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11/27/2004: "Man About Town"

I went to the Bernardsville Library this morning, and arrived a little before it opened. It is a block of the downtown section of Olcott Square, and I took a walk down through the old paths that were now paved and making do as streets. In behind Sussman's, the one-man department store; down past the post office, the car wash, and the auto-parts store; on past the Station, so called, once a railroad hotel and now, mainly, a restaurant and bar. I turned up Claremont Avenue, passing the Christian Science reading room and an art gallery that was once the accountants' office. A brick-and-frame house on the corner is neglected, cracks in the brick and the back porch sagging down toward the millrace. Along Mill Street, past a construction site where for years there only stood a ghostly foundation, and back to the library. I went in and immediately I was greeted by Mr. Wickfield, who went to the desk and was, as ever, simultaneously courtly and mischievous. He asked or a paper clip. He went to his meeting, and I went to read the local paper.