Speaking of names -- sometimes I really desperately want the names of central New York to be mine again. Hamilton, Madison, Morrisville, Clinton, Cazenovia, Oneida, Earlville, Syracuse, and Utica. Route 20, Route 12B, and the Thruway. Broad Street, College Street, Lebanon Street, and Oak Drive. '34 House, Starr Rink, Cushman, Cutten, Frank, the Coop, and Case Library. The Tap Room, Main Moon, Roger's, Nichols and Beal, and Slices. Payne Creek, the Quarry, and the Old Golf Course. They all sort of ring hollow now. As I say their names aloud they feel more fiction than reality. They are part of some daydream, not a tangible existence I walk through every day. Some days this feels okay. But other days it feels Not Right At All, and I would give up my whole inheritance of names in this city to have them back for just a little while.

no, i dont think you really mean that, about giving up your inheritance to boston. in that post you sound pretty passionate about it. i know what you mean, though, i wish i could own those names again too.

your post made me realize that i don't think i ever owned names in Honduras the way I have in Hamilton and Amherst. weird

well, that's why i said it just feels like that some days. i don't really believe it. i was sort of done with Hamilton really.

in the end a name is just a name and a place is just a place, and whether i am happy where i am will have a lot more to do with the people around me than anything fundamental to the location.

i don't think i ever owned names in Bridgewater that way either. maybe when you grew up with it it matters less or something.