Reserved

[Payson Park Reservoir, Belmont; 6pm, 10/25/07]

When we came to see the apartment (and promptly wrote out deposit checks) in June, our landlord A told us we were right down the street from the Cambridge Reservoir, where we could go walking, jogging, take the dog for a walk, etc. I was thinking of course of a pleasant path alongside open water sparkling in the sunshine. One day after work before we moved, I drove over and parked at the end of our street, got out and hiked up the embankment to see the reservoir -- a grassy mound surrounded by a high railed fence. Where's the water??

[Payson Park Reservoir; 7:30pm, 7/30/07]

Turns out the water is in tanks below ground.

Cambridge owns and treats its own water supply...The "finished" water is pumped 1/2 mile away to our underground storage tanks at Payson Park Reservoir in Belmont. The hill on which Payson Park Reservoir sits provides the elevation (176' above sea level) needed to deliver good water pressure in the 190 miles of water mains that carry water down each street in Cambridge to you.

There is a well-worn path that circumnavigates the park (navigare, to sail, being ironic). Joggers sometimes use it like a track, going round and round, but more frequently I see dog-walkers and young families ambling along overlooking the tree-lined residential streets below. It doesn't take very long to go around.

[Gatehouse and path at Payson Park Reservoir; 7/30/07]

This underground reservoir brings to mind many things. Hidden reserves. The traditional reserve of New Englanders. The way emotions are sometimes kept hidden, even bottled up -- water symbolizing the emotions. The idea of still waters running deep, the complex and interesting stuff all hidden below the surface. The difference between our inner being and outer persona. My particular struggle in reconciling the two -- the more outgoing side summoned up for socializing, pretty much requisite for dating, and the difficulty in finding deeper connection. The deeper side takes time to articulate, requires circling round, dowsing, before touching a vein, then circling out again to the surface and leaving it be. It's not for everyone.

This morning I was awake very early, before the sun came up, but eventually managed to hitch a ride on the next wave down and fell asleep again. I dreamed of open waters sparkling in the sun, fish swimming through the shallows, kindly strangers, a shared affection.

Comments

[Tall Girl]

(o)

[Lucy]

I like that, about hitching a ride on the next wave down!
What a strange place this is, slightly uncanny, the architcture rather Old World. and strange that people go walking near the water even though the water isn't visible, rather unsatisfying...

[leslee]

Thanks for stopping by, TG.

Lucy: It is odd architecture. All I could find online was that the Payson Park Reservoir was built in 1896-1897. And it is strange to walk there, although it's an alternative to all the residential streets in the area.

[dave]

A tall fence surrounds
The underground reservoir.
Why not a moat?

[leslee]

:-)

[Lorianne]

This is a wonderful post, Leslee: one of your best, I think, and one of my personal favorites. There's so much here on so many levels, both on the surface & buried.

I find it interesting that these days, you're circumambulating a buried reservoir while I'm walking the dog on a now-defunct aqueduct. There's something here, I think, about waterways: I'm sure either or both of us will revisit this.

[Lorianne]

PS: These pictures remind me of the Chestnut Hill Reservoir, which is similarly gated. But at least there the path snakes along the mound around the reservoir, so you can see water as you're walking.

[Sara]

Nice post.

These buildings -- and there are lots of weird little things like this all over Massachusetts -- always make me think of the computer game Myst, which absorbed a shocking amount of our life as a couple once upon a time, but which I ultimately walked away from because it was just such a sterile little world with no people in it and no animals, just buildings like these and other artifacts.

[leslee]

Lorianne: Thank you! Glad you liked it. And it is interesting that we're both walking over and around waterways of sorts. It's resonant in ways I haven't entirely, um, tapped. I'm also wondering if there are similarly styled buildings in the reservoir system, or elsewhere around the area - these really startled me when I saw them. I'm unfamiliar with the architecture.

Sara: Thanks. I never played Myst, but I understand it can be a real time-sink for people.

[rr]

Dowsing. Yes. Lovely post.

[leslee]

Thanks, RR.

[bob welch]

I lived down the street from the resrvoir when i was little from 1964-1968. back then, the reservoir was filled with water where the grass now exists. favorite part of all was to go sliding down the side of the hill...in summer on open cardboard boxes and in the winter on sleds! great memories!!