Time contrasts

I grew up in Reading, Massachusetts. The next town was Wakefield where we bought my Brownie outfit and ate at Hazelwood Cottage. I thought their tomato juice with a slice of lemon was the height of sophistication. Reading High's first football game of the season was always against Wakefield.

My brother fished in Lake Quanapowitt which was on the border of the two towns and when it was really cold, we would skate at the edges, never in the middle.

My first grownup job was as a file clerk on the shores of the lake for American Mutual Insurance. Three days and I was reapplying for university.

Today I had lunch in Perpignan, France near the Castillet which goes back to the 12th century some 500 years before the first white person settled in Wakefield but was first part of Lynn, then Reading before going out on its own.

Leaving the restaurant terrace, I came across a sign for another place called Wakefield with its signs all in English.

Hmm...Maybe I can leap time and continental barriers and visit Wakefield in Perpignan without the lake, without the brownie uniform, without the job...