[H/T to Curbed and to anonymous contributors]
This hasn’t been the easiest year for many, between elected officials stoking chaos, and then, everyone’s personal drama. It’s not unreasonable to find yourself out on the town, scrolling through your Twitter feed, enraged and fighting tears. If you are too tired to fight, you might be seeking an environment that either hides, normalizes, or accentuates your emotional status. Here are a few locales for sobbing when your neighborhood dive bar grows stale:
1. City Hall: Squat the side entrance steps while admiring the historical design through your tears. Motorists speed by on Arch Street and no one will notice your mascara-streaked cheeks.
2. Real Art Ways: Grab the corner of whichever room is in transition and let loose. Mistaken for performance art, you could even get applause.
3. On that theme, try emotional busking: sit on a bench in Bushnell Park and put out a hat.
4. I-91 Pedestrian Bridge: Ugly crying — hell, screaming — will be drowned out by the constant traffic passing below. You might be noticed if anyone looks up from texting while commuting home, but the odds are in your favor.
5. Spotlight Theatres: Go to an action flick, wait for a car chase, and let the watery ruckus begin. It’ll be too loud to hear you and nobody is looking anywhere except at the smashes on the screen. Alternate: choose
a sad movie and silently whimper. Right now, Mary Poppins Returns will fulfill that need.
6. Live theatre: Verklempt? It is entirely appropriate to bring your handkerchief to the theater.
7. If you want a low-key cry, go to a cemetery. Nobody will assume you are doing anything but mourning. For a pretty backdrop, head to Cedar Hill Cemetery. Be advised: you’d want to skip the Ancient Burying Ground. The grieving scheme would not be plausible.
8. Union Station: mock-mourn that friend going to NYC for the day; no one knows she is coming back after dinner.
9. In your car, stuck in traffic. Turn up the stereo and sob as loud as you want. People might think you’re singing. Do an “Everybody Hurts” reenactment at your own risk.
10. Along the Connecticut River: this works best on frigid days in the dead of winter when it is believable that the sharp, cold wind might be making your eyes water. Even better, if ice floes fill the river as in January 2018, the rumbling will mask any loud crying you need to do. Also, people are wimpy and mostly stay indoors when the temperatures drop below 30°.
Allie
Yearrrrrs ago when I worked on Main St, I had a “moment” at work and had to step outside to collect myself. I tried to console myself with a Coolatta from Dunkin, and let some tears flow on a bench next to the Old State House where the green was mostly empty. Of course a man walked by, was concerned, and asked me if I was OK. That was nice. When I went back to the office, my boss apologized for being an asshole. I have never cried at work since that day.
Another good spot these days might be the sculpture garden next to the MDC. Facing away from Main St of course.
Diana
I had a really good cry splayed across the steps of st. joseph’s cathedral on farmington once. Church was not in service and it was dark out, which added a bit of privacy. While I’m not a religious person, something about the Jesus pose on the front with outstretched arms seems a pose of humble vulnerability, which is definitely a component of any great public cry.
Behind the colt factory is another good contender although it might be too developed now to be as great.