Going Back There Again

[ayun]

Back in April I went out for dinner on a Saturday night with four Cambridge Rindge and Latin graduates, a native of Arlington, and one other transplant, originally from West Virginia. This was the day after the Marathon Manhunt, the cap-off to a five days of shock-trauma and declarations of civic pride and solidarity, and we were all spent some

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[rojagato]

I felt really badly at giving up the May trip to SF because my mother didn't want to do it because it wasn't any kind of home to her anymore.

It took a lot of teasing out to figure out why we she wouldn't just give up visiting the Mission (where, seven years ago, the janitor from her school mistook me for her), or seeing her surviving sisters-in-law, in a place that I first felt (and still do) more at home than any home has ever felt like home to me. (Except P-town)

But, SF is still The City for me because of the people there who are still there for me, and same for P-town. I'm not sure I'd feel the same without those people and if, later, landmarks, like the City Lights bookstore or the vintage trolleys on Market, went away. I brought my mother to Salem which, ocean on the wrong side notwithstanding, keeps her in a charitable and nostalgic mood. I admit that's why I'm here, too.