Saturday, May 30, 2009

Noise in New Hope

Stepping out into New Hope, Pennsylvania, the noise – repeated revving of motorcycles interrupting excited crowds laughing – was overwhelming. Hello New Hope. It was an exciting welcome: colorful signs outside little boutiques hung above the bustling crowds moving down the street and faint hints of music could be heard from the music festival across the bridge in Lambertville.

Eager to explore New Hope, Annelise and I thanked Mrs. Quinn for dropping us off and we started on our journey. Moving Southeast on the Delaware River side, we started down Main Street. The Delaware River side of New Hope has many little boutiques and art galleries while across the street lie many expensive restaurants, real-estate offices, historical statues, and some houses.

Weaving between the crowds, we tried to glimpse into the windows of some of the stores on our way to the famous Bucks County Playhouse. The Playhouse, an old red and white building that resembles an enormous old barn or millhouse, is situated in the heart of New Hope. Famous for past performers, like Princess Grace Kelly, John Travolta, Liza Minnelli, and Bea Arthur, this theater has been a landmark in New Hope since its opening in 1939. Therefore, as we approached the theater, we were not surprised by the crowd outside. The crowd was mostly made up of older couples, all waiting to have their tickets checked to go see 42nd Street. Squeezing through the crowd, we finally entered the lobby and took a playbill from the stage manager. Although we weren’t allowed past the lobby without tickets, the lobby itself was exciting with old playbills from several decades ago covering the walls. As the crowd thinned and the audience began to take their seats in the theater, Annelise and I decided to move on so we would not interrupt the performance. Sitting outside for a few minutes at the small pond on the edge of the theater, we noticed how friendly the ducks were. The ducks approached us as if we were other ducks, coming closer and closer and poking around looking for food in our bag. We were both startled by the lack of wariness of the flock of ducks but figured they have accepted that their natural habitat is home to a popular theater, as they know how to flirt up some popcorn.

Ready to move on, we crossed a small bridge over the Playhouse pond. As we were walking, I saw more motorcycles in that small stretch of Main Street than I ever had in my life. In between each pack of Harleys, a few cars would drive by, each one extremely expensive. However, New Hope didn’t give off the extremely wealthy vibe nor the hardcore motorcycle vibe. New Hope came off as bright and hippy-ish, and was obviously popular. At times, Annelise and I had to walk single-file to limit potential collisions in the jammed sidewalk traffic.

Because it was a Sunday, New Hope was jammed pack with a mosaic of people—old, young, male, female, all ethnicities, and sexual orientations. Reflecting the diversity of New Hope’s visitors was the diversity of various shops. The first shop we entered was the Shop of India. Every item in the store was beautiful. They sold jewelry, small religious statues, offered henna tattoos, and traditional Indian clothing that looked as if it had been fused with American teenage culture. The colors and patterns on the skirts and dresses were so unique and each had its own beautiful touch. After looking around in the store for a few minutes, we moved on and crossed a small street over to the next block of shops. We entered another Indian shop, with items just as beautiful as the one before, and passed by “A Taste of Cuba.” We also passed by Spatola’s, a very popular little pizza shop but it was closed because it was a Sunday. Next door to Spatola’s was the Bow-Wow Dog Lover’s Emporium, which had every item for dogs and dog-lovers imaginable. After peeking into that store, Annelise and I became aware of how dog-friendly New Hope is. Each store had a small water bowl outside for visiting dogs and as we looked around us, there were at least six dogs in our sight. While admiring a cute dog across the street, our eyes fell upon an older man, dressed in tie-dye and jeans with psychedelic flowers and smiley faces sewn on, leaning against a yellow car decorated with rainbow flames and peace signs. He immediately caught our attention and we walked closer to get a better look at his car. As we approached the man lost in a different decade, we realized that he was standing in front of a tie-dye store called Type B. With tie-dyed clothes out front, a colorful sign hanging overhead, and a hippy man with a matching car standing outside, we had to go inside. Walking in, we were overwhelmed by the number and variety of items available in various colors and forms of tie-dye. The store itself was even colorful; it had a cute little table with red chairs in a corner and the walls were painted with bright colors in patterns resembling lava lamps, with some hippy stickers including peace signs, the Grateful Dead bears, and Haight-Ashbury signs, plastered on the walls. In a green tie-dye shirt, owner Melissa Bayer approached us and offered guidance. We asked her a few questions and learned she and her husband had the store here for only a year yet it was already one of New Hope’s hotspots. We also were surprised to learn that most items in the store were dyed by hand. Being modest, Melissa claimed she was not as talented as other tie-dye artists in our nation, and gave credit to a young woman in California who also tie-dyes by hand and sells some of her items through the store. Melissa said she believes her store is the only working tie-dye store in America because most tie-dying is done now via American computers or in Asian countries. Tie-dying, we learned, actually originating in the Asian culture. War veterans coming home from both Korea and Vietnam had seen tie-dyed items and brought the ideas back to America, starting a fashion phenomenon. Eager to get the younger generations into tie-dye and preserve this fashion phenomenon, Melissa and her husband offer hours each day where customers can come in and make their own tie-dye. Promising to come back and attempt to create our own masterpieces, we thanked Melissa for her kindness and left the store.

Walking back into the heat, Annelise and I decided to get some ice cream. New Hope is known for its amazing homemade ice cream shops, located on almost every corner. We stopped at one of the most popular ice cream parlors, called Gerenser’s Exotic Ice Cream which claimed to have been making ice cream in New Hope for over 50 years. Known for its many strangely named but delicious homemade flavors, I was amused by the names of a few particular ice creams, such as African Violet and Magyar Apricot Brandy. Finally deciding on a sherbet, I went to go pay and found it to be very expensive. But the cool creamy taste on my tongue proved to be worth four dollars.

Leaving the ice cream store, Annelise and I realized it was time to go home. As we got back into the car, I embraced the quiet atmosphere. However, I soon came to realize that the noise itself was the essence of the town. It represented New Hope’s popularity and the types of people it attracts. And after only a few hours immersed in this noise, I came to realize how wonderful New Hope, Pennsylvania is.

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