dudemanflab's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- First impressions. It is neither September 24, 2002 nor 1:05 a.m. I have been here in Hawley, MA for five days. Wore shorts on the plane, not as much for the effect as that I had tapped my mom's catheter bag the wrong way and it leaked onto the only pair of pants I had. A girl named Sarah picked me up at the airport. She had a sign, which was nice, and we drove to Springfield to pick up Tony, talked along the way about music. She's loosening up. I ask her if she's ever couch surfed. Oh, we couch surfed on the Rainbow Family of Living Light long before there was a website. The what? The Rainbow Family of Living Light. It's a network of hippies, really. You'd go to the message boards and talk about needing a place to stay. Then they'd say 'Come on ova!'. We picked up Tony, a guy from DC, and at 18, the youngest in our group. Tony has eyes that are brown and honey, each eye is both, not one each. They remind me of his voice which is also a blend of tones, hi and lo. His phraseology is a lot like Anthony Manganaro's, but blacker. So have you guys read Ishmael yet? Ooooohh yeah. says Sarah. What, is that like about the middle east? I asked. No, it's about a gorilla. You have to read it. I mean, if you don't go with his first premise the rest of the book's gonna be a little sketch, but once you get it, you GET it. Sarah laughed. Sketch, I like that. We arrived at Hawley half past six. A bearded guy was at the porch of a small log cabin to my left. A girl was standing with him. The snow was two feet high, and a third guy was splitting logs for firewood. They gave a courtesy wave. It's looks like we're just in time for dinner. said Sarah. We walk to the right, a larger brown building. The first room is large, dark and cold with high ceilings. There's a fireplace to the west(Doesn't do much for heating since we're basically outside, Sarah says). People are making food. They greet us. A guy at the door says welcome and makes a toothy Tyler Lacey grin. What are we eating tonight? I ask, looking at the chopped lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, and corn. Burritos!!! someone shouts. We gather around four tables in a square shape, with a small opening to sit on interior benches. There are several beards, laughing. Someone says, Are we ready? Then we're all holding hands, and a guy start's to ask for any announcements. At the end, he reads about the origin of the word Maverick. This is the name they've given to all the seven new people in the internship. It comes from Texas and I've heard the story about the man who decided not to brand his cattle because, he said, it was unjust to the animal. People thought he sure was sentimental until he rounded up ALL the cattle that had never been branded, pulled a fast one on em all. Maverick meant an animal that bore no one's brand. The guy reading squeezes each of the hands next to him. You gotta squeeze when it comes to you. says Sarah. I do. It's me! It's me! says a girl. Clapping commences, along with a rendition of "The Stars and Stripes Forever" and we're walking around the square-shaped tables. She leads us to food. I look puzzled, because someone turns to me and says, She got both squeezes. The whole time I'm filling up my vegetarian burrito I'm thinking, This is not a dream. 1:05 a.m. - September 24, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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