LEDGER LAND staff column
By: T.J. Furman
I’ll come right out and admit it: The idea for this column didn’t come from some brilliant stroke of genius.
It actually was conceived from quite the opposite: stupidity.
I had planned on writing a story from one of Lawrence’s elementary schools. I called last Tuesday and left a message. About 24 hours later I remembered the district had off last week for Spring Break and that it would be some time before I got a response.
The rest of the well was pretty dry. Fortunately, so was the weather on Thursday for the first time in four days, so I decided to take a stroll down Main Street that afternoon.
I drive past Main Street on my way to the office every morning. I turn right (northbound) onto it from Franklin Corner Road, then make a left onto Carter Road to get to Hopewell.
The beauty of Main Street hadn’t been completely visible to me until now, however. I’ve been at The Ledger since January, when the trees are bare and the weather makes walking outdoors as fun as … well, walking outdoors in the winter.
When I was driving in on Thursday morning, however, I started to notice the changes: Leaves were beginning to provide shade to the sidewalks; people were strolling about; Lawrenceville prep students were playing golf; my car windows were open.
“It would be nice to take a walk down here,” I thought to myself. The idea should have hit me then, but it didn’t. I got to the office a little while later and realized I didn’t have a column idea yet for this week. That gerbil in my head started to run a little faster and the thought was born.
I opened my car door in the parking lot behind Main Street and opened my senses to what awaited me at about 2:30 p.m.
The first thing I noticed was that it was not as nice a day out as I had hoped it would be when I was driving to work earlier. The sun had been out, but by mid-afternoon a blanket of clouds was pulled over the area. This blanket didn’t keep Main Street warm, however — my windbreaker was now necessary.
My first stop was at the bulletin board next to Maidenhead Bagel Co. that keeps passers-by updated on Main Street activities. I would have stepped forward to read it, but a rather large bumble bee got there first.
It buzzed about in front of the board, but stopped occasionally and hovered before the notices, as though it were actually reading them. When I did finally take a look, the bee very easily scared me off.
“No problem,” I thought. “There’s plenty left to be seen and experienced.”
My college career started as an architecture student. I’ve always liked interesting buildings and Main Street is full of them. I absolutely love the large yellow house on the corner of Craven Lane that has a deck large enough to make an aircraft carrier jealous.
I walked down Craven and the houses started to remind me of the Energizer Bunny — they kept going and going. Apparently the owners over the years have liked mathematics, because they kept making additions to the dwelling. The Lawrenceville School owns the house.
Speaking of the school, I wasn’t the only one who had a thought to enjoy the weather. Katie McMahon, a teacher and girls junior varsity lacrosse coach at Lawrenceville, was enjoying a newspaper and a Chai Tea in front of the Fedora Cafe.
“I’m just relaxing after a stressful day in the classroom before practice,” Ms. McMahon explained. “A cup of Chai Tea helps facilitate that.”
The stress in the day was a direct result of the impending Spring Break at Lawrenceville, which started the next day.
“Kids didn’t feel like learning today,” she said. “They’re normally a motivated, dynamic group of students. They usually work hard.”
Ms. McMahon attended Lawrenceville from 1988 to 1992. She was in England for a short while and has been teaching at the prep school for the past two years. When I asked her about the differences from 1992 to 2000, she thought immediately of Main Street.
“The revitalization of the village has been the thing,” she said. “It’s the most noticeable change since I was a student here. The volunteers in the Main Street program have done a truly wonderful service to the village of Lawrenceville.”
I suppose they have. I don’t remember the village from before the days of the Main Street Project. I ran a few times at The Lawrenceville School when I was on the track team in high school, but I never ventured into the village.
Maybe I like it better that way. I don’t have any old feelings about it. The way it is now is the way it always has been, in my mind. I do wish I had some sense of how it used to be on Main Street, what the past was like on this road.
I wished Ms. McMahon good luck at her practice and with her season and eventually made my way across the street.
On my way there, three local kids shuffled into TJ’s Pizza while three boys just sat at the corner of Main Street and Phillips Avenue and talked. Spring Break for the Lawrence public school kids started April 15. It dawned on me that this was the only time they were able to go outside during their break, given the Seattle-type weather last week.
After I crossed over to the east side of Main Street, I found the history I had been pondering earlier: the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville.
The tombstones in the cemetery outside the church had seen worse weather than the past week, and it showed. Many of them were unreadable, their letters having been worn into history by the steady crawl of time. It was sad, really. Those tombstones may have been the only tangible artifacts that a person lived and lived in this town, and now they’re nameless.
Of the markers that had managed to maintain their identity, most appeared to have been put in place in the 19th century — and they haven’t moved. They’ve been in the same place for more than 120 years. Remarkable!
Above it all stood another reminder of the past — a large tree. It appeared to stand at least 60 feet tall and be made of four or five trunks that had intertwined within themselves. It stood in stark contrast to the weathered tombstones: As the tree grows older, it seems to gain character, while the tombstones quite literally lose theirs.
I made my way back to my car for the trip home. For a brief second, the cars stopped passing by and the birds perched in the old tree could be heard chirping.
This was a good walk. I’ll have to do it again some time in another part of Lawrence because there’s still a lot of Ledger Land to be seen.
T.J. Furman is the managing editor of The Lawrence Ledger.