Ramblings on the BosWash megalopolis

Weather: it was dry and warm/hot (70s F) over the last week of September and the first fortnight of October in what was supposed to be the Fall in New England. It was hot in Washington (80s F, and 93F once). Hurricane Rita was raging away in Texas, and Montana - in the mid West - had 11 inches of snow! Our climate is meek by comparison.

Ups and Downs: Although the history of westerners arriving in the US is short it has certainly been eventful. The Puritans arriving first in New England (NE) obviously had very hard, simple and short lives. A century later and the immigrants fought for Independence from Britain. They had no navy and so to curb the Brits they gave licences to private shipowners to capture ships and profit from the proceeds. Many privateers in New England became millionaires this way. Later on their prowess at sea led them to trade world wide, and the main income from taxation became customs duties on imported goods. Then came an economic crash. And the Civil War another century later. Now the coast of Massachusetts basks in the genteel affluence financed by tourists from New York.

Transport: How the Washingtonians love their SUVs/MPVs and how they delight in cut-and -thrust driving. But in New England saloons are preferred. Is this a reflection on differences of income? or in status symbols, given DC's dominance by national politicians and power brokers? or what? The DC metro is clean and timely but appears to have a very small share of people movement compared to private motor vehicles.

Traffic: The only way to drive a distance in NE is on a freeway, otherwise your life could dribble away in processional driving through an urban continuum, in which the maps pretend there are towns. There are none - just one lot of traffic lights and shopping centres after another.

TV: We saw a lot of good stuff - Scorcese's film on Bob Dylan; a History prog on magnetism, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Friends, news coverage of US politics (or maybe we just enjoyed Bush's embarassments), weather forecasts. We didn't expect this.

Health time bomb: Forget about Al Quaeda, it is the health of the nation the Americans need to worry about. When you go into a motel breakfast room in NE and all the 20 or so people there are overweight it confirms the picture you see in public places. Just as bad, many middle aged and older people seemed to have stiff postures and hesitant, shuffling walks. There is lots of cheap, unhealthy food around but even the quality food is often served in oversize portions. Europe has similar problems but nothing like the scale of what we encountered. Urban DC was better, perhaps because the people we saw there were generally younger.

Soccer: Kids start playing at 4 years old. They wear all the gear, have a coach/ref, time-outs, neat little goals and small pitches. They need guidance on which direction to kick, and own goals are frequent and celebrated. But when you see a large number of pitches together with youngsters of all ages playing, in hourly time slots and well supported by enthusiastic parents, there is a positive time bomb of the young in place. Give it ten years, or maybe less, and the US will have a world class side.

BosWash megalopolis?: found the name in Wikepedia; sums up what we saw from the air. Boston, New York, Philadelphia and DC all running into each other.

US holiday 2005

We combined our visit to Gordon and Diana this year with a City holiday in Boston followed by a quick trip through Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire before returning to Washington. Amazingly, our stints in Washington coincided with first Sami's and then Adam's birthday parties. So our visit ended up being a combination of family visiting, many long conversations with G&D and sightseeing. The weather was hot on our first visit, reaching 93F ( 33C) one day.


A selection of pictures (75 of them) is on our Flickr website.

We very much liked G&D's flat which is a haven for hi-tech kitchen equipment, TV and computers. You can breakfast on the roof, tire yourself in the gym and gorge yourself in the Thai restaurant below, before whizzing out of the basement in their MPV to the clatter of an electronic door. Their lounge window overlooks a fascinating street scene and you can see Washington Monument in the distance, day or night when it is clear.

We liked Boston because the centre was very pedestrian friendly and they have some fine old buildings, with a Freedom Trail that takes you through their early history of English Puritan immigrants, the Boston Tea Party, the B Massacre (5 people were killed, the same as on a slow day in Baghdad) and the beginning of the War of Independence (from the Brits). The many early and infant deaths of the English settlers, usually from disease, points up how harsh their lives must have been. The Fine Art Museum has a superb collection of Asian artefacts, the claimed best in the US. Don't mention accommodation costs though.

We than had a week flitting through the small states of Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire in a clockwise circuit, staying at a wide variety of accommodation from the sumptuous Thaddeus Clapp B&B, to the old Coolidge Hotel which did not do breakfast, to a humble motel. The scenery was pleasant but generally low key. We travelled through hills, some quaint old towns, lots of lakes - which are attractive at first but look samey after a while - and finished coming down the eastern coast. The high spots were a Shaker Village, because of their highly organised lifestyles and celibacy (surprise, they have nearly died out); and the old maritime ports of Newburyport, Essex and Salem, which have a history of privateering and world trade. This created millionaires during and after the War of Independence, followed by a deep economic slump and now genteel tourism. The Fall was late and we only saw a few signs of it, but then the weather continued fine and in the 70s F until we flew back to DC.


You have read the book, now see the movie (stills) on flickr.

NEW RELIGION

We have discovered a new religion on our return from the US.

Walking down Regent Street on my birthday singing an apposite Beatles song ("When I get older, when I ...") we passed a very large entrance to a brightly lit hall. To satisfy our curiosity we went in and saw many people wearing black in casual styles, often with a bag or two draped on their shoulder. Most were looking at a picture with a moving display and looks of rapture on their faces. We noticed that their were wires attached to these pictures and many of them had labels beginning with the letter "i". It is uncertain what the letter stands for, but innocent, indolent, intuitive, iconoclastic, interesting, intranced, affluent, yuppie...oops...came to mind.

A broad glass-stepped stairway led us upstairs, where there were little coloured packets attached to a wire and someone with a headset was describing a large display. Some people in the seating in front of the display were listening to him but most had opened file boxes with typewriter keys on their laps and for some reason the words "wi-fi hostpot" or similar came to our minds in a vision. Nobody sang, nobody spoke to us and we were unable to understand why so few people were listening to the preacher, nor why the hymn books were so unusual. We became aware that we were probably aliens because of our great age - or was it the other way round - and left quietly to enjoy a Thai meal in Maddox Street.

If anyone can explain this strange phenomenon we would be pleased to hear from you and will reward you with an apple and a full version of the Beatles song.