We at HV travel a lot. Sooner or later those travels take you back in time, to somewhere you once lived. For me it was a couple days ago at U Mass- Amherst. I’d lived there a few years in the 70s.
I drove in at night blasting a classic rock station playing songs from that time: Bob Seger, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zep. It was just the music I’d drivin into this town with so many nights before. And I was just as tired and starting to see things that weren’t there — tho back then the lack-of-sleep hallucinations were pharmaceutically enhanced.
I pulled in just as the bars let out. Walked the main drag, marveling at the spectacle of America’s youth, unfettered by parents and encouraged by alcohol. I’m glad to see U Mass is still Zoo Mass. Tradition must be maintained.
Soon I ended up on campus, walking by roads to places I’d lived. What word is there for that flood of feelings you get returning to a place of your youth? In the dark, it’s especially eerie, familiar yet unrecognizable; former selves of you everywhere; you’re in one space but two different times.
Usually I like to stay and explore the past, but here I had neither time nor desire. I was scheduled for a pre-dawn meeting in the woods with a guy who records birds. So at 3:30am Amherst was in my rear view mirror. The town seems to be doing fine without me.
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