Another walk through downtown Danville

First, early this morning it was to the Saturday Community Market, at the end of the warehouse district and just across from the train station. Word is that the best fresh vegetables sell out soon after it opens so there I was really early at the 8am opening. Believe in the word, or Word as might be said here, as there was a scrum in front of the more attractive and well stocked stands. Being tall and having a touch of New York in me I was able to get a few ripe tomatoes, some great looking thin asperagus, and some perfect tiny new potatoes but missed out on the still in the shell field peas that had me drooling. I made it to second in line and heard the farmer say, as he looked at the about five pounds left in box, "this is all there is", so the woman in front of me said "I'll take them all".

Danville folks are on the whole very nice and polite, in fact unusually so, but there are a few areas where this does not apply. Merging into a lane of traffic is seen as an affront which causes some segment of Danvillians to speed up and trap the culprit at the top of the ramp. Maybe it's the Nascar influence. Walking across the almost empty streets when there is a green or yellow facing the distant approaching driver also gets the same treatment. You better move fast. Being a pedestrian here in any form may well be against the law if what the eyes see is any judge. Now we can add another quirk. Cornering the market on fresh vegetables to punish those who dare get in line behind you appears to be another space-centric behavior akin to the local concept of car correctness.

Adding some fresh baked dinner rolls and cheese biscuits topped with a pecan, my walk continued through the still mostly empty warehouse district full of solid brick buildings 100 years old to much older that will stand until the brick becomes too valuable to let stand unless some revival comes. Up to the bottom of Main Street there is life and a good bagel at Bronx Boy Bagel. Then the remaining downtown walk up the formerly commercial area of Main Street remains unchanged, maybe 2/3 of the storefronts empty, with banks and law offices being the dominant presence with the exception of the estimable Rippe's women's clothing and shoe stores.

On to "Millionaires Row", the blocks of old churches and of the Victorian houses still remaining, there is no change but at least on this walk there was no accosting crack head joining in a threatening way. The former Main Street Methodist Church is still there, built "circa 1865" a fortress of brick and massive doors, on the National Registry of Historic Places, but empty as its congregation dwindled to the extent that it closed. It seems that the johnny come lately Mount Vernon Methodist Church, built in 1884, benefitted from its iconic structure at the intersection of three Main Streets, literally, to win. The nearby Episcopal Church of slightly later vintage is active and intact. A few doors up there's its large parking lot, on the former site of the most beautiful and unique Victorian house in Danville - long gone, and the sign says "Episcopal Church -- Parking by Permission Only". There is one car in the lot. Don't worry your hearts Episcopalians, no one wants to share your parking spaces.

Then to Midtown Market, the last remaining old style personal vendor of quality meats and vegetables, with notably the best chicken salad in the world. That, fresh white corn and a ripe cantelope finish the walking and the shopping.