Every morning in Massachusetts, I make a pot of tea. Black and white china decorated with the names of English foods (“Fresh Milk & Jersey Cream” says my milk jug), tea cosy covered in a flowery print, tray I bought at John Lewis. And strong Assam to drink. Some days, I make myself a slice of crisp toast spread with Marmite. I left London over 25 years ago, with two preschool children, to find a better life in a small town, in the country where I was born. But on [...]
The town I live in ("some of the time," my neighbors might say) is known for efforts to promote local businesses as part of a sustainable regional economy. I've written about them and will be writing more. When I came across this article, which mentions the "sense of community," I wondered if such a thing could happen in Great Barrington. And I wondered if the good feeling that motivated the "mob" shoppers would keep them coming back, again and again. While Black has been fending media calls, Shutts and her [...]
My usual walk is to Lake Mansfield, through the neighborhood we call "The Hill." I occasionally see people but not many. It's a quiet neighborhood, and even quieter along the lake until you get to the beach (busy this time of year). But this morning we needed milk so I walked down the hill to Main Street, to the Berkshire Coop. I had other on-foot errands (dropping boxes of cereal the no one likes at the food pantry and returning hangers to the drycleaners) I could do. More important, I [...]
I hadn't realized that I need to write about the acid house rave movement in my book on community! This is a fascinating article though, from the UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph (not owned by Murdoch but traditionally conservative/Tory, with very large readership): Rather than eating out in traditional restaurants, Britons will increasingly share meals at home with neighbours and other members of their community. There will also be an escalation of informal open-air
I use Google Alerts a lot, for important colleagues and my publishing company's star authors and editors, and also for a few phrases relevant to my research on community. No question that the phrase "search for community" brings up more results than "search for community" - and not surprisingly so, if you look at how and where "sense of community" is being used. I have been finding some great stories this way and am including the results here for just a few items I've received in the last few days. [...]