Sometimes the Mourning Comes before the Death

Is it me, or is the world more loony tunes than usual lately?

What happened in Colorado yesterday gets scarier the more the facts emerge and then today in Florida, more madness and a gunman still on the loose.

Then there’s good old Keene.

I’ve have become even more loathe to venture outside my own doors. I only go out maybe twice a week to run a couple errands and I try to be sure to write them all down and organize the trip for maximum efficiency and least amount of travel.


Seriously, this town has become a nightmare to be out and about in so I stay home.

When I first moved to Keene it was undergoing a makeover on its main street. They added a tree lined center meridian, wide sidewalks and renovated and celebrated the old brick storefronts. They lowered rents in order to attract privately owned clothing boutiques, coffee houses and the like. Restaurants could get permits to have small tables outside.

New annual events were nurtured to bring families down at every chance. The art on main festival, Pumpkin Fest, First Night and music festival as well as the tree lighting ceremony every year the day after Thanksgiving. They renovated the old Colonial Theatre and have a full roster of events to choose from starting in September through April.

It was lovely and focused and flourishing. Until the last four years. Somehow, the good old boys on the council lost their focus and added the Home Depot, Target, Price Chopper, Olive Garden, Longhorn Steak House, Chili’s, Party Palace, Michael’s Crafts, Pier One, Bed, Bath and Beyond and the Border’s Book Store.

The Pumpkin and music fest live on and the shows at the Colonial haven’t changed in three years.

While they had us distracted with all that hoopla in the middle of the wetlands that is just beyond my neighborhood, they were moving in three new corporations on the outskirts of town just to the north.

The traffic in town has exploded and people are angry. It seems everyone driving in this town are pissed off and hold a grudge against everyone else. I try to time my trips for just after everyone gets to work and school and before people start taking lunch breaks.

How sad is that?

No one knows anyone anymore but more disturbingly; nobody seems to want to know anybody anymore.


I use to describe Keene as a small city that feels like a town. Now, it just feels like a small city. It’s lost its community and become a cold place.

Maybe in time the neighborhoods will develop their own little communities the way big cities do, but for now, all sense of community is gone and I am very saddened by it.

Saddened to know that what I will miss most about Keene when I move to NY had already left before me.

The good news?

There’s a community in NY who can’t wait for us to get there. Talk of shared trails for ATV’s, snowmobiles and horses, bartering for goods and services has already begun and we aren’t even there yet.

Yep, this move has got me tied up in knots of stress that sometimes stills my waters but I feel the winds of change and it’s very refreshing.

Of course, making sure the liqueur cabinet is well stocked at all times helps too.



2006 Dawn Marie Kelly all rights reserved





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