Cats on sidewalks

My favorite things about New Hampshire became my favorite things about New England. Most people on the west coast would say they went to the east coast before, “like Florida”—which is not what I had in mind. I never had a desire to go to Florida, other than after I watched Scarface; then again I never had a desire to leave the Sugar River Valley.

There is common disarray about the Willamette River: that it has mercury in it or that it isn’t safe to either be in or taste. The Sugar River ran through Claremont during the Industrial Period when a gross range of chemicals were dumped to who knows where the dumpees figured it would end up—Surely not Corvallis in 2015.

I didn’t know how conservative I was until I came to the northwest where the liberal line is beyond what I knew existed; and I digress. The Sugar River Valley encompasses Claremont and stretches out in all directions. If they just haven’t visited Florida before, then they passed through New England or even New Hampshire. In NH, they mention a town I knew of on a map that I may have known someone has visited themselves but I never had any need to go to.

My favorite things about New Hampshire are the geology, terroir, 12A (blue highway along the Connecticut River, old friends, fond memories, and seasonal nostalgia. Those are all powerful things to me. I also want to take an empty notepad to Dartmouth College and write a fictional story about the most real things I ever knew.

My favorite of them all would be what a father and child a couple seats over got me thinking about. The father said he had a place picked out for them to go fishing at. The kid turned to him and there was silence or maybe an exchange that I didn’t see. I thought that if I was the kid I would enjoy if my dad told me a story to go with it that would take the stage from just going fishing.

I guess I miss my childhood time in New Hampshire.