Pretty Oak-ay — Walking in Evanston
Field Notes
Sights
I witnessed a mother riding bikes with her two young children who looked to be 4–5 years old. The younger one still had training wheels on her purple bike.
An adorable yellow lab playing fetch with his owner on the front lawn. The yard was especially green except for some areas that had obviously been dug up by the puppy. The duo were playing with a tennis ball. Perhaps the pet likes to hid his treasures.
Smells
I smelled a neighbor grilling some kind of meat. He might’ve kept it on a bit too long or maybe he prefers his meals charred.
Unfortunately, along my walk there was smelly trash in an alleyway hiding behind a row of houses.
Sounds
There was a cacophony of construction noises next door. Machines, hammers, and drills along with the chattering people. I heard multiple languages from the construction crew including Spanish and what I believe to be Russian. I also heard some dialect from the Middle East or Northern Africa. It could be Farsi or Arabic.
Experiences
On Saturday, September 18th, 3:00 PM on Noyes Street in Evanston, I was walking under a tree and a black/dark brown squirrel dropped an acorn on me from a tree. He scampered away before I could get a picture, but the tree was beautiful with tons of long, leafy branches.
At 4:09 PM, I took a picture of an interesting, or terrifying, yard display. It shows a neon green man locked in a dog crate sporting a black sweatshirt and blue jeans. I assumed it was an early Halloween decoration but my aunt tells me it is a reference to the show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I have never seen the program but I will admit that I am intrigued.
Objects
I retrieved the small, light brown nut that the squirrel dropped. The time, date, and description are listed above.
I took my dog, Dottie Pickle, along for the stroll. She is a fiend for sticks so I recovered one of the many she claimed. This was again on Saturday, September 18th, around 3:45 PM on Pioneer Road.
My Walk
Solitary Stroller Response
Walking, lists, and cities go together because all three can be forever spanning outward. When one chooses to meander around town, there are endless possibilities for their next moves. We, as a class, witnessed this throughout our first week. It seemed as though we would never run out of places to visit. This corresponds to lists as well. For example, when I am making a list of my daily to-do’s, I can come up with hundreds of tasks I need to complete. An individual’s mind can spiral in many directions when told to make a list. Solnit assigns the same principle to cities; “Cities are forever spawning lists” (Solnit 202.) One can start at the very southern edge of a city and travel for hours before reaching the other side. Amongst that distance, there are paths winding every which way. The only limit is the legal boundary of that territory. When an individual hits that, they are granted the privilege of beginning again in a new location. Cities, lists, and walking share the characteristic of boundless opportunities.
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