In the rain tonight I am remembering a December afternoon when snow fell heanily, unexpectedly, and I walked up a road I could suddenly see only for a few blocks ahead, on my way to the Williamstown holiday walk. Years ago the holiday walk used to fall on the weekend when the college let out for the holidays, and students high on finals and too little sleep and the radio station's all-night trivia would wake at 4 p.m., as the afternoon grew dark, to come down to Spring Street while the luminaries were lit and their friends sang a cappella on the side walks. That gala feeling only comes with people and pine sap and the scent of candle wax.

My mom once got talking with the woman who runs her favorite independent bookstore. The bookstore owner told her that people would come into t...

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