We and our predecessors made decisions. We did not choose a village bereft of trees, carpeted with houses built too close together, crisscrossed with wider and wider roads. We sacrificed profit and population. We were made fun of as stodgy and backward-looking. We were negatively compared to Lenox (“every Lenox has its Stockbridge”). That was okay with us; Lenox had its ideas, and we had our own ideas.
About those ideas, we were told we would become a backwater, passed by, and a financial failure. Is that what happened? Nope.
During COVID, we became the place the urbanites came in their flight to safety. Our population swelled. We had chosen, and what we had chosen made us the richest of the South County towns with the lowest tax rate. Why?
We held fast and saved what everyone else lost and now wanted.
In expressing what many felt, one city dweller got out of her car, twirled with her arms outstretched, and said, “I can breathe,”
As other villages grew and parking became a problem; as they grew and commercial sprawl along the Route 7 corridor engulfed them, we stood with signs in protest against ripping out the trees the edged the road to make way for another lane and one more motel. We lost, but we held fast in Stockbridge.
Held, past tense. Now we are losing ground (and trees) in Stockbridge. Hold fast. We once knew it is not really about money. It is about holding onto values. It is not about progress and keeping pace in the 21st century. It is about recognizing that no matter how much things change around us, we humans remain pretty much the same. We need love, dignified response, air to breathe, and the room to stretch out our arms.
Even as we seemed to prove our point, they continued to push to change our landscape. They did not respect our point of view. Okay, if they won’t give it; take it back. Take back our dignity, reclaim the belief that we were right, and we still are.
We believed: earn more or spend less – accept the boundaries – don’t borrow.
Protect what god made – don’t revere only manmade.
It is pride and desire make us gullible to the grifters; we are born with simple common sense.
Once, in Stockbridge, the working man stood just as tall at Town meeting as the rich man, and no one silenced the women.
Take it back – our ideas and our dignity. Both were earned.
Carole Owens, Executive Editor
Stockbridge Updates
