Salem Off the Record: Just That Loving Feeling

Woodstock, NY, just seems to attract me. I’m not sure why, but it feels like home, yet, I have never lived there. Sometimes there is just a strange love affair you have with locations you visit. This magnetism has intrigued me and I wonder how I got pulled in.

When I was driving back to Albany from New Paltz a couple weeks ago, I found myself having to make a detour to Woodstock before I went to my apartment. I don’t know what it was, but I knew I had to make a stop. Even if it was just to get the chicken parmesan sub that I adore from Catskill Mountain Pizza. I wasn’t sure when I would be back again.

That town and I have a lot of memories. I took a journalism feature writing course during my first semester after transferring to New Paltz. During the first class I was told I had to cover a “beat” that focused on one town or city all semester. I was completely lost at what to pick, but I told the professor that I don’t think I would mind covering Woodstock. It was a half hour drive, but I figured it was worth it. Sure beat many other surrounding areas.

I found myself in Woodstock quite often. I decided to focus only on the small but quaint downtown. It proved to be difficult at times, but also rewarding. Soon I knew most of the shopkeepers. The one place I frequented, purely for pleasure, was Catskill Mountain Pizza.

Sometimes the interviews would go great and other times not as well, but there was always a hot chicken parmesan sub waiting for me if I had the cash. This started to become my routine. I always found it comforting. I even conducted a rather memorable phone interview there, well, a rather short and turbulent one.

The aura of Woodstock seemed to call to me. I could almost feel it grabbing me. Even before I went there I knew I would find some sort of comfort. It proved to be a place I felt at home. How we become drawn to these places in life is complicated. There is just something we connect to, but can’t really explain.

I like to think of it as an environmental love affair. I know Woodstock is one of mine. Well, I hope you have your own place to visit from time to time. At the least, I hope the picture makes your mouth water just a little. Oh, and I didn’t think to take a picture till after I was eating it, because it was hard to think of anything else at the time.

"Salem Off the Record" is a sub-division of Salem's Sanity dealing with topics that would not normally be discussed in the regular column and are written in a less formal manor. The observations of these non-newsworthy topics are here for your enjoyment and discussion.