Notes from Bwaston

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Politeness is rife in Boston. Normally a quaint human nature, the well mannered Bostonians have taken politeness to another level. I've stood at a doorway, one person going in and one person going out for an uncomfortably long time while 2 Bostonians "Excuse Me" each other encouraging the other to walk through first. This politeness extends to driving where at stop signs and pedestrian crossings the drive to wave someone through gets to comedic and potentially dangerous levels.

The best word I can come up with to describe Boston traffic is 'compliant'. Traffic is fluid, little attention is paid to those things we take as gospel, such as lane markings and crossings but it seems to work. Drivers do the most ridiculous stunts turning right from the left lane or triple parking on a major thoroughfare, without so much as raising an eyebrow from fellow road users. A pleasant change from other American cities, where the horn is the first implement of communication between drivers, In Boston, there's an awful lot of hand waving before resorting to the horn. The silence of Boston roads would be impressive if it wasn't for that pimped out ride with the subwoofer shaking the ground next to you.

Pimped rides are big here. Never before have I seen a pimped out low-rider Merc SL500 with layback seats and spinners. Taking something normally associated with the conservative and rich and giving it the heavy hand of gangster is the specialty here. BMW's, Range Rovers, Bentleys are all the target of makeovers America style. It all points to the fact there's money in this town, and not all from insurance and banking. Luckily for me the trip from Canton to Boston takes me right through the eye opening town of Mattapan. Mattapan has the dubious title of having the most deaths by gunshot wound in the whole of Massachusetts. Riding a road bike through Mattapan is like dropping yourself clothed only with a pair of lycra bike shorts into the streets of Grand Theft Auto, Vice City. Shouts of "Nice bike" improve your GC time from Canton to Boston and the odd spent bullet casing on the road keeps the motivation levels and heart rate up too.

Boston is very American without a doubt, but has a touch of English about it. Where New York has gone for the very sensible but very predictable gird numbering system for it's streets, Boston has gone for the much more interesting and cerebral approach of coming up with names of streets who's first letter is in order alphabetically.

"All set" is a cornerstone of Bostonian vernacular, it has to be the most over loaded phrase I've ever come across.
"All set" = "Have you finished" = "Have you started" = "Do you need something" = "Can I help you" = "Can you leave"
Not only is the question "All set" overused, but the correct response to "All set" the question is "All set" the answer making for a comedy of conversations at restaurants and bars all over Boston.

Without a doubt the overwhelming unity bringing this city together is loving the Red Sox, or more correctly, hating the Yankees. Bostonians don't care that every second night of Summer their streets are gridlocked by cars going to and from Fenway since it's just another chance for the RedSox to dominate the ball game landscape of America. But this year is worse. The breaking of the Babe Ruth curse has lead to an unrivalled season of unashamed gloating. The guy running the otherwise very serious x-ray machine at the airport, on detecting a Yankees cap in the innocent travellers hand luggage in front of me, proclaimed "better this Yankees cap is in your bag and not on your head", to which sniggers ran through the rest of the waiting passengers.

Sport and exercise is ingrained into the lives of those who live in Boston. The influence of the universities encouraging a balanced lifestyle between work and play has had a major lasting impact on Boston life. On any given day in Summer between 5pm and 8pm iPodded people are running, biking and just generally doing everywhere. Every inch, of the very englishly named, Boston Common is taken up by baseball, ball games, Frisbee throwing, running and anything else that gets the blood flowing. This daily spike of activity is expressed in Winter in the plethora of indoor gyms that occupy the bottom floor of every major building in town.

A large part of the Boston population is migratory, and I'm not talking about the ducks of the Public Gardens. There is an enormous flow of students in and out of Boston every semester. At migration time, proud Mums and Dads with sons and daughters in tow drive U-Haul vans half-way across America to help set up their flesh and blood in a frat or sorority house in town. On top of this there is a huge flow of students moving from rat infested badly maintained apartment to another rat infested badly maintained apartment in the search of something better. The landlord is truly king here in a city full of poor students living temporarily and away from the comfort of home.

The spirit of the settling pilgrim is strong here. Historical, conservative, Amish-like "Blue Laws" dot the legal landscape. There is still a law bans more than four unrelated women from occupying the same apartment, because by legal terms it is considered a brothel. This has had the odd effect that in Boston there are many many frat houses with all the usual teen movie Greek alphabet names but surprisingly very few sorority houses. The pilgrims attitude towards alcohol is still alive and well. Only 2 years ago it was illegal to sell alcohol on a Sunday, it's still illegal to sell on certain holidays and everyday, everything, I mean everything, is closed at 2am.

As is happening in many American cities, you could live a lonely existence here for a long time without interacting with anyone. You can wake up, go to work and live out your day behind a 6 foot partition that obstructs anything but the most tenacious of communicators. Then get in your car and drive to the gas station where you fill up and pay at the pump with your card. After getting home, iPod up and run 5 kms along Newbury and Boylston, spot someone you made eye contact with yesterday doing the same. Then it's off to Shaw's to get tonight's dinner through the self checkout lane where not a word need be spoken.

But gladly the Boston heart is well grounded, warm and open. It doesn't have the plastic, stuck up attitude of an LA or NY. It's place where people will go the extra mile with no expectation. Open minded, educated twenty something students give a nice balance to home town American values. There's a lot of nationalistic pride displayed through suburban streets full of American flags and stickers on every bumper but unlike in other cities Bostonians will listen to, and engage in, argument rather than turn their back on something challenging or different.

Bostonians love Boston, and for good reason.

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