Street Talk
This page, Street Talk, brings local State Street voices to the wider world. These are brief notes of lives lived and thoughts thought in and around this tiny dot on the map in the center of Ann Arbor.
8/8/08 State Street is one of those earthly places where wonderful ghosts hang out.
Right there, on the steps of Angell Hall, a relaxed U of M student, Raoul Wallenberg, sat to be photographed in the late 30s Only a few years later he was to save train loads (15,000) of Hungarian jews from the camps- through incredible courage and ingenious misdirection of the Nazi authorities-providing "documents" asserting that they were all Swedish citizens . There should be a statue to him -bronze- right there- at ease, on the steps . A student watching the world go by on State Street.
Or right there, at the entrance to the Diag, a young Arthur Miller, all elbows and long legs, is leaning into the 1937 winter wind , his muffler flapping, as he hurries toward an English class. His thoughts are turned inward; the cold doesn't register. He is tinkering with his newest play which will bring him a Hopwood award. His moral classics are in the future. There should be a statue to him- bronze also- to memorialize a moment in time when he was with us as a young student and State Street was his neighborhood.
To those who read this: Nominate other UM/State Street alums for inclusion as other wonderful ghosts by emailing us at: statestr@a2state.com
8/15/08 The Jamaican Jerk Pit is a multicolored underground eating place a block off State Street on South Thayer.
Derrick Coleman, a native of that island of swift track stars , runs this jewel of a chicken shack with welcoming friendliness and good humor. His smile is infectious. He is currently thrilled to tell you about his new status as an American citizen. That's his gold medal .We're happy to have his engaging presence in the neighborhood.
8/22/08 A Meditation on Gum
Certain things are almost impossible to nullify. Guilt is one. The stain on the soul can be nearly permanent. Gum is another. It bonds to cement like cancer burrows into tissue. And it leaves a blackened iron surface . It also defies human efforts to remove it. Technology has produced only partial cleanup. Some stain usually remains.
People casually scatter gum on our neighborhood sidewalks; little unconscious remembrances which become ugly permanent markers of their passing. This reminds me of Mark Twain's sober quip, " Boys kill frogs for fun. Frogs die in earnest."
Until some genius creates a simple machine for sweeping gum away, drop yours in the trash. You will avoid a stain on your soul and neighborhoods far and wide will thank you.
9/2/08 A President's Last Reflections on his ties to the U. of M. and State Street.
On Oct. 13, 2006 former president Gerald Ford sent a message of gratitude to those at the Weill Hall celebration of the new School for Public Policy. He marveled at the constancy of his feelings for this place. He said, " Whoever said you can't go home again has never been to Ann Arbor. Exactly 75 years have passed since I first walked down State Street. I felt instantly at home, a feeling which has never left me".
Two months later he was gone; but the homecoming feeling is still here to be felt. The welcoming vibes are still circulating around this little place, in these few square blocks- both for long time Ann Arborites as well as for newcomers. It is today as it was 75 years ago- or almost 77 to be exact.
9/9/08 Fear Of Flying
The pigeon strolled along the S. Thayer sidewalk like an old man with a bad hip. One wing dragged along the pavement as though to sweep up. I walked along behind him, puzzled. Something had definitely wronged him (or her-- but I'll call him him for simplicity. Plus I have no way of knowing the the gender truth.) Then he fluttered the limp wing to show his side, revealing several parallel bloody gashes. He hustled across the street to the Diag, half flying now, and vanished among the bushes.
What had happened to this poor animal? He'd been seriously mugged. A cat? No. The claw marks were too separated. A dog? No. The bird didn't really look mauled. A racoon? A possum? No. They are around occasionally but their mischief also wouldn't look like this.
A day later a passerby inquired, "have you seen the peregrine falcons up in Burton Tower?"
He pointed . Looking up, near the clock face, there they were. They circled and perched and then took off to the west on a straight line, looking like they meant business. Their throaty, raptor calls made the pigeon in me a little uncomfortable.
In my mind's eye I saw a three pound falcon trying to claw a one pound pigeon into submission and then into dinner. Did the falcon imagine it could carry the pigeon up to the top of the tower? That would be something to see. And if that was the plan, what hubris! What ambition! Just picture.
To see these marvelous birds, check them out on the web. Google "peregrine falcons- ann arbor". In these pictures taken in March they perch -and sleep- and fly -high on and around the Burton Tower- for all of us to wonder at. They're still around to see in person if you are lucky enough to catch them at home.
9/16 A Still Photograph
The west side of State Street ( between William and Liberty) is a subject to contemplate. Stand at Michigan Book and Supply and look across the street. A group of heterogeneous buildings, all centenarians, stand shoulder to shoulder , presiding over the human drama playing out at ground level. The buildings are individual ,eccentric even and of human scale. The horizontal scene could be a school photograph- in stone. A study in diversity. The individuals are tall, slightly shorter, wide, narrower, of various qualities, colors and unique facial characteristics, just like the people who live here or those who pass by. But they belong together. The totality is greater than the sum of its parts, a unity offering both beauty and perseverance over time. The old place has personality. And it has been conserved, unchanged, all this time because it belongs here. Tens of thousands of alumni as well as smitten residents think of it fondly. It is a home away from home for U. of M. Students. And it provides a permanent horizontal welcome from this corner of Ann Arbor to newcomers from all over the world.
9/30 Stepping Into the Millennium
For those of us who do not remember, January 1, 2000 (the dreaded 2K which threatened dangerous glitches all across our computerized world), greeted all of us who happened to be on State Street that day with bone chilling cold. It was uncommonly quiet in the Diag near State Street that Saturday. It had snowed over night. At 8 in the morning the sun threatened to break through and I shared the winter scene with a single companion, a sprightly ancient with a handmade cane and a backpack who moved smartly toward some somewhere. I moved slowly, more in circles than toward any place in particular,trying to sense if this new Millennium would feel any different than the old one (or at least the tail end of the old one).
It did. As I walked down State Street and then down Liberty, I realized we humans had made it for another thousand years and I was thrilled to be alive now on a planet that was giving so much back after such a long time having to put up with us. I came to a newspaper dispenser in which several papers- The Detroit News, The New York Times, the Ann Arbor News-all carried enthusiastic greetings for the Millennium. This also warmed the cold day. But there was nobody around to share this with-- except for a couple of crows who were hopping along behind me and into my footprints in the snow. I wished them good luck for the next thousand years and they flew away, threatened by my weirdness.