New Semester, Part Three
by indiraganesan
Indira Ganesan, Algiers teapot and spoon, 2013
After the library, where I spent time looking over Julia Child’s delightful correspondence with her friends, as well as the publisher who rejected her, I made my way to Brattle Street. I browsed in Bob Slate Stationers–why is it every town doesn’t have a real old-fashioned stationer’s store, where you can get green-tinted, college-rule National chemistry notebooks, marbled composition notebooks, as well as a good selection of Crane correspondence cards? I left with a near empty wallet, but a happier heart. I passed the Old Body Shop where I might have wandered for Banana Conditioner and Japanese scrubs, the newspaper kiosk, the grad students furiously typing on laptops in tea houses. I found my favorite table at Cafe Algiers, where I drank mint tea, and later, after asking directions, I got my watch repaired.
Indira, these are precious and priceless! Fascinating to enjoy one’s old haunts through the senses of another’s very recent experiences, especially as I ponder whether to move back to Massachusetts! How true it is, so few speciality shops when you’re not in large metro areas like New York, or London, or a good college town! It felt as if I were right there with you. Where indeed shall I go to have such cafes and shops everywhere, having taken it all so for granted as if that world existed everywhere, or didn’t count.
Thanks much!
Sandra
Cafes have always been places to write postcards, a way of being less of a stranger in a new town. Though now I just check email. I’m glad these observations spoke to you, Sandra. Your comments are always so thoughtful.
Indira, Bob Slate the Stationer is my favorite shop in Harvard Square. Also, I spent many, many hours in my teens and in my 30′s, alone or with friends, at Cafe Algiers.
We must be Cambridge-girls! What would they say in England-Cambroads, or something? Twin Tofu sisters, for sure!