Our Town Hall is situated in the center of our small village with its lovely second story arched window gazing toward the bay. It is one of my favorite buildings in town. Its airy upstairs hall hosts concerts, plays, dances, meetings, elections and countless fundraisers. People dribble in downstairs to conduct other business...to pay taxes and, perhaps, the two folks who have licensed their dogs. I went in good faith one year and was told "why bothah." Everyone knows you call the vet to find out who belongs to the occasional stray in your dooryard. Town Hall, the center of the universe with the Volunteer Fire Department and Post Office vying for position.
The assembled group this morning were all laughing about the taxpayer who complained they are behind the times because they don't take credit cards. An old fellow in line behind Peter said "you don't even have a TV" (we don't.) That story ran in our local newspaper twelve years ago!
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Oh lovely building! i love these small town stories :-)
ReplyDeletehow quaint. our town office was for years a shack built on the side of the firehouse and town garage which flooded every two or three years as it sat right on the bank of the river. about three years ago, they boosted all our taxes and built themselves a fancy new place. where, you might ask and if you live in a small town, you already know the answer. yup same spot except they levelled it a bit so now it'll flood even more often only now it'll be more expensive to fix.
ReplyDeleteand i don't have a tv either. with bigger monitors, who needs one. i think they'll soon join phones and watches on the trash pile of time.
So much of my life has played out going in and out of that building. And of course, a sign on the wall of the second floor auditorium of the Town Hall, carved by the Fire Chief, announces that the room is named for my father, a fact that gives me much pleasure.
ReplyDeleteI see you have used a photo of the front BEFORE the three stooges currently in charge of the building replaced the handsome roman grid panes with plain vinyl framed panes.
Sigh. getting old gives one so much to be grumpy about.
PS, I confess that I was inconvenienced recently while on some or another tax or registration mission there, to discover that in 2011, cards are still not accepted, as they are in most surrounding towns. All charming and old fashioned, but for those of use who embrace the debit cards introduced during the tenure of a certain banker, it is a nuisance to have to go home for the rarely used paper checkbook...
ReplyDeleteCheers, loved the post. I've been planning one about the same building for months, as soon as I stop seething about the replacement windows (and the destruction of the inner pilasters framing the center portion)enough to write rationally about it.
Stefan ~ I know you would love our Town Hall! Scroll down to see the Dilettante's comment.
ReplyDeleteTurner Pack Rats ~ Always bigger and better and how typical to stay with the flooding you know!
I love the "trash pile of time" even though I don't have much to add to the pile. I'm always waiting for newer and better without doing anything about it...I think that's a state of mind! Looking forward to stopping by, thanks for the visit!
Dilettante ~ I thought of you when I wrote the post, but how was I to know you were the one with the plastic?! Have always kept a checkbook handy for a certain bookstore and their $5 credit for cash purchases!
I'm looking forward to your Town Hall blog and window Hall of Shame...and to your Friday lecture!
Gorgeous building :)
ReplyDeleteLove the bird's eye view of your charming village. Looks like a stage set for Murder She Wrote (the charming parts, not the dead or soon to be dead people).
ReplyDeleteSmall towns(came from one myself) remind me of what James Joyce said about Dublin—that he didn't have to mind his own business because everyone else did that for him!
Rachel ~ Thank you! And congratulations on your tiny new 4 footed family member!
ReplyDeletehome before dark ~ Small towns are like archeological digs for the newcomer...so many complex layers and I will never be able to tease out the threads of how everyone is related! I still had a city mentality when we first moved here and one of my neighbors told me I needed to learn how to be snoopy!
Small town Palladian-ism and politics. A delicious mix!!!
ReplyDeleteand nice alliteration JCB!
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