Cold Spring, New York: Picturesque Landscape, Cold Hearted Mentality

During the merry month of June, myself, my lovely Wife (lovely, because she might read this!) and our small dog 'Tommy' made a trip to a small little town that sits an hour and a half from Manhattan on the banks of the Hudson. The name of this place is 'Cold Spring' and we reached it courtesy of the Hudson Train Line from 'Grand Central Station' in New York City.

It is an easy place to navigage, since as far as the shopper/diner goes there is just one main shopping street to traverse. It is called 'Main Street', and runs approximately a quarter mile up a fairly steep hill with distant tree-filled mountains providing a beautiful backdrop. It contains an interesting variety of shops. There are some cool Antique shops there. The bigger ones being a mish mash of odd old curios and legitimate antiques. As with a lot of these sort of shops it is up to the buyer to figure out if something is really an antique or not, or as to something's value. As it was my Wife picked up a couple of vintage rings at a very decent price.

The weather was fine and we were in a fairly good mood. Our train from home up to Grand Central Station had been quick and we'd managed to catch the early train from 'Grand Central' to 'Cold Spring', and as well as this I didn't have to go to work for a few days.

The area surrounding area of Cold Spring is also quite pretty and you would think that the people living there would be in a pretty good mood too. I cannot really comment on the good citizens of Cold Spring but I can make comment on the majority of shop owners up and down Main Street.

Unfortunately for Cold Spring shop-owners, human contact is not something that seems to come very naturally to most of them. On the whole, they will begrudgingly take your money if you have been impertinent enough to enter their precious stores.

Now If you've ever seen the original version of the 'Wicker Man' you might better understand where I'm coming from. One store owner watched us as we suspiciously walked around his store looking at his wares. We further irked him by asking about one of the items in his store. He was further exasperated by our audacity at walking out of the store without buying anything, displaying his open palms as if to say 'Hey..what?, you're not buying anything?' Perhaps I missed the sign that said 'Anyone entering this store 'MUST' buy something!', but I swear I didn't see it. Another owner asked us to place our larger shopping bags on the floor before we started looking around. This is fine. It's just how she said it, and you all know what I mean by that. Some people can make 'Hello' sound like 'F*** Off' and this was one of em'. And this wasn't peak season or anything. Not even the weekend. This was a quiet early afternoon Wednesday. My New York Middle finger made a brief guest appearance before we quickly left the store - never to return (drama!)

On looking for a place to eat. There is a good little diner/restaurant there with two tables sitting outside on a crappy looking wooden deck. We asked if it was o.k. to eat there, keeping our enormous 13 pound dog with us. 'Oh no! This could not be done. Their precious wooden deck might succumb to our dog's super strength pee and rot away in front of their eyes, killing anyone who might fall through the rotted timber. Let me remind you that this is in the Country, where I'm sure Raccoons, rats, possums, feral cats and devil worshippers probably pee to their hearts content on the local buildings, never mind the wet slippery stuff that falls from the skies. Luckily, just across from them we found a more laid back eatery. But there's the definite sense that the people working at these food establishments don't really know how to deal with humans of the earthly persuasion. It's a very odd thing to describe. Perhaps you just have to go there to experience it. Let me tell you that the Brooklyn shops in my neighborhood are far friendlier than these folk. I know times are tough, but for Christ sake, crack a smile or say Hi. Fake it if you can. I looked around for Lynching posts or stocks in case they still practice ritual human punishments or perhaps even sacrifices, but to no avail. Although we did find an odd assembly of rocks down near the river, beneath the rail line and off to the side with sharpened wooden sticks in the middle of it. My mind is filling with images from the 70's film 'Race with the Devil'.

Now, we still managed to have a good time - but the majority of the people seemed to me to be just decidedly off (see: weird) and I doubt we'll be going back there anytime soon.

It felt good to get back to civilization again, even though it was rush hour in Manhattan - but I felt comfortable to be back among the mass of humanity that is New York.