Over Afternoon Tea

Tea is not only a drink but a ritual over which people have been relaxing, talking, and catching up on each other's lives for centuries. This blog is intended to serve as a virtual cup of tea, helping me keep in touch with friends and family in my physical absence.

The Face of Boston

Boston isn't a friendly city, and its inhabitants not the warmest of people. The first times I walked around Jamaica Pond, I was stunned at the lack of common civilities I would have encountered in my native Texas, or even the less civil Northern Virginia (a distant and almost unknown cousin to Virginia proper, which is famed for its hospitality) or Michigan. There were no smiles, nods, hellos, good-mornings, or nice-days. Not even many eyes that met mine.

So when I began my daily walk around the pond in the morning, I was pleased to find that after awhile, the natives grow friendlier. I began to recognize the regulars around the pond, and they began to recognize me. It got so I know I'm running late when I meet the black guy with the mini-Afro on this side of the pond instead of that side, after he's parted company with the large black women he walks with. I recognize the short Hispanic man in his voluminous, ever-present yellow ski jacket, the tall blonde girl who jogs with her camel-back, and the fisherman who keeps offering me a I'll-catch-'em-you-cook-'em deal.

It was the fisherman who let me know this morning that I'm in. After an absence of several days due to travel, he greeted me this morning with a question: "Where ya been?"