Tales From a Street Bench

During several Fall days in 1998, a Woolwich resident stationed herself on a street bench in downtown Elmira in order to observe a ‘feeling of community’. The following is a sample of what she saw:

The autumn afternoon is chilly, but bright sunlight streams through the shedding trees, onto the walks, the benches, and the butterfly garden, now stripped and crisp. It gives cheer, but little warmth. This bench, where I sit, is one of three built into the small space of walks and gardens in front of the old library and under the eye of the town hall clock across the street to the south. Across the main street, the great church and the hotel, also old buildings, are separated by the space of a gas station with its Becker’s store, and the continuation, slightly uphill, of the side street. The main shopping district leads north from the hotel.

1. I counted twenty-five children, each about three feet high and dressed in brilliant assorted colours. They are joined by their hold on a yellow polypropylene line and led by three women who insist on calming their excitement and getting their attention before taking them across the street.
2. The secondary school is out, and ragged clusters of the generation that will be in charge in due time, saunter into town. Some circle about out of sight but come back to this corner often, calling across the street to one another. Pairs of boys follow pairs of girls at a significant distance, or boy and girl walk together. Close.
3. A set-faced darkly-dressed woman carrying grocery bags passes a tall gentleman bent over something he holds against his chest. Neither acknowledges the other. He goes into the town hall.
4. An open truck loaded with cedar trees roars up the rise into town. A gray-haired, rosy-cheeked couple are wearing matching car coats and walking hand in hand. He leans near her ear to be heard.
5. A woman in a long, denim skirt is pushing a round-faced baby in a denim-trimmed stroller across the side street and along the walk close by the benches. Both mother and child smile restfully in my direction. The baby reaches out her/his hand and I return the smile and the gesture. Baby laughs. Two teen-aged girls coming from the other direction stop and bend to greet the baby. Two boys behind them are snickering and wrinkling their noses. They continue to follow the girls a few paces behind, across the side street and up the hill.
6. In this twenty-five minute period 98 people passed, including a class of 25 children accompanied by 3 adults and there was one friendly greeting. In another, 75 people passed, offering 6 friendly greetings and 1 neutral one. In a third period, 62 passed; 2 friendly greetings and 1 neutral one were shared.