BSO: Devine Way Today

They say that if the wooly-bear caterpillars are thick, that means the winter will be cold. This one, the only one I've seen this fall, looks rather thin.

Halloween may have been weeks ago, but my neighbor's pumpkins have not gone rotten.

Thursday I took a bus with dirty windows which stopped briefly at the Holyoke Mall.

Soon the City of Springfield came looming into view.

Of course I had to stop by Jake's for breakfast.

Then I caught another bus until finally I arrived at my ultimate destination.

Forest Park is arguably the prettiest park in Western Mass. However, in the holiday season that beauty is marred by the electrical gear and promotional signs they put up all over the place regarding the Bright Nights light display.

It is still a nice place to walk around. Here is where in the long ago day we used to have inter-school athletic competitions that we called "Field Day." I don't recall The World Famous Thomas M. Balliet Elementary School ever winning anything in any category.

Here is the famous rose garden, which naturally is all dead this time of year.

Here is my mother's mother in that rose garden in 1930.

The reason I went to Forest Park was to fulfill a promise I made to myself last spring at the sorta-50th anniversary of the ECOS ecology program, where my sainted mother was one of the founding participants.

After my mother died in 2003, a portion of the trail system in the park was named "The Devine Way" in her honor and a cross bearing her name was erected at one point on the trail. Here is what it looked like on the day the trail was officially dedicated, with a gang of Devines loitering around.

I had not been to check out my mom's memorial site in years, and hoped to use the occasion of the half century anniversary bash to check on it. Unfortunately, it rained cats and dogs that day, so no one wandered far from the skate-house. However, I told myself I would make the effort to return and check it out in fairer weather.

Predictably, I let the whole summer go by and did no such thing, until it occurred to me last week that if I procrastinated any longer the snow would fall and I would have to wait until next spring. So after a bit of truckin' through the park I soon arrived at the skate-house. I was surprised to see that the joint is closed to the public when school is in session.

I ignored the sign and approached this bench offering a serene view of Porter Lake.

That bench is also dedicated to my mother.

But of course the reason for my Forest Park visit was to check out the section of the park itself that is named after my mom. You know you are on the Devine Way when you find yourself walking directly across from the skate-house.

The trail follows the lake, and can be a bit steep at times.

Eventually you come to this wooden bridge leading to the memorial site.

The wooden cross bearing my mother's name is still standing, but has been completely overrun with plants! You can barely see it at the center of the picture.

Yikes! My family is definitely going to start going there each year and clearing away the plants in the summer. I suppose in principle the city should maintain the memorial, but I wouldn't waste my time complaining about it and besides, I like the idea of my family maintaining the site better.

As I was heading back, I was suddenly confronted by a couple of adults accompanied by a dozen or more kids. It was the ECOS program exploring The Devine Way! The fact that the ECOS students sometimes pass by her memorial cross, even if they probably don't notice it behind the wall of overgrowth, is something I believe my mother would have liked very much.

Waiting at a bus stop in front of the park to head north, I saw this Sarno sign still standing, even though the election was over a week ago.

That's human nature. The signs of winning candidates linger on their supporter's lawns, while those who backed losers remove their signs the day after the voting.

This Kennedy bumper sticker someone placed in a Northampton alley-way is the first piece of presidential campaign material I've seen so far.