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Hood River News Editorial
September 27, 2006
This is a Grovers Corners glossary.
A set of unfamiliar terms, that is, defined in preparation for any
viewing or reading of “Our Town.”
The play is now in performance at CAST in downtown Hood River.
Before attending the show, enjoy a plate of stringed beans followed by
a dessert of strawberry sodas — items savory and sweet that are
elemental to the plot of this timeless play.
Make yourself a strawberry ice cream soda at home or, on your way to
“Our Town,” go to your favorite cafe and order a strawberry-flavored
Italian soda —about as close as we get in this day and age to the
strawberry sodas (or phosphates — see below) that sealed the love of
George and Emily, the young leads in Thornton Wilder’s play.
Meanwhile, bone up on early-20th-century words and terms from “Our
Town”. They may seem obscure, but the play’s messages of faith and
community are current as ever:
High-boy — tall chest of drawers with a legged based (Mrs. Gibbs might
sell hers).
Stringing beans —preparing green beans for canning (Mrs. Webb puts up
“40 quarts if it kills me”).
Phosphate — an effervescent drink of carbonated water with a small
amount of phospohoric acid flavored with fruit syrup.
Peterborough, N.H. —actual town that inspired Grover’s Corners, now
pop. 2.944.
Burdock — coarse herbs bearing globular flowers with prickly bracts
(what grows in Mrs. Gibbs’ garden).
Brachiocephalic — short-headed or broadheaded, with a Cephalic index
(see below) of 80-plus (Professor Willard speaks of it in Act 1).
Go-kart — this is 1901: a go-kart was a horse-drawn vehicle, not the
motorized four-wheel vehicle.
Mezozoic — era 200 million years ago (thank Professor Willard).
*****
“Our Town” is an endearing, entertaining challenge to Seize the Day,
and this play has as much to say in 2006 — about taking time in our
fast-paced world to appreciate life — as it did when it was first
performed in 1938.
A drama with fair doses of comedy, this is a story containing the
sweet and the savory.
“Some of the things they’re going to say maybe’ll hurt your feelings,”
says the mentor-like Stage Manager character before one pivotal scene.
But “Our Town” is ultimately about hope, about rising to our daily
occasions and rising again the next day, to a world “straining away to
make something of itself.”
The Stage Manager says it best when he reminds us, “Now there are some
things we all know but we don’t take ‘m out and look at ‘m very often.
We all know that something is eternal.”
See the play, or read it, and be reminded of our eternal essence. |
