Jackson Myrick’s Personal Blog #2: It’s a Wonderful Day in This Neighborhood

There are some places in the world that call to the individual, bidding them to drop the pen and smooth the rough edges of a hectic schedule. For me 15^th East and 15^th South is one such place.

The street is situated in the midst of a mainly residential area within Westminster Heights, the monotony of living quarters broken only by Westminster and 15^th and 15^th. Monotony is not quite the right word however; spectrum is more appropriate. There is a gloriously relaxed feel to the individual streets, despite the imposed order of the grid system and the relatively narrow width which makes parking difficult. Whether that peaceful demeanor should be attributed to the style of houses, coloration, or the intimate nature of construction remains unknown, perhaps because it is an amalgamation of all three traits.

As you drive down 14^th south and enter the small little strip of shops that makes up 15^th and 15^th the canopy of trees thins out and opens into the street, a visually striking feature that always convinces me to take that road in. Each time I go there I wander about the establishments, peeking inside of Mazza to see how crowded it is or checking in on my friends at Caputo’s to see if they have some new cheese I may sample before settling into the comforting atmosphere of The King’s English. The entire strip has a vibrant placidity about it, an good natured amicability that permeates the cold face of business. It is within these nooks and niches that radiate warm smiles I begin to feel entirely at ease and drift into a dreaming state where my normally tempestuous mind and biting words regress to a meditative mellowness the memory of which makes me wistful that I cannot attain it at will. The location has ceased to function as a shopping venue and instead exists as an extension of the surrounding neighborhood, whose occupants welcome strangers over their threshold with sincerity and warmth.