Streets of Pavement

On September 11 last year, in the afternoon, I was walking through these neighborhoods with my friend Laura. We had wanted to get out of New York in her car, but all the roads were closed. So we were trapped here. We would have to take whatever came next, just like a lot of others.

I remember thinking we might be last people to see that particular row of buildings, sidewalks, cars, trees, yard plants and so on. At any second a bomb could go off. We made it to another block, and I thought the same thing about the buildings, sidewalks, cars, trees, yards plants and other things there. Then another block. I got sick of thinking it. I just wanted to be able to walk along not caring that I was walking on precious ground. I wanted things to seem common again.

Forget streets of gold. I want streets of pavement. Things I’ve seen a thousand times. No one likes to be rushed. If something caches our eye every once in awhile, and we see we’re not the only great thing around, that’s pretty good. A little gold at a time is all you need to keep remembering there’s gold. — Email to Rob McCaskill