In the 1964 children’s book, The Pushcart War, author Jean Merrill and illustrator Ronni Solbert colorfully and fancifully depict a war between pushcarts and delivery trucks in New York City.
1964 was about the time I was beginning to get my reading legs about me, and I remember this book.
While I enjoyed the book, I really didn’t “get” it, in many ways:
I had never been to New York City, or to any real big city, other than Dayton, Ohio; “city” seemed dirty and large and (back then!) utterly, happily foreign
- A ‘burbs baby, I was entirely unfamiliar with the concept of “pushcarts” or street vendors
- The premise of the demonization of trucks or even autos in general? Incomprehensible!
Like re-visiting as an adult anything one experiences early in life--from Shakespeare to The Flintstones—new layers of truth become clear: Humor, certainly, and varying degrees of profundity.
This week, I have experienced some of The City’s and District 3’s busy traffic exchanges from what, for me, is a less usual perspective: Not even a pedestrian, but a stand-estrian: Stand-estrian is where one moves, and, in fact, moves quite vigorously, but only using one’s arms and hands—to wave, sign-pump, etc. (Very good, btw, for that pesky lunch-lady arm syndrome … Zoinks. There I go, again, offending a key voter demographic.)
Standing on these corners, whether waving hands and signs to oncoming traffic, or just simply standing and observing, can give one a much different perspective—about both cars and driving habits. It is especially interesting to see drivers managing cell phones whilst coming to stops and making turns.
I am a cell phone user.
There, I said it.
Well, no, not fully.
I, especially as a candidate for Salt Lake City District 3 City Council, am a rabid cell phone user.
Long considering myself, cell-phone superhero-like, I have eschewed the debate about the impact of cell phones and driving, even amid compelling and multi-faceted research from our neighborhood’s own David Strayer. Watching from the street-corner vantage point? No didactic opinion, here. Just some self-commentary: To be mindful. To be much more mindful.
It’s been 45 years since the publishing of The Pushcart War.
Today, I have visited and love New York City and many big cities all over the world, and consider our City, Salt Lake City, to be one of international caliber and potential caliber.
Today, I love street vendors! About 1x per week(sometimes 2x), I enjoy street tacos. Love them!
And, Today, the literal “Today”, I have uncovered some of that deeper message from The Pushcart War.
It no longer sounds like a curiously enjoyable version of the teacher-speak omni-present in any Charlie Brown cartoon. It feels like a heightening of the senses, akin to suddenly acquiring dog-level hearing or bat sonar.
Or just getting a little bit hipper.
Today...
