Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
The unit of art/craft/design/contemplation

Blog

10 Things I Have Learned: New Hampshire Redux

Milton Glaser isn’t the only designer with reflecting to do. As we enter the last stretch of ineluctable “dog days,” one can’t help but ruminate upon the just-lived months of Summer…a magical and all-too-short-lived season in New England. Thoughts and talk are already turning to colder days, hunting season (sigh), and snow shovels.

With nearly two months under my belt, I offer you a modest categorized analysis of my first New Hampshire season…

1. “DIY” IS NOT THE SAME AS DOING IT YOURSELF

Rural America is not the same as Rural Americana. Living in the country is not the same as Country Living. There are days when the sun doesn’t shine, when the sky opens up and hates you, drowning your yard and your vegetables and plants. Keeping the forests green and the gardens lush involves long hours, careful planning, and a commitment to working in tandem with what nature intended. Dirt under your nails is far more than a figure of speech. Floor boards rot, electricity blows out, chipmunks and snakes move in to your house foundation, drain pipes overflow, grass burns out, and hundreds of years of dust fall out of your crumbling chimney. Facing these day-to-day challenges with your own wits, know-how, and sometimes your own sweat, is what makes rural living so satisfying. The glossy magazine spreads of picnics and fresh-as-a-lily chicken coops only tell half the story and subsequently, only communicate half of the true reward.

2. SAVE A QUARTER, CALL SOMEONE WHO CARES

Landline phones are not dead and in fact, highly underrated. When cell reception goes on vacation and satellite internet checks out for the weekend, there is always your good old clear-as-a-whistle landline. Yellow Pages are the new (old?) Google, and everyone in your town is listed in the White Pages. No one gets freaked out when you call them at home in the evening to ask a question and generally, the symptomatic call screening of the cell phone wielding demographic is nearly non-existent. Just get a good answering machine.

3. PROCESSED FOOD WILL STEAL YOUR SOUL

If I were to eat a bag of Lay’s Potato Chips right now, I think I would vomit. So accustomed I have become to eating fresh, eating local, and making/baking/cooking it myself with produce! Living in a functioning agricultural community causes one to seriously, seriously question how many times we visit the grocery store, why we go there, and what we’re spending our hard-earned money on. Paying $2 for Chex Mix feels like selling my soul to the devil. I will never shop frivolously again.

4. PEOPLE NEED PEOPLE AND THEY UNDERSTAND

As much as Tamworth is comprised of rugged individualists and amicable loner types, everyone who lives in town works together or at least exists harmoniously. Whether it’s farm-sitting, pet-sitting, borrowing a cup of oil, sharing eggs, playing music together, or just shooting the shit outside the store. People here don’t seem to concern themselves terribly with trivialities. Even if you don’t particularly love someone, you’ll lend a hand in a pinch because that’s what neighbors do. Ah, what a novel idea!

5. WE ARE THE HOME-MAKERS & WE ARE THE DREAMERS OF DREAMS

The family homestead is an amazing place and concept. Your house and yard are the vessels in which you place your life, livelihood, and productivity. People take great pride in their home(steads?). Many families grow and raise their own food on their land. Children grow up  in the houses they were born in. Sons live in the same house their fathers built. Temporary trends and styles don’t touch the family homesteads that are built on much much more than custom drapery and color schemes. Houses are not just spaces for decorating or renting. They are places where generations of hopes, happiness, failures, successes, and skills are learned, lived, and kindled. Respect your house, love your yard, and it will do you a good turn all the while you live in it.

6. “ALL OF OUR ANCIENT HISTORIES…ARE JUST FABLES THAT HAVE BEEN AGREED UPON.”

The oral tradition is not dead. It is very much alive. Wikipedia does not do much good here. Story-telling is alive and well here, as there are many respected local “story tellers” who participate in events and dinners for the public. In a more casual sense, I have learned more about the property and house in which I live from good conversations and shared tales than from Google Searches. You could consult a history book from the library, or you could just ask around. It’s truly a snowball effect, following one lead to the next… Sometimes people overhear what you are talking about and jump right in, adding a new detail, or telling a story they heard from so-and-so the old caretaker or from their aunt who used to babysit there, etc. etc. The internet is NOT the same as real life. Get out there and learn from the horse’s mouth.

7. WORK LIKE YOU DON’T NEED THE MONEY...

Tamworth-ians, for the most part, don’t punch a time card. There are few offices to be had. Cubicles are a rare architectural species. The work day starts when it’s light enough or dry enough to be outside and ends when the job is done or when you’ve sweated yourself out. So yes, we all need the money, but the administrative constructs of the office all but dissipate, and progress is physical, not digital. Not much has changed here, and that, I think, is refreshing and aspirational.

8. …LOVE LIKE YOU’VE NEVER BEEN HURT…

I came to Tamworth to start over, to start from square one and travel the long road. To take each step at a time…forward. Somehow, amidst the mountains and rivers and tall narrow trees, it’s easy to forget the parts of the past that trouble you. Or, in a larger sense, you’re transported back to a simpler time, before skyscrapers and electronics. Before urban sprawl and the more malevolent forces of globalization. There is nothing wrong with this suspension of time. In fact, it’s a gift.

9. …DANCE LIKE YOU DO WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING.

Never have I felt less judged than I do here. I can dance like I do when no one is watching…while people are watching! Tamworth, and the neighboring town of Sandwich, are great patchwork quilts of people from all backgrounds, from all walks of life, with the most incredible skill sets and unique hobbies. After a long week of work, I can kick back with the people who work on the farm and run around in the grass. We share food and jokes. Any event, any time of day, you can “come as you are”…overalls, high heels, swimsuit, work boots…and mostly, good will and an adventurous spirit!

10. LIVE FREE OR DIE

The woods are WILD, dark and deep! People, places, and things here seem to be untamed in the best way possible. Dogs can run free in the yards. Kids swim and dance and catch frogs and turtles. Neighbors walk to and from each other’s homes. It’s no surprise to see cars pulled over on the side of the road, their owners off for a backcountry hike. People build homes out of wood from their forest and heat those same homes with that same wood all winter. There is a fierce independence coursing through the veins of those who settle here. I only hope to eventually absorb some of this spirit.