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The Methodist Church is the is where the Mexico side of my family went to church. Well, my aunt and uncle were married there 54 years ago. I may have gone in the building once, which is one more time than I've been in all the other churches in Mexico combined!
Beck's Hotel - closed
Wayne-Crandall Pharmacy - closed
Tierra Lounge - closed
Whistle Stop Restaurant - closed
It's been a couple of years since I last reported on Mexico. In that time my father has moved out of the village so I don't have as much incentive to visit the town proper.
Three longtime village businesses have disappeared for good. According to my father, the Beck's Hotel (previously), roof caved in during last winter's record snowstorm. I don't think the business had been open for years. The owner then tried to raze the place, but a stop work order was placed because no permit was issued to do so.
Crandall's Pharmacy (previously) closed last fall. I suppose they couldn't compete against the Kinney Drugs down the street. Other than being the only place in town that sold Mexico souvenirs Crandall's didn't have much going for it.
The Tierra Lounge bowling alley and lounge was Mexico's nightspot. If you lived in Mexico you eventually wound up at the Tierra Lounge. Some people never left. At a high school reunion a few years ago my sister talked to a classmate of mine who was drinking there. It was a fun place to hang out when you're eighteen but to learn that a friend of mine was still there at forty depressed the hell out of me for weeks.
This was the first I'd seen of the Whistle Stop in the old train station. I guess it opened and closed in the space of two years.
Happier news in the next report!
My excuse for going upstate and then on to Ohio was my step-nephew's graduation. Mark got his bachelor's degree from West Virginia University a couple of weeks ago. First in his family to graduate from college. Everyone was quite proud of him. My father was working a David Lynchesque hair style while eating cake.
I am back from a trip to upstate New York, Ohio, and a bit of Pennsylvania. There are photos of family, Mexico, a canal, a hill, signs, buildings, ice cream, cows in expected places, corn, college campuses, astronaut gear, bicycles, a big rock, a crack in the earth, folk art, cows in unexpected places, dead presidents, graves, murals, vehicles, an empty city, a town that hates loitering, unusual rain gutters, and other random oddities. There's also several photos that I don't know if I can write about because every time I look at them I start laughing uncontrollably.
Greil Marcus wrote a book called The Old, Weird America which is about Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes and how Dylan was influenced by Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music. I couldn't help but think of that phrase, The Old, Weird America, as I drove around and explored small towns. If you get off the interstate and walk or bike around a town you'll soon realize there's still a lot of weirdness, old and new, good and bad, out there. In the coming weeks I'll share a bit of that weirdness here.
This sign, on Route 104 east of Mexico, New York, has been there at least 40 years.
Still on vacation.
I rode my bike through Central Park on Sunday morning and walked through most of the park that afternoon. The high tree pollen count and aerobic exercise is not the best combination! Aside from that it was a beautiful day for a ride in the park and to take pictures of random cyclists. Around 92nd Street a woman asked me what cross street we were near. There was a chestnut tree, like the one above, in bloom and she wanted to know where to come in the fall when the buckeyes would be on the ground.
It's vacation time! I'll be out of touch until at least next Tuesday or Wednesday.
Upper West Siders are not wet weather gelato eaters! I happened to pass by Grom on my way home this rainy evening and there was almost no line. The lemon sorbet was good but unmemorable. The coconut sorbet was excellent. it was so smooth and creamy I'd have sworn it was ice cream rather than sorbet.
Theory on why the lines might be long at Grom:
While friendly customer service is always appreciated, the hyper-neurotic woman ordering gelato to go was obviously insane. She asked questions in rapid succession, as she moved back and forth around the display so nobody else could order, but didn't bother listening to anyone's answers, which meant the question and answer had to be repeated several times before she paid attention. At one point she said she had been to Grom several times since they had opened. It is not too far-fetched to surmise that she alone was responsible for the line each day.
At some point a quick, polite, but firm, "Thank you very much may I help the next customer please" would have been appreciated by the next customer in line. The neurotic woman would probably appreciate it as well, as her gelato was well on its way to being melted by the time she got to her destination. Somehow I get the impression she would blame Grom for the melted gelato even though she refused the styrofoam containers with lids ("I don't like styrofoam") and kept talking and talking and talking after getting the frozen treats in uninsulated paper cups without lids.
Unrelated: After putting it through a wash cycle I now have the cleanest MetroCard in the city.
Super carne asada burrito at Taqueria El Castellito
Mural of old San Francisco
While in San Francisco I indulged myself in two burritos in the Mission. The first was a super chile verde pork burrito at Papalote. Papalote seems to be the taqueria of choice for hipsters. I had a great super carne asada burrito there in December 2005. The super chile verde pork burrito was pretty average.
A week later I went back to the Mission and ate a super pollo salsa roja burrito Taqueria El Castellito. There were no hipsters at Taqueria El Castellito. There may have been Mexican mobsters, a plainclothes cop, and a homeless woman (who walked in and helped herself to someone's leftovers) but no hipsters. They were missing out! This was a burrito to die for --the perfect combination of chicken, red sauce, cheese, avocado, pico de gallo, pinto beans and rice (the correct, small, amount of the latter two). My notes from the visit simply say "!!!".
Around the corner I stumbled upon the Clarion Alley Mural Project in the alley between Mission and Valencia streets. The entire length of the alley was filled with interesting murals.
It was starting to rain so I hurried on to Bi-Rite Creamery. I regret not taking a photo as the ice cream was outstanding. Life-changing-experience outstanding. I had a combination of roasted banana and chocolate. Creamy, dense, and intensely flavored, it may have been the best ice cream I've ever tasted. My notes on the ice cream said "wow!" I don't take extensive notes. The best ice cream I remember tasting was from Young's Jersey Dairy in Yellow Springs, Ohio, but that was 15 years ago. Maybe I need a reminder. Maybe next week...
A chain link fence is no obstacle to these scrappy staghorn sumac trees. Did you know you could make wine from the berries of a staghorn sumac?
These three signs are on 117th Street end of a community garden that fronts St. Nicholas. It appears that the sign writer is taking care of feral cats in the back of the garden and someone keeps disturbing the caretaker's work. Note: the bottom photo was highly photoshopped to make the note readable.
I guess there's not much cross-readership between this site and the Village Voice. Only one reader, someone who is obsessed with another construction site in the neighborhood, mentioned that I was quoted last week in an article about the Kalahari.
Other Harlem news in last week's Voice:
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