365 Jobs: While Buying Groceries in Burlington, Vermont

Adirondack Sketches: Saturday, June 30, 2001

While Buying Groceries in Burlington, Vermont

Something, I forget what, reveals I'm from San Fran,
so the bread stocker, a big white guy, tells me
he lived in California for six months,
college in Long Beach,
had a "brown-skin girlfriend,"
but he had to leave because he's "earthquake sensitive."
He woke up one morning with the certain knowledge
that there would be a killer quake within three days.
He warned everybody.
"Was there a quake?" I ask.
"Yes.  In Mexico City."
"So you were off by a few thousand miles."
"No.  The way I see it, I prevented it from happening locally
by calling it.  Then I got the hell out."
"The girlfriend?"
"No."
So now he's married with kids and drives
a bread truck in Burlington, Vermont.
He smiles.  "It's a good town."
I agree.



Note: I usually come to the Adirondacks by flying into Burlington, Vermont, followed by a ferry ride across Lake Champlain.