Boston

Boston - City and Airfield

I grew up in Boston, in the best possible way.

I'm from the midwest originally, but I went to college in upstate New York, and after a year in Americorps back home, I moved to Boston.  Well, I moved outside of Boston to serve that year, but the majority of us moved into Boston right after that - all in our early twenties and feeling the allure of the city lights calling us.

Back in those days I lived in Jamaica Plain and slept on a futon.  But it mattered little, because I was where I wanted to be, even if I had to work 80 hours a week in retail to get there.  It was exciting being in the city, I met people, went out to eat, worked and went to parties - normal stuff, but it somehow seemed grander in Boston.

I got what I considered to be my first real job at a Boston institution - Filene's.  I loved working there.  It was one of the single best working experiences of my life, including working for myself.

My husband and I met in Cambridge.  We went for coffee one day, which I didn't drink at the time but for whatever reason when someone offers me Turkish coffee, I can't say no.  To get to the date, I had to borrow a T pass from my roommate, because even though I was living in the city, I had begun to work outside of it.

Closer to the race site used to be a store where I worked at for months.  I loved working in Copley Square.  I hated the (now closed) store I worked it, but the people were great.  I've worked through a race day before, and they rope off the streets early.  I don't remember how I got around the barricades, but I know the police had to escort my store manager around when she got caught on the wrong side.

That street is the same street they parade down in Boston for just about everything, when the Patriots win the superbowl, when the Red Sox won the world series for the first time in 86 years.  I lived in Boston then.  I attended concerts, listened to WFNX, and took my visiting dad to the Cheers replica bar down at Fanueil Hall.

Yesterday, I was so very horrified to see the news.  I don't live close to Boston anymore, but I grew up there.  It will forever be part of me.  My heart goes to Boston and the visiting people that were there for the marathon.