|
For the past ten years, the Dowbrigade has been a member
of en exclusive club of cranks, hacks, frauds and potzers who gather
most weekend mornings on the public courts in Riverside Park in Cambridgeport,
for tennis doubles.
We are a bunch of middle-aged teachers, writers, nurses,
doctors, and a wastrel or two with no visible means of support, who call
ourselves the "Just Don’t Suck" Tennis Club, and that is basically what
we try to do, or not to do, and we are intermittently successful. We
play outdoors year-round, as long as the court is clear and dry and the
temperature is above freezing.
As mentioned in a previous posting, Cambridgeport is a generally
peaceful if poor residential neighborhood in Cambridge, Mass, that most academic of American cities, nestled in a bend in the Charles River
across from BU, Kenmore Square and Fenway Park. Imagine our surprise
upon arrival yesterday morning for our regular session, to discover four
cars in a row on Blackstone St. in front of the courts, completely trashed.
All four windshields were smashed, as were all four back
windows. Smashed wide open, with scattered glass all over the place,
as if by baseball bat or crowbar. Even more impressive, ALL SIXTEEN
TIRES were slashed and completely flat. A thorough and professional job. According
to a cop on the scene, nothing was stolen. No known motive.
Sheer destructive vandalism? Mad dog Yankees fans frustrated
at the previous night’s rainout at nearby Fenway Park? Even more frustrated
Red Sox fans exploding in rage and anguish? Nobody knows, but one more
reminder that the world is a wild and unpredictable place. Try
to focus, man!
INTERESTING SIDEBAR - All of the three previous stories,
the murder of Michael Colono, the Bach Singers on Comm Ave. and the smashed
cars, took place within one mile of each other, and of Fenway Park, where
those unspeakable bums whose name may no longer uttered within the confines
of our home, are, as we write these words and try not to think of them,
in the process of
shitting
the
bed
and driving
several
generations
of New England sports fans forever away from the Great American Pasttime.
Be that as it may, this is an exciting place to live, and
work, and blog. We have long looked forward to the day that there
will be a blogger in every neighborhood of every state and country, in
every company and army, school and interest group. When that day
comes, we will beat the conventional media to every story, and form a
living
net of human experience that covers the globe and can take any of its
members anywhere at any time.
In the meantime, we are in Watertown, next door to Cambridge,
and we work in Boston, near Fenway Park. This is our beat, and
we intend to cover it to the best of our ability. Let’s see y’all
do the same.
|