Nippies

As you come into downtown Brattleboro on VT Route 9, the first store that you see on Main Street says that you're in some place, um, special.


It'd been more than 30 years since I'd been in the downtown. Then, the brick buildings of the old mill town didn't look so good. The storefronts have been loved up nicely, sprinkled with patchouli, and given a mission and a passion.

Unlike their kindred spirits such as Northampton or Cambridge, Brattleboro drivers aren't as charitable toward pedestrians. People on foot are expected to obey the traffic signals and cross at crosswalks. We heard one driver scold a pedestrian for crossing the street at the wrong time.

So, we're sitting on plastic chairs on a very slanted sidewalk in front of Mocha Joe's cafe in Brattleboro. The late afternoon sun is sliding behind the hills. There's an empty chair next to Sandra. A young man sits down and begins to talk with us (well, with Sandra, mostly). He's from a lot of different places and has lots of ideas. Did you know that the water in L.A. goes through five different uses before it gets to the kitchen tap? He likes Vermont because it has first-run water.
We identify ourselves as aging hippies. Sandra asks if he thinks of himself as a hippie. "Nihilist," he says. "Nihilist hippies. I guess, that makes us nippies."
Soon, a young woman, his wife, sits down on his lap. We briefly mention dogs, at which point, she hops up, lifts her shirt, and shows a tatoo in the southeast corner of her tummy. The tatoo is of her dog, Peaches, who died not long ago at age 23. Lovingly, she says that her husband is the reincarnation of Peaches.
They say that they have no money, but they do have tickets from JFK airport in New York back to the west coast. They're looking for a ride to New York. We mention that we're in town for the Pete Seeger concert and that there might be people from New York who'd help them out. They liked the idea. Then, he notices passer-by who has a shopping bag from Sam's Outfitters in one hand and a small bag of popcorn in the other. "Is Sam's giving away free popcorn?" Peaches asks. The passer-by nods in the affirmative. Taking their leave quickly, the two head into Sam's.