J.W. Burleson photo / Boquillas del Carmen, Coah.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

1967 Le Sabre. Moncton. Not Williamsburg


Brilliant blue day walking around the street of Moncton, N.B. with an old friend. That kind of April daylight makes the colors pop, and it was just the season in New Brunswick when guys are getting their old machines out of barns, sheds, and garages. I had not planned on liking Moncton. It isn't particularly stately, or quaint, like some other towns in the Maritimes. But it has a liveliness that you don't see much in American cities that small and that remote. Maybe it's an Acadian thing. The downtown really is a downtown, with traffic on the streets and the sidewalks, and all kinds of things going on. Streetlife. Doesn't happen in Bangor, Maine, or Colorado Springs. either. The Canadians have done something right with their cities. If Moncton were in the U.S., it would have been ringed with a freeway by the early seventies. And those "urban renewal" projects were often enough to knock an old town off its feet.
My favorite Acadian band? That's easy-- Les Hay Babies.




I figured a storefront like Isaac Lawson, Stylish Clothiers could only exist in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where it would be tiresomely ironic. Or in Moncton, where it's wonderful.

1 comment:

  1. So glad that you like Moncton - I too am a fan! Hope that the Frye festival has been good. Your new book is really wonderful!

    Sarah MacLachlan

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