Cambridge, NY, a Special Place
Cambridge, NY, a Special Place
Ever since I first drove through town in 1985, I sensed there was something unique beneath the subtle yet stunning outward beauty and charm of the town's architectural history, and the uncanny ability it had to move me to experience the past and the future all at once. I have since discovered this unique quality to be the people who make this place their home (and the wonderful venues for these people to meet, places like, the Cambridge Hotel, Hubbard Hall and Bean Heads Coffee House, to name only a few).
In such a small rural place, you would think I would get to know all its inhabitants after living here for 20 years. Not true. Every year I meet "new" people who have lived in these hills or on a small village street "forever". Interesting people. Many who have lived here all their lives, grew up on one of the many surrounding farms or had grandparents that worked in one of it's unique and historically important industries (I.E.: the Rice Seed Company packaged seeds that shipped all across the country. America's first steel plows were designed and manufactured right here in Cambridge, NY.) Many moved here from around the country or the globe; sailors, educators, writers, machinists, chefs, filmmakers, industrial designers, master gardeners, stock traders, Broadway and television actors and singers, musicians, poets, painters, craftspeople, historians. You name it; Cambridge has got people with more varied experience and interesting lives than some cities with much greater populations!
I have often sat with a delicious cup of coffee at Bean Heads Coffee House and overhead conversations that ranged from fertilizing an organic garden to strategies for making money in the futures market. Cambridge NY is a place where people with vastly different political and philosophical bents can, and do, interact with each other on a person-to-person level first. There seems to be more room here for conversation, for allowing people to be their different- -even quirky selves.
Our differences becoming our strengths, and our willingness to accept one another and nurture positive human interaction, are what makes my Cambridge NY a special place. It is for me a stronghold for what are reflections of true blue, all-American values, and a lovely place for me to call home.
In such a small rural place, you would think I would get to know all its inhabitants after living here for 20 years. Not true. Every year I meet "new" people who have lived in these hills or on a small village street "forever". Interesting people. Many who have lived here all their lives, grew up on one of the many surrounding farms or had grandparents that worked in one of it's unique and historically important industries (I.E.: the Rice Seed Company packaged seeds that shipped all across the country. America's first steel plows were designed and manufactured right here in Cambridge, NY.) Many moved here from around the country or the globe; sailors, educators, writers, machinists, chefs, filmmakers, industrial designers, master gardeners, stock traders, Broadway and television actors and singers, musicians, poets, painters, craftspeople, historians. You name it; Cambridge has got people with more varied experience and interesting lives than some cities with much greater populations!
I have often sat with a delicious cup of coffee at Bean Heads Coffee House and overhead conversations that ranged from fertilizing an organic garden to strategies for making money in the futures market. Cambridge NY is a place where people with vastly different political and philosophical bents can, and do, interact with each other on a person-to-person level first. There seems to be more room here for conversation, for allowing people to be their different- -even quirky selves.
Our differences becoming our strengths, and our willingness to accept one another and nurture positive human interaction, are what makes my Cambridge NY a special place. It is for me a stronghold for what are reflections of true blue, all-American values, and a lovely place for me to call home.
posted by John Carlson at 9:09 AM
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