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Springfield, MA (and juggling)
Jul. 21st, 2018 08:53 pmThe International Jugglers' Association holds an annual convention, now officially called a festival, although many people just call it the IJA, as though the organization only exists one week a year. My first one was 1978, in Eugene, OR. In 1979, it was at Hampshire College, near Amherst. This year it's in Springfield, the first time since then that it has been in Massachusetts. https://www.juggle.org/festival-2/
The final show is probably happening right about now, after days of shows, competitions (many treated as performances), hanging around the gym equivalent, and so forth. Over the decades, we have learned that for the most part it is not best for me to be there the entire time (or some years at all). I feel that when we are on vacation, Arthur (the juggler in the family) should spend lots of time with me. Arthur wants to maximize his time with friends he only sees once a year. He's happy to have me tag along, as long as I don't interfere with that goal. Some friction results. This year I spent three days in Springfield. On one of the days, rather than being with jugglers, another non-juggling spouse and I went to the Springfield museum conglomeration. I mostly wanted to see the Seuss museum, but the ticket (a wristband) is fairly pricey, and covers Seuss, art X 2, history, and science museums. We had paid for it, so we saw almost everything except the history museum. https://springfieldmuseums.org/about/ We also skipped the historic public library, which has construction going on, but we walked past a Richardson-designed church and the Victorian Mattoon Street. That was all very nice, and the area around Main Street was busy and welcoming. Everywhere we ate was good. But parts of Springfield are like many other aging cities in the US - there are blocks of buildings with some businesses still there, but empty storefronts right next to them. The walk to the bus station/Amtrak station was discouraging. The nearly finished casino is hiring and in the meantime is employing bunches of construction workers, but I don't tend to believe that a casino is a positive move. It has been five years since the choice of location for the western Mass casino (the eastern Mass one will be in Everett), and the debate went on for ages beforehand. We'll see soon, I guess.
The final show is probably happening right about now, after days of shows, competitions (many treated as performances), hanging around the gym equivalent, and so forth. Over the decades, we have learned that for the most part it is not best for me to be there the entire time (or some years at all). I feel that when we are on vacation, Arthur (the juggler in the family) should spend lots of time with me. Arthur wants to maximize his time with friends he only sees once a year. He's happy to have me tag along, as long as I don't interfere with that goal. Some friction results. This year I spent three days in Springfield. On one of the days, rather than being with jugglers, another non-juggling spouse and I went to the Springfield museum conglomeration. I mostly wanted to see the Seuss museum, but the ticket (a wristband) is fairly pricey, and covers Seuss, art X 2, history, and science museums. We had paid for it, so we saw almost everything except the history museum. https://springfieldmuseums.org/about/ We also skipped the historic public library, which has construction going on, but we walked past a Richardson-designed church and the Victorian Mattoon Street. That was all very nice, and the area around Main Street was busy and welcoming. Everywhere we ate was good. But parts of Springfield are like many other aging cities in the US - there are blocks of buildings with some businesses still there, but empty storefronts right next to them. The walk to the bus station/Amtrak station was discouraging. The nearly finished casino is hiring and in the meantime is employing bunches of construction workers, but I don't tend to believe that a casino is a positive move. It has been five years since the choice of location for the western Mass casino (the eastern Mass one will be in Everett), and the debate went on for ages beforehand. We'll see soon, I guess.
