RUDIMENTS, pt. 1,302
(read it again books)
This is going to be a Rudiments in
a different fashion. The day will be
Saturday, June 10, a nice, pleasant,
warm and temperate day which was
quite welcomed in. The drive we took
covered, in total, the 25 miles between.
here and Monticello, NY. We make this
trip perhaps once a month. The main
reason being a used book store with a
a strange sense of assortment and
selection. It calls itself, 'Read It
Again Books' - and is run by the
Literacy Volunteers of Sullivan
County. It is run tightly, and squarely,
with an exceptional assortment of
books, sold inexpensively and
orderly. Now, you must understand
from where I speak. This is the old
Catskill Borscht-Belt Comedy section.
Sullivan County. At this time of year,
whichever Jewish Camps and Schools
are still around - and there are many -
are rousing to life as the greenery here
spreads. Wherever these books come
from, I do no know. Yet, the selection
is large, and invigorating, in ways
you'd not find commercially - lots
of Jewish-religion titles, memoirs
(One of my first, and most-prized
buys these, which I've read, and
re-read, was a book called The
Rise of David Levinsky, (published
1917) and written by Abraham
Cahan, publisher of the Jewish
Daily Forward
-
I return here to that section of Route
17B that runs to Monticello and then
connects with the larger Rt. 17. If you
look at a map, you'll see. As I said here,
all along the way are remnants of the
old Summer Camps, and (current today)
the Hasidic Communities and settlements
current in place. Monticello Racetrack.
Route 17, the Main Route, reintroduces
one in the larger make-up of the developed
world, with all its assumptions and gross
mannerisms. If you let it; for that need not
happen. Like avoiding a major turnpike,
and staying on back road - those other
roads with their small paths and stories -
it can all be avoided. You really can avoid
the 'Present' which is not 'present' at all.
Fosterdale. Smallwood. Callicoon. Liberty.
Mongaup. Jeffersonville. And - lest we
forget - Bethel. Where Woodstock
actually happened, though it now calls
itself Bethel Woods. Though places, all
still speak their tales.
-
All along these ways are numerous
ruinations - massive hulks of old Hotels
and Boarding Homes, Summer Camps
and Settlement Houses. When you get the
farthest out, that's Liberty, home to the
Sullivan County SPCA, where, of late, I've
been sorely tempted to undertake an
adoption. Also along 17B, at some Road
Puckee Huddle Road, there remains standing
a home (?) to which I always swear it will
be falling over in five minutes. Never does.
-
The influx of people are (to the bookstore)
is always curious to me too. Yesterday,
a threesome of svelte, quite fetching, NYC
types came in. They were obviously urban NY
types, and I could only imagine what a
surprise this place may be been to them.
Perhaps they were each about 28-30. They
chattered amongst themselves about what
they were finding, and the prices. I was nearby,
in a reading chair, and could most of all
their conversations and impressions.