WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.160 --> 00:00:08.519 Hullo. I'm moalcan stories all the time. Glad you are here. 2 00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:10.039 Let's get into it. 3 00:00:10.880 --> 00:00:13.679 I suppose it's easy to lose track of unusual things 4 00:00:13.880 --> 00:00:17.039 when you've lived among them for years, so often they 5 00:00:17.079 --> 00:00:20.879 blend into the general tapestry of habit and routine. Maybe 6 00:00:20.879 --> 00:00:23.960 that's why the quirks of Festival Street had gone unremarked 7 00:00:23.960 --> 00:00:27.800 for so long, until I found myself, months into retirement, 8 00:00:28.199 --> 00:00:30.920 standing once again in the back room of Winslow Harbor 9 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:34.719 Post sleeves rolled up elbow deep in a spill of 10 00:00:34.759 --> 00:00:38.960 packages and letters marked for my old route. I'd agreed 11 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:42.880 to help Hazel, who still volunteers on Mondays. Her hands 12 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:46.439 have never liked the sorting machine, and besides, I'd missed 13 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:49.240 the talk and the smell of paper and glue, so 14 00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:53.240 different from the clean salt air just outside. The post 15 00:00:53.280 --> 00:00:57.560 office is never quiet in August. All morning we shuffled 16 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:01.119 piles and swapped stories, familiar work made new by the 17 00:01:01.159 --> 00:01:04.400 sense I was a guest these days, not the official postman, 18 00:01:04.920 --> 00:01:07.680 and it would have faded to nothing, just another pleasant 19 00:01:07.719 --> 00:01:10.640 morning if my old habit from decades on the route 20 00:01:10.680 --> 00:01:15.280 hadn't asserted itself a habit of scrutiny of habitual noticing. 21 00:01:15.840 --> 00:01:19.959 I caught it in something small, as always, a bundle 22 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:23.200 of stamps fresh from the sort. One letter for nineteen 23 00:01:23.239 --> 00:01:27.159 Shipwatch Lane, another for eight Festival Street. Both slid into 24 00:01:27.159 --> 00:01:30.159 the same outgoing tray dropped into the blue box just 25 00:01:30.200 --> 00:01:32.640 across from the bakery. But when I turned them over 26 00:01:32.680 --> 00:01:36.400 for final tagging, I noticed something. The Shipwatch Lane postmark 27 00:01:36.439 --> 00:01:40.319 blared its date in upright digital print, August fifteen. The 28 00:01:40.319 --> 00:01:44.280 Festival Street letter, same block, same hour, even the same 29 00:01:44.319 --> 00:01:49.439 familiar handwriting from old missus Carney Bore August twelve, three 30 00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:53.719 days prior. Curious, I flipped back through the day's Festival 31 00:01:53.760 --> 00:01:58.359 Street stack. Another oddity a package postmarked August twenty one, 32 00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:02.879 to day being the fifteenth inside some child's lumpy artwork, 33 00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:06.879 addressed cheerfully to Grandad at the clock shop. I must 34 00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:10.599 have frowned, because Hazel wandered over, wiping her hands on 35 00:02:10.680 --> 00:02:14.639 a tissue. You still at it, she joked, you'd think 36 00:02:14.639 --> 00:02:18.719 you were getting paid. I showed her the mismatched post marks, 37 00:02:18.879 --> 00:02:22.879 my own voice caught between amusement and mild consternation. Have 38 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:26.759 you seen this? They're all jumbled up? Look shipwatch Lane, 39 00:02:26.840 --> 00:02:32.360 right date, Festival Street all over the calendar. Hazel barely shrugged, 40 00:02:32.599 --> 00:02:35.000 as if I'd pointed out that the bakery switched to 41 00:02:35.080 --> 00:02:39.360 strawberry jam after the lunch rush. That's just Festival Street. 42 00:02:39.439 --> 00:02:43.039 Jackson always been a little off, hasn't it. I don't 43 00:02:43.080 --> 00:02:47.159 pay it much mind. I must have looked unconvinced, because 44 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:49.680 she gave my arm a gentle slap, the way you 45 00:02:49.759 --> 00:02:53.280 do when someone's missing the humor in things. Ask any 46 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:57.080 one around here, they'll only tell you that's Festival Street 47 00:02:57.080 --> 00:03:00.199 for you. Now, help me get the magazine stacked, if 48 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:02.960 you please. We can't hold up missus Pike getting her 49 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:07.319 gardening digest. But it sat with me, that subtle wrongness. 50 00:03:07.719 --> 00:03:11.159 It wasn't like the classic postal hiccup, a mist barcoed 51 00:03:11.400 --> 00:03:14.960 a rain smudged sticker. It was odd in just one direction, 52 00:03:15.400 --> 00:03:19.199 affecting exactly one stretch every letter and package for those 53 00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:22.360 ten houses and handful of shops. It had a pattern, 54 00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:24.680 I felt, if only I could get the angle right 55 00:03:24.759 --> 00:03:28.439 to see it. Later, at the general Store, I tried 56 00:03:28.439 --> 00:03:32.280 out my observation on Marv, who runs the place most afternoons. 57 00:03:32.759 --> 00:03:36.199 He grunted as I described the mismatched postmarks and simply 58 00:03:36.240 --> 00:03:40.960 mirrored Hazel's shrug. Just Festival Street. Suppose they are always 59 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:44.759 ahead or behind us never bothered me. If they want trouble, 60 00:03:44.840 --> 00:03:48.199 they'll let you know. He seemed more interested in my 61 00:03:48.280 --> 00:03:52.080 opinion of the new cheddar Batch conversation, pivoting to safe 62 00:03:52.120 --> 00:03:55.400 local ground. Yet I felt, for the first time in 63 00:03:55.479 --> 00:03:57.680 a while the itch that used to live in my 64 00:03:57.840 --> 00:04:01.400 hands for riddling out, stray a dress and missing parcels, 65 00:04:01.919 --> 00:04:05.039 a curiosity that wouldn't be shrugged off, no matter how 66 00:04:05.080 --> 00:04:09.159 easily carried away in grocery chatter. I walked back to 67 00:04:09.199 --> 00:04:12.639 my friend George's house that afternoon, with my ears pricked 68 00:04:12.639 --> 00:04:17.360 for other explanations. The afternoon sun striped Festival Street in gold. 69 00:04:17.920 --> 00:04:22.079 Children dove tilled past on bikes, The bakery's bell chimed faintly, 70 00:04:22.360 --> 00:04:25.120 and in the window of Lelen's Antiques I caught a 71 00:04:25.160 --> 00:04:28.959 shimmer of glass and copper. Everything looked on the surface 72 00:04:29.120 --> 00:04:33.720 as it always had. But why Festival Street, Why only hear? 73 00:04:34.319 --> 00:04:36.759 And if every one said it was normal, why did 74 00:04:36.759 --> 00:04:40.120 the peculiarity nag at me now sharper than ever, as 75 00:04:40.120 --> 00:04:42.920 if the ordinary shapes of things could no longer quite 76 00:04:42.959 --> 00:04:47.040 cover it on Festival Street. You're forgiven for thinking you're 77 00:04:47.079 --> 00:04:49.959 in the pages of an especially detailed story book, or 78 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:52.920 perhaps in the slow down world of a painting. It 79 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:56.800 spills along the southwestern edge of Winslow Harbor, really more 80 00:04:56.800 --> 00:04:59.560 of a lane than a street. Despite its festive name, 81 00:05:00.199 --> 00:05:03.920 marbled in old brick, laced with old white trim, seaward 82 00:05:03.959 --> 00:05:07.519 facing windows slanting to catch every stray glimmer of late 83 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:11.839 summer light. I found myself following familiar rhythms the rest 84 00:05:11.839 --> 00:05:15.279 of that first week. Back morning coffee under the striped 85 00:05:15.319 --> 00:05:19.079 awning of Pike's Bakery, a slow stroll along the shop fronts, 86 00:05:19.480 --> 00:05:22.839 the tang of salt and bread and engine oil carried 87 00:05:22.879 --> 00:05:27.480 inland on an easy breeze. The town at large moves gently, 88 00:05:27.680 --> 00:05:31.800 particularly in August, when the fishing boats return yellowed and battered, 89 00:05:32.120 --> 00:05:35.000 and the townsfolk, those who don't have to rise with 90 00:05:35.079 --> 00:05:38.759 the tides, let themselves dawdle by the flower market or 91 00:05:38.839 --> 00:05:42.959 paws chatting over newspaper stands before drifting down to the 92 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:47.279 Harbor Square. Festival Street is the heart of this choreography. 93 00:05:47.759 --> 00:05:50.680 Old Missus Pike always has her doors open by seven, 94 00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:54.759 the first tray of cinnamon rolls fogging her window's most mornings. 95 00:05:54.759 --> 00:05:58.079 Mister Lellon's antiques keep their clock pendulums swinging from hooks 96 00:05:58.079 --> 00:06:01.240 in the dim oaky interior, tik toking in a subtle, 97 00:06:01.319 --> 00:06:06.000 many voiced percussion. Hazel, my occasional co conspirator in mail 98 00:06:06.120 --> 00:06:09.439 order and crossword puzzles, slips through the route twice daily, 99 00:06:09.759 --> 00:06:12.920 a wool cardigan trailing after her like a second pet. 100 00:06:13.879 --> 00:06:16.879 At the end of the street sits George's shop, a cluttered, 101 00:06:16.959 --> 00:06:20.759 inviting tinker's den of clocks, watches, springs, and bits of 102 00:06:20.839 --> 00:06:24.360 world weary machinery. George and I have been friends since 103 00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:27.199 our twenties. He's the youngest son of an old local 104 00:06:27.240 --> 00:06:29.680 family and can tell you which house creaks in the 105 00:06:29.720 --> 00:06:33.199 wind and which shops close for what fishing holidays. The 106 00:06:33.279 --> 00:06:37.839 man is broad faced, even tempered, with delicately inksmudged hands. 107 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:42.079 He prides himself on making things right, by which he 108 00:06:42.120 --> 00:06:45.120 means restoring the fabled clock at the Harbor Green with 109 00:06:45.240 --> 00:06:49.079 a patient's few could rival. Since I've stepped down from 110 00:06:49.079 --> 00:06:52.360 my post rounds, George insists I have to learn to 111 00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:55.720 move like a civilian. I suspect that's his way of 112 00:06:55.759 --> 00:06:59.000 giving himself license to close up early for a stroll 113 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:03.399 or a cup of Despite the rhythms and the old friendships, 114 00:07:03.639 --> 00:07:06.879 I felt myself drifting off tempo that week. Twice I 115 00:07:06.959 --> 00:07:09.959 crossed the street and realized I deep past a shop 116 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:12.199 that should have been open. Once. I saw a next 117 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:16.399 Saturday's sail sign in Lelon's window, but the date underneath 118 00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:19.439 was two days in the future, while the bakery's window 119 00:07:19.560 --> 00:07:23.480 advertised a Saturday bonanza for the following week, complete with 120 00:07:23.560 --> 00:07:27.560 a doodle of Missus Pike herself balancing tea cakes. I 121 00:07:27.680 --> 00:07:30.879 asked George about this over a late lunch. Why do 122 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:34.720 all the flyers have different Saturdays? I asked, Half the 123 00:07:34.839 --> 00:07:38.079 time there's a poster for something that already happened and 124 00:07:38.160 --> 00:07:42.800 another for something everyone else thinks is next week. He shrugged, 125 00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:47.759 wiping grease off his hands. Shopkeeper's prerogative, that is, festival 126 00:07:47.800 --> 00:07:51.040 streets always race to its own clock. You get used 127 00:07:51.040 --> 00:07:55.759 to it, doesn't it get messy? I pressed, never stopped 128 00:07:55.759 --> 00:08:00.000 anyone buying a blueberry pie or a clock repair his eyes, twinker, 129 00:08:00.439 --> 00:08:04.120 but he didn't offer more. Keeps you guessing, though festival 130 00:08:04.199 --> 00:08:08.120 comes when it likes. In truth, the wider village runs 131 00:08:08.120 --> 00:08:11.040 on a rhythm as dependable as the tides, but Festival 132 00:08:11.079 --> 00:08:15.480 Street just ten buildings shoulder to shoulder drift somewhere between. 133 00:08:15.959 --> 00:08:18.480 There's an anticipation in the air the build up to 134 00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:21.480 Summer Day's festival, a sort of home grown carnival and 135 00:08:21.519 --> 00:08:25.839 community reunion, with banners, music, pie contests and the annual 136 00:08:25.879 --> 00:08:29.920 parade of antique fishing lures. The date shouted from every 137 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:32.399 roof top in the Harbor Square, A lines on the 138 00:08:32.440 --> 00:08:36.000 calendar for all but this one's stretch. You'd think such 139 00:08:36.039 --> 00:08:39.600 a visible quirk would breed confusion, or at least mild aggravation, 140 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:43.000 but it doesn't. Most treat it like a cousin's strange 141 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:46.759 hair cut, hardly worth a fuss. I began to look harder, 142 00:08:47.039 --> 00:08:51.440 charting shop hours and market days, finding small signs of syncopation. 143 00:08:52.159 --> 00:08:55.600 Lelon's shop would close for a private inventory on a 144 00:08:55.679 --> 00:08:58.279 day he called Thursday, though the rest of the street 145 00:08:58.360 --> 00:09:04.080 declared Wednesday. Missus Pike insisted for her a festival falls 146 00:09:04.159 --> 00:09:07.360 twice in August. While the grosser across the square marks 147 00:09:07.399 --> 00:09:11.960 at once always the last Saturday, it was never disruptive, 148 00:09:12.240 --> 00:09:15.519 simply a half beat out of step, echoing the main town, 149 00:09:15.679 --> 00:09:19.399 yet humming with its own faintly mysterious temper. I had 150 00:09:19.480 --> 00:09:23.240 learned over decades to expect a bit of creative practicality 151 00:09:23.240 --> 00:09:27.320 on Festival Street, shop keeper's missing appointments, the calender never 152 00:09:27.399 --> 00:09:29.879 quite lining up, but none of it had ever struck 153 00:09:29.919 --> 00:09:33.360 me as anything but local color. Now, with more time 154 00:09:33.399 --> 00:09:35.840 to notice, the pattern pressed in at the edges of 155 00:09:35.879 --> 00:09:40.799 my understanding, teasing something deeper than mere eccentricity. It was 156 00:09:40.840 --> 00:09:44.159 a Thursday when the contradictions sharpened from background noise to 157 00:09:44.279 --> 00:09:48.440 impossible melody. I was headed to Pike's Bakery, birthday card 158 00:09:48.440 --> 00:09:51.600 in hand for Missus Pike, her birthday given in every 159 00:09:51.639 --> 00:09:55.240 register and the town's own public calendar as August eighteen. 160 00:09:55.919 --> 00:09:59.120 The store front was a blaze streamers of yellow crape 161 00:09:59.360 --> 00:10:04.120 hand letters reading congratulations, and the front case packed with 162 00:10:04.200 --> 00:10:09.600 little cakes iced with Marsapan roses. Happy Birthday, I announced 163 00:10:09.639 --> 00:10:12.639 as I entered, slipping the card onto the pile beside 164 00:10:12.639 --> 00:10:16.720 the register. Missus Pike beamed, but gave a little shake 165 00:10:16.759 --> 00:10:20.840 of her graying curls. Goodness, Jackson, you're a deer, but 166 00:10:20.879 --> 00:10:24.720 it's not my birthday to day. It's our anniversary fourteen 167 00:10:24.879 --> 00:10:28.159 wonderful years. Feel free to sample any cake you like. 168 00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:33.440 We always do an extra batch for the anniversary. I blinked, confused. 169 00:10:33.879 --> 00:10:37.919 Her anniversary was, according to town law, September. And besides, 170 00:10:38.360 --> 00:10:41.919 the card I just bought was the only one in line. 171 00:10:42.039 --> 00:10:45.639 But your family and the register say the eighteenth, Or 172 00:10:45.679 --> 00:10:49.879 am I a week early? She laughed, not unkindly, patting 173 00:10:49.879 --> 00:10:53.279 my hand over the bakery case. Oh, we celebrate things 174 00:10:53.279 --> 00:10:57.000 as they come, Jackson. Around here, a milestone finds you 175 00:10:57.039 --> 00:10:59.960 when it's ready. She glanced up at a pencil written 176 00:10:59.840 --> 00:11:04.120 sign above the counter, Anniversary week a U G twelve 177 00:11:04.120 --> 00:11:08.240 eighteen free tea for all. I let myself be steered 178 00:11:08.279 --> 00:11:12.279 toward a sticky bun and made for the door card unrequired. 179 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:15.600 When I caught sight of Elsie across the street rolling 180 00:11:15.639 --> 00:11:20.519 buckets of peonies into the flower shop ready for tomorrow's festival, 181 00:11:20.840 --> 00:11:23.759 she called, still time to order a garland. If you 182 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:29.480 hurry tomorrow, I echoed, shaw first festival of the season. 183 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:32.200 She looked at me as if I had asked whether 184 00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:36.080 the sky would turn blue in daylight. Across town at 185 00:11:36.120 --> 00:11:40.399 the Harbor Office, the official festival date, posted in block letters, 186 00:11:40.799 --> 00:11:44.240 was listed as August twenty two. The schedule etched in 187 00:11:44.320 --> 00:11:49.559 my bones after years of postal deliveries said the same thing, annual, immovable, 188 00:11:49.960 --> 00:11:53.399 but on Festival Street. To morrow apparently was as likely 189 00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:57.679 a first festival as any. I cut back past George 190 00:11:57.960 --> 00:12:01.200 s seeing him outside tinkering with a bent alarm clock. 191 00:12:01.720 --> 00:12:05.399 He greeted me with a sideway's grin. Catch any festival 192 00:12:05.399 --> 00:12:09.159 fever yet, he asked, sliding a screwdriver behind his ear. 193 00:12:10.279 --> 00:12:13.639 I've missed the first one, apparently. Elsie says it was 194 00:12:13.720 --> 00:12:16.720 yesterday at the hardware store. Thought they were waiting for 195 00:12:16.759 --> 00:12:20.840 the parade next week. George shrugged, as if this were 196 00:12:20.840 --> 00:12:25.240 perfectly reasonable. They had music, Hazel brought a lemon tart. 197 00:12:25.519 --> 00:12:28.600 Old man morely played the sore. It was a festival 198 00:12:28.639 --> 00:12:31.480 for them, might be one to morrow too. Never know 199 00:12:31.600 --> 00:12:35.600 which you'll get. So are you celebrating tomorrow or is 200 00:12:35.639 --> 00:12:40.159 it already done? I pressed, he laughed, The sound rolling 201 00:12:40.320 --> 00:12:43.840 like marbles in an old jar. Why not celebrate again? 202 00:12:44.240 --> 00:12:46.879 Makes the weak lighter when there's music two days in 203 00:12:46.960 --> 00:12:50.600 a row. By now I had an armful of contradictory 204 00:12:50.679 --> 00:12:55.360 dates and recollections, Missus Pike's anniversary, the flower Shop's festival, 205 00:12:55.679 --> 00:12:59.480 George attending yet another version yesterday, each shop with a 206 00:12:59.480 --> 00:13:02.559 different memory or plan, each eye twinkling, as if the 207 00:13:02.600 --> 00:13:05.399 perpetual misalignment was not an error, but a kind of 208 00:13:05.480 --> 00:13:08.799 shared joke. Deeper and more settled than I could reach. 209 00:13:09.399 --> 00:13:12.320 It was no longer an idle oddity of mail or fliers, 210 00:13:12.679 --> 00:13:17.320 but a strand of culture woven into every household. Walking home, 211 00:13:17.639 --> 00:13:21.200 I passed Hazel setting up her sandwich board for Saturday's market. 212 00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:25.720 The date was half smudged in chalk, the month almost illegible, 213 00:13:25.799 --> 00:13:30.440 beneath a smear of rain. I stopped, Hazel, what day 214 00:13:30.519 --> 00:13:33.720 is the festival anyway? Seems everyone on this side of 215 00:13:33.759 --> 00:13:37.720 town's got a different answer. She set down her brush, 216 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:42.000 gazed up at the brightening sky. Whenever a neighbor needs company. 217 00:13:42.039 --> 00:13:45.080 I suppose you should try joining all of them, Jackson, 218 00:13:45.399 --> 00:13:49.279 see which suits you best. She meant it too. The 219 00:13:49.320 --> 00:13:53.799 contradiction was so gentle, so untroubled, that my curiosity only deepened. 220 00:13:54.240 --> 00:13:57.080 I needed to know not just why these different dates persisted, 221 00:13:57.360 --> 00:14:00.879 but how how one street, a dozen names could all 222 00:14:00.919 --> 00:14:06.600 remember the same moments, festivals, anniversaries, birthdays on utterly different days, 223 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:11.080 and why, perhaps most hauntingly, nobody else found anything unsettling 224 00:14:11.159 --> 00:14:14.639 about it at all. No good mystery can be solved 225 00:14:14.679 --> 00:14:18.240 without getting one's hands dirty. I dug in that week 226 00:14:18.600 --> 00:14:22.399 notebook in pocket, determined to spot the scene between memory 227 00:14:22.399 --> 00:14:27.919 and mistake. Festival Street did not disappoint mondays. I noted 228 00:14:28.159 --> 00:14:31.559 the bakery closed just after lunch, a sign promising back 229 00:14:31.679 --> 00:14:34.879 soon gone to bake rowdy cakes for Saturday. Yet on 230 00:14:34.919 --> 00:14:37.639 the same day the hardware store hosted a half dozen 231 00:14:37.679 --> 00:14:41.320 neighbors over for early festival pie. If I asked in passing, 232 00:14:41.600 --> 00:14:44.600 when's the big day? Missus Pike set her date a 233 00:14:44.639 --> 00:14:48.240 full three days after leland S. While Leland insisted, with 234 00:14:48.360 --> 00:14:52.320 grandfatherly certainty, that the festival already came and went, thank 235 00:14:52.399 --> 00:14:56.600 you very much, last Thursday. He even described the event 236 00:14:57.159 --> 00:15:00.519 the song the school children sang the second vers as 237 00:15:00.559 --> 00:15:03.960 always off key, the color of the bunting, the flavor 238 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:07.960 of the special bread details so vivid. I half suspected 239 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:12.120 he simply enjoyed the telling. In my growing notebook, I 240 00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:15.960 charted the hours as best I could Bakery festival prep 241 00:15:15.960 --> 00:15:20.960 on Monday, hardware store festival witnessed last Thursday, Lelon's Festival 242 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:26.159 Anniversary Thursday, Flower Shop Festival tomorrow, no date given. I 243 00:15:26.159 --> 00:15:29.120 would pass the grocery and find an unassuming flier for 244 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:32.840 next Saturday's mega sale. Dates scrawled as the twenty first, 245 00:15:33.240 --> 00:15:36.519 even though today was the fifteenth, and another shop insisted 246 00:15:36.559 --> 00:15:40.919 on the eighteenth. And yet everyone, truly everyone on the 247 00:15:40.919 --> 00:15:46.279 street spoke with absolute confidence about their own version. Determined 248 00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:49.720 not to be out maneuvered, I began quietly cross checking memories. 249 00:15:50.080 --> 00:15:53.639 At Hazel's suggestion, I casually interviewed neighbors over coffee or 250 00:15:53.639 --> 00:15:56.559 in the shade outside the post office. Do you recall 251 00:15:56.759 --> 00:15:59.639 I asked whether the first Summer Day's festival was this 252 00:15:59.679 --> 00:16:03.360 past Saturday or the one coming up. Hazel, always cheerful, 253 00:16:03.480 --> 00:16:06.879 waved her hand. Last week for sure, I brought my 254 00:16:06.960 --> 00:16:10.320 walnut cake, but the rain came early. Or was that 255 00:16:10.360 --> 00:16:14.240 for the spring festival? Either way, I remember sitting with 256 00:16:14.279 --> 00:16:19.639 you right here and watching Elsie's grandchildren chase balloons. Mister 257 00:16:19.720 --> 00:16:24.120 Leland counted without irony, the festival's next week, you can 258 00:16:24.159 --> 00:16:27.519 mark it. My father always said, never put up bunting 259 00:16:27.559 --> 00:16:30.120 before the twenty first, or you'll risk a week of 260 00:16:30.200 --> 00:16:36.120 bad luck. I tested their recollections, sometimes pressing gently. Were 261 00:16:36.159 --> 00:16:39.240 you at the festival? When the parade passed by last Saturday? 262 00:16:39.639 --> 00:16:42.799 I thought I saw you with a prize ribbon. He 263 00:16:42.840 --> 00:16:47.039 would shake his head, brow furrowing in honest confusion. Couldn't 264 00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:49.759 have been last Saturday. I was in Rockport for my 265 00:16:49.879 --> 00:16:55.240 sister's birthday. Even the younger residence joined in. Elsie's daughter, 266 00:16:55.559 --> 00:16:58.399 flicking petals from her hands, assured me she'd been at 267 00:16:58.440 --> 00:17:01.720 a parade last week, but could not swear whether it 268 00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:05.160 had been an official festival or something the hardware store 269 00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:09.880 had dreamed up. Physical evidence helped. Little fliers stayed up 270 00:17:09.880 --> 00:17:13.640 in windows long past their dates. The bakery listed anniversary 271 00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:17.200 treats August ten, seventeen, while the calendar in the hardware 272 00:17:17.240 --> 00:17:20.559 shop displayed a garish circle over the fourteenth. If I 273 00:17:20.599 --> 00:17:24.359 confronted them with the discrepancy but Leland says it was Thursday, 274 00:17:24.720 --> 00:17:29.039 they shrugged, smiled, and said, so many festivals, Jackson, You 275 00:17:29.119 --> 00:17:32.640 can count them or just join in out of town. 276 00:17:32.880 --> 00:17:38.359 Things retained normality, Shops kept calendar time, mail came as expected, 277 00:17:38.680 --> 00:17:42.640 nobody seemed out of sink. But Festival Street unraveled. The 278 00:17:42.680 --> 00:17:47.359 calendar by consensus, each recounting their festival, each memory as 279 00:17:47.440 --> 00:17:51.279 vivid as the next, but never overlapping. I gained a 280 00:17:51.319 --> 00:17:54.559 companion in my confusion, the mail carrier who'd taken over 281 00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:58.079 my old route, an eager, red cheeked fellow named Brian. 282 00:17:58.640 --> 00:18:01.119 I caught him at lunch in the cafe and asked, 283 00:18:01.160 --> 00:18:04.400 point blank, you ever get odd dates when delivering to 284 00:18:04.519 --> 00:18:09.400 Festival Street? He snorted, eyes rolling, You have no idea. 285 00:18:09.799 --> 00:18:12.519 I delivered last week's circular to the bakery, and then 286 00:18:12.759 --> 00:18:15.920 two mornings later, missus Pike called me back, said I'd 287 00:18:15.960 --> 00:18:19.440 missed it, handed me the exact same flier, different date. 288 00:18:20.079 --> 00:18:23.480 He scratched his head, went along with it, because I mean, 289 00:18:23.559 --> 00:18:26.319 who argues with someone offering you free tea? At nine 290 00:18:26.359 --> 00:18:31.079 in the morning, we sat together pondering, is it just confusion? 291 00:18:31.400 --> 00:18:34.279 He asked, some old local game we aren't in on. 292 00:18:35.440 --> 00:18:39.119 I shook my head. They all seemed genuinely certain, and 293 00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:42.640 if it's a joke, it's one nobody's tired of. After decades, 294 00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:46.680 Festival Street by now felt wrapped in a puzzle box 295 00:18:46.720 --> 00:18:51.359 of contradictions, neighbors, memories aligned in qualities. What was baked? 296 00:18:51.480 --> 00:18:55.119 Who played music which children made mischief, but never in time. 297 00:18:55.720 --> 00:18:59.799 One person's yesterday was another's next week, yet all agreed 298 00:18:59.799 --> 00:19:02.759 on the substance, as though the street collectively played a 299 00:19:02.799 --> 00:19:06.480 game of improvisational theater, the reality of the event never 300 00:19:06.559 --> 00:19:10.680 in question, just the day it occurred. The more I pressed, 301 00:19:10.920 --> 00:19:14.319 the more intriguing the puzzle became. If I attended one 302 00:19:14.440 --> 00:19:18.039 version of the festival, say the bakeries, I'd later hear 303 00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:21.240 George or Hazel describe their presence at a different festival, 304 00:19:21.400 --> 00:19:26.400 entirely complete with unique stories, names, songs, even the weather. 305 00:19:27.119 --> 00:19:30.799 Sometimes I found myself present at two different versions, both 306 00:19:30.880 --> 00:19:35.240 treated with rooted sincerity. I began to worry, as one 307 00:19:35.279 --> 00:19:38.039 does in the face of mounting contradictions, that I was 308 00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:41.720 the victim of an elaborate prank, perhaps a communal initiation 309 00:19:41.880 --> 00:19:45.799 for the retired mailman. But the unstudied, every day nature 310 00:19:45.799 --> 00:19:49.359 of the oddities belied that. I once examined a decade's 311 00:19:49.400 --> 00:19:53.880 old photo at Leln's Antiques, capturing a festival parade. In 312 00:19:53.920 --> 00:19:58.000 the frame, three clocks hung in shop windows, each displaying 313 00:19:58.039 --> 00:20:02.359 a different hour. Sunlight in the photo came from opposite sides, 314 00:20:02.680 --> 00:20:05.400 and the bakery's back window was lit as in morning, 315 00:20:05.720 --> 00:20:09.559 while the market side showed the long, slant shadows of dusk. 316 00:20:10.319 --> 00:20:14.200 It's just the angle, Lenn said, But even he seemed uncertain. 317 00:20:15.240 --> 00:20:18.640 That photo haunted me. How could a moment contain multiple 318 00:20:18.680 --> 00:20:22.920 times in one polarid? Was it multiple photos cleverly stitched? 319 00:20:23.359 --> 00:20:27.839 I studied the details, shop, awnings, flower pots identical, yet 320 00:20:27.839 --> 00:20:32.119 clocks disagreeing. One child captured mid laugh in every image. 321 00:20:32.960 --> 00:20:36.680 Nor could anyone else explain why the records disagreed. The 322 00:20:36.720 --> 00:20:40.039 annual library board meeting listed the first day of festival 323 00:20:40.279 --> 00:20:44.759 as conflicting dates every year, small corrections scribbled in pen, 324 00:20:45.119 --> 00:20:49.000 only to be corrected again. The following archive always a 325 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:53.039 bit of a muddle, the town archivist admitted. But that's quaint, 326 00:20:53.240 --> 00:20:57.240 isn't it. Yet beneath the quaintness I sensed a pattern, 327 00:20:57.519 --> 00:21:01.200 as if festival streets oddities pointed to something deeper and older. 328 00:21:01.519 --> 00:21:04.880 Not just a jumble, but a logic, eccentric, perhaps, but 329 00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.000 sturdy as any tradition. Was it a ritual? Once deliberate, 330 00:21:09.279 --> 00:21:13.000 now only half remembered, a relic of the founding families 331 00:21:13.119 --> 00:21:16.519 who had woven the calendar to suit their needs, or 332 00:21:16.559 --> 00:21:20.000 did some part of Festival Street simply refuse to accept 333 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:23.759 the tyranny of ordinary time, choosing instead to give every 334 00:21:23.799 --> 00:21:29.240 neighbor a moment in the sun, convenient, kind and somehow contagious. 335 00:21:29.799 --> 00:21:32.319 If there was an answer, it was rooted not only 336 00:21:32.400 --> 00:21:36.480 in the present, but somewhere beneath it, tangled in old stories, 337 00:21:36.759 --> 00:21:41.480 subtle agreements, and the slow sediment of years. I shifted 338 00:21:41.480 --> 00:21:44.440 my approach, resolving that the path forward lay not in 339 00:21:44.519 --> 00:21:47.880 catching neighbors out or timing my mornings to bakery clocks, 340 00:21:48.200 --> 00:21:51.880 but in seeking the origins. If Festival Street insisted on 341 00:21:51.960 --> 00:21:55.880 its own time, surely the roots ran deep. I set 342 00:21:55.920 --> 00:21:59.079 myself the day's work to the library, and from there 343 00:21:59.400 --> 00:22:02.200 to talk with those whose memories stretched back further than 344 00:22:02.200 --> 00:22:06.359 the Bakeri's first oven. The library, a postage stamp of 345 00:22:06.359 --> 00:22:10.119 a building, welcomed me beneath its drooping lilac trees. The 346 00:22:10.160 --> 00:22:13.240 stacks smelled of leather and candle wax, and the local 347 00:22:13.319 --> 00:22:17.079 history section, tucked beside a lending table, yielded more than 348 00:22:17.119 --> 00:22:21.680 I'd expected. Archival posters for the annual Summer's Day Festival 349 00:22:22.039 --> 00:22:25.000 lined the bottom of a battered filing cabinet, some in 350 00:22:25.079 --> 00:22:29.279 faded type, others thick with hand written flourishes. I lined 351 00:22:29.279 --> 00:22:33.680 them up, tracing dates from the nineteen thirties to the present. No. 352 00:22:33.839 --> 00:22:37.480 Two years listed the festival the same June twenty ninth, 353 00:22:37.720 --> 00:22:43.799 July one, August tenth, all haphazardly annotated with corrected or rescheduled, 354 00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:48.680 contradicting the neat register posted at the front desk. Digging deeper, 355 00:22:48.920 --> 00:22:51.640 I found a set of brittle letters addressed to Festival 356 00:22:51.680 --> 00:22:56.400 Street Postmaster, stacked in tight script, though brief, Each were 357 00:22:56.480 --> 00:22:59.799 signed by a different founding family and closed with nea 358 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:03.720 identical words, may every day on Festival Street be as 359 00:23:03.720 --> 00:23:07.920 bright as Summer's day. One letter, older and grayer than 360 00:23:07.920 --> 00:23:11.839 the rest, stood out to the future. May every day 361 00:23:11.880 --> 00:23:18.519 on Festival Street feel like Summer's Day? Signed J. Pike, W. Leland, T. Hazen, M. 362 00:23:18.599 --> 00:23:22.440 Breen and all our kin. It was dated July two 363 00:23:22.839 --> 00:23:27.880 year unclear. The wish, folded across generations, echoed a kind 364 00:23:27.880 --> 00:23:31.759 of promise, stubborn as grass growing up through stone, to 365 00:23:31.839 --> 00:23:35.160 keep the street festive, no matter what the calender claimed. 366 00:23:36.200 --> 00:23:38.759 I took this to missus Breen, who lived above the 367 00:23:38.799 --> 00:23:42.240 antique shop and at eighty eight was the street's oldest 368 00:23:42.279 --> 00:23:45.799 beating heart. She welcomed me in, folded me into the 369 00:23:45.920 --> 00:23:49.920 archipelago of knitting and photos crowding her parlor, and made tea. 370 00:23:49.960 --> 00:23:53.279 As I described my hunt for the festival's real date, 371 00:23:54.400 --> 00:23:57.599 her answer was a gentle laugh. Oh, we always get 372 00:23:57.640 --> 00:24:00.279 it wrong, and we always get it right. When my 373 00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:02.960 Jack was alive, we'd walk to the bakery and find 374 00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:05.559 them half way through a party, then next door the 375 00:24:05.599 --> 00:24:09.400 same evening for another. No one s ever agreed on 376 00:24:09.480 --> 00:24:12.200 the date, and thank Heaven for it keeps you from 377 00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:19.000 growing lonely if you miss one. I pressed on family milestones, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries. 378 00:24:19.440 --> 00:24:23.480 Missus Breen's memories cascaded warmly, but her dates never matched 379 00:24:23.480 --> 00:24:27.240 the town ledger. Her sister's wedding the summer it rained 380 00:24:27.279 --> 00:24:30.480 so hard was remembered on three different days by the 381 00:24:30.519 --> 00:24:34.160 three aunts I later asked. Everyone swore they were right, 382 00:24:34.440 --> 00:24:39.519 but none with anger, only fond certainty. If anything. She reminisced, 383 00:24:39.680 --> 00:24:42.759 the confusion made it easier for everyone to be included. 384 00:24:43.440 --> 00:24:47.160 Miss the first celebration, there'll be another, miss the second. 385 00:24:47.519 --> 00:24:51.920 There's one brewing next door. Something nagged a feel, not 386 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:55.559 of mistake, but of a mutual agreement growing sharper as 387 00:24:55.599 --> 00:24:59.359 I listened. I left her, pocketing my notes and returning 388 00:24:59.400 --> 00:25:03.720 down fest Street under the fluttering bunting. All my old frameworks, 389 00:25:03.960 --> 00:25:08.240 postal logic, scheduled rounds. The push for precision felt out 390 00:25:08.240 --> 00:25:11.480 of place here. The question was no longer simple, not 391 00:25:11.720 --> 00:25:14.799 just why do these dates not match, but how and 392 00:25:14.839 --> 00:25:18.799 why does a street belong to its own calendar. That night, 393 00:25:18.839 --> 00:25:22.559 I returned to leland Es to pore over old photo albums. 394 00:25:23.119 --> 00:25:27.079 I asked to see weddings, markets, celebrations, the famous fire 395 00:25:27.119 --> 00:25:30.319 at the flower shop, the unveiling of the weird iron 396 00:25:30.440 --> 00:25:35.160 weather vane. Each event, always on Festival Street, appeared in 397 00:25:35.279 --> 00:25:39.480 multiple albums, with subtle but profound mismatches. Identical crowds in 398 00:25:39.519 --> 00:25:43.559 different coats, one photo labeled Sunny Parade nineteen eighty three, 399 00:25:43.799 --> 00:25:49.559 another same composition tagged Rainy Festival eighty three. Clocks disagreed, 400 00:25:49.799 --> 00:25:52.960 windows showed sun at one angle, then another, and Missus 401 00:25:52.960 --> 00:25:56.200