Bytes from the Bean by Joe Manning 9-1-0012:00AM / Friday, September 01, 2000
“This thing is getting so crowded, that we’re gonna have to hold it in another town next year.”
-Comment overheard at the Downtown Celebration on August 24th
The Downtown Celebration was a huge success as usual. I had a great time just hanging out and talking with friends. I ran into a few I hadn’t seen in several years. Five days later, I participated in another celebration of sorts in a different town. “A different town,” you ask? “Not North Adams,” you ask?
People are always asking me questions like:
“Is North Adams the only place you ever visit?”
“Is there any other town you could write a book about?”
My wife Carole and I love to spend our weekends walking around in cities and towns. We’ve been doing it for many years. We pick out a place we’ve driven through or heard about; and we drive there, park, and just walk. We try to spend the better part of a day there, so we can get a feel of what the place is like.
We did that on the weekend of August 19th. We reserved a motel room for Saturday night in Montpelier, Vermont, and drove up that morning, taking I-91 to White River Junction, and then I-89 northwest to Montpelier.
Why Montpelier? For one thing, it’s the capitol of Vermont, so there are a lot of services there, even though the population is only 8,500. For another thing, it’s the location of the famous domed State Capitol, which is made of marble. Mostly, we visited Montpelier because we drove through last year and liked the architecture and the river going through the center of town. It looked like a neat place.
We spent most of Saturday and Sunday walking around, eating out, and watching the people. There’s a great breakfast place downtown called the Coffee Corner, which has been around for generations. It’s like a diner. It has a counter with stools, a few booths, and a big table in the front window where the old-timers meet. It’s the kind of place that the politicians always stop at when they are campaigning for office.
Another great place to eat is the Wayside, which is about two miles from downtown on Route 302, going towards Barre (where they mine the granite). The Wayside is your typical roadside family spot that packs them in all day. The food is plain and simple, but delicious and very inexpensive. We were there in 1972 during the week of the New Hampshire Primary, and enjoyed listening to the conversations at the U-shaped lunch counter in the middle. More than twenty-eight years later, it’s just the way we remembered it. The Wayside has been in business for eighty years in the same family.
There are six or seven busy streets downtown with well-preserved turn of the century buildings that are occupied by a mix of upscale shops, stores for the locals to go to, and apartments and offices upstairs. Located at one end of the city is the Capitol District, which boasts many huge and beautiful government buildings in addition to the State Capitol mentioned above. Montpelier more than fulfilled our expectations, and we had a good time.
On our way home, we stopped for dinner in Bellows Falls, Vermont, which is on Route 5, just off I-91, about twenty miles north of Brattleboro. Last summer (1999), we ate at the Miss Bellows Falls Diner, and we were looking forward to another visit. I remember being intrigued then by the tiny downtown square, which resembles an Italian piazza.
 After a nice dinner, we strolled to the “piazza,” just a block away from the diner. It was getting dark, and the town was eerily quiet. On a short side street, which was more like an alley, we discovered a long, gorgeous, three-story block with a tin façade. There was a sign in front informing us that there is a restoration project in progress. I thought about that as we drove the rest of the way home.
And so, on Tuesday, the 22nd, I got up at four thirty (in the morning) and drove an hour to Bellows Falls, arriving at precisely six o’clock. I brought my camera and a notepad. I planned to take several rolls of film, eat lunch at the diner, and head home.
(Note: That is exactly what I did in North Adams on August 14, 1996; and you know what happened after that.)
However, there was a thick layer of fog on the mountains which overlook the town, and I had to wait until nearly nine o’clock to snap my first picture. So what did I do until then?
 Well, I ate breakfast at the diner. Then I walked up and down and around for two hours. Nothing was open until eight, when I noticed two people carrying coffee from the diner into Town Hall. I followed them in and found a public bathroom on the third floor. “Good move, Joe,” I thought. “Now I know where I can go when I have to go.”
I found some interesting stuff in those two hours of walking. There is a modest train tunnel that goes right under one of the main streets. I found it when I wandered down an alley that leads to the railroad tracks. A four-car train came through while I was there. The engineer waved.
 Bellows Falls used to be one of the centers of the paper mill industry, so there are a lot of old factory buildings scattered around. One especially attractive building I found was an old grain mill right near downtown along the railroad tracks. It dates back to the 1830's. The facade is a combination of brick, stone, and wood. A section of the building is being turned into the town's historical museum.
Just east of downtown, there is a canal and a sign near the bridge over it that says. “The oldest canal in the United States.” About 200 yards farther, there is a bridge that crosses the Connecticut River into New Hampshire. On the east side of the canal, there is a lovely railroad depot. A guy at the depot told me that Bellows Falls has one of the few track-switching areas on the line, so a lot of trains stop there.
The first few times I heard a train whistle, I ran excitedly down to the depot. Later, I remarked to someone I met on the street, “The excitement has worn off, ever since I figured out that there’s almost always a train.” He told me about a tourist train called the Green Mountain Flyer that runs a few times everyday in the summer and fall. I went down and got a brochure.
 There is a flatiron building on the south corner of the square. On the back of the building, there is a huge mural, which is a painting of the way downtown Bellows Falls looked in the 1890’s. It is astonishing, and sure to be a distracting surprise for anyone who drives in from the south and discovers it as they come around the corner. Next to the building, pasted on the window of any empty storefront, there are a number of recent newspaper and magazine articles about the “rebirth” of the town. The key to the rebirth is the restoration of the Exner Block, the building with the tin façade I had seen Sunday night.
The person responsible for this is an artist named Robert McBride, who is the director of the Rockingham Arts and Museum Project (RAMP), whose slogan is “Art Makes A Difference.” Rockingham is the official name of the town in which the village of Bellows Falls is located. The Exner Block is being turned into a center for artists, with low-cost housing on the top two floors and art galleries on the first floor. I said to myself, “Mr. McBride sounds like the Eric Rudd of Bellows Falls.”
 I went over and looked at the Exner Block, which had just been invaded by electricians and plumbers and painters. I asked one of them if I could wander in, and he said, “Sure. Just watch your step.” What I saw is hard to describe. All I can say is that this quaint building, which has long porches on the back overlooking the canal and railroad tracks, and pressed tin ceilings and hardwood floors inside, is among the most charming I have ever seen.
When the fog lifted and the sun came out, I took pictures for an hour or so; and then I started talking to people on the street. “Hi, I’m Joe Manning. You’ve got a nice town here. I’m an author, and I’m thinking about writing a book about it.” It had a familiar ring to it. I eventually wound up talking to Robert McBride, who invited me to return on Monday, the 28th, for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Exner Block. “C’mon up. The Governor will be here. We should have a good crowd. It’s at 1:45. See you then.”
 Of course, I returned. There were about four hundred people there. The Exner Block was almost finished. The galleries have art in them. Most of the apartments are ready for occupancy. I met a few more people. I even ran into someone I know who just moved to Bellows Falls. “I live downtown above one of the stores. Look me up next time you’re here.”
I got my photos back today. I went through them quickly, then turned to my wife and said, “You know what? I miss Bellows Falls already. I can’t wait to go back.” The weather is supposed to be good this weekend. Carole and I are driving up on Saturday. We’re going to ride the train and eat at the diner. I’d better get a few extra rolls of film. Maybe I’ll see you there.
Does this mean I am about to take flight from North Adams? Hardly. I have too many friends. I still think it’s the most beautiful city I know. I still get a chill every time I come over Burlingame Hill and see it sitting in the valley. Besides, I’m putting the finishing touches on my new book, “Disappearing Into North Adams.” Pretty soon, it’ll be done, the hard work will be over, and I will be able to relax and enjoy the city without having to write it all down.
Visit Joe's website at: www.sevensteeples.com.
Email Joe at: manningfamily@rcn.com
|
