! Then we went out to dinner at the Missouri Athletic Club and had even more fun. I realized driving home through the grunge of the city's ripped back side, then on across the McKinley Bridge, that I've been feeling exiled ever since I gave up my pièd à terre on the South Side five years ago. Sometimes it takes me a while to figure things out! I lived in cities for 40 years before moving to Ex-Urbia. I'd always thought of myself as a country-loving environmentalist but I'm just not. If I only had to look at old buildings and concrete for the rest of my life I'd be much happier than if I could only see trees. To realize this has been a Major Psychological Breakthrough. There's no history in the country. Correction: there's no history I care about in the country. You can have your barn-raisings and quilting bees and crystal meth trailers. So, the goal for the next year is to come up with a long term strategy to get us out of exile. We're only 40 minutes from the Arch, and it's Pretty, but I guess I just love Ugly! (The image above is an old linen tea towel I found at The Salvation Army.)
5 eye(s):
Being from the country, I would never, ever, move back. Love the urbane even if it does mean dirt and crime. Love country only when I know I don't have to stay. Also grew up next to pig farm so have no illusion about country life.
Yeah, I used to love going to the Ozarks for weeks at a time in the summer, but I always got to come back to the city. I'd love our house if it was our country house and I didn't have to stay here all winter. But at least there's no pig farm in the vicinity!
Oh. Well, I will stay in the little bit of country I call home for now. I never could get comfortable in the big city! Love to visit, though.
Although ... I do have to look forward to the winter here ... all that wood cutting, making fires ... hmmmmmm maybe you have a point!
I think ugly like beauty is a relative term - beauty in the eye of the beholder and all that. I like the tea towel, thanks for sharing.
Happy Monday,
Simone
I know what you mean. I've been thinking for the last couple of years that what I wanted was quiet/solitude/emptiness, but realise that this, for me, is only ever a way of re-charging, so I can go back to the fray- the buzzing, humming charge of people,buildings, cities, STUFF!
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