Posts from the Pampas

Dispatch #8. The Sidewalks of Suardi

For those of you who prefer looking at pictures rather than reading, this is your kind of article. I’m still in the “city” of Suardi, whose main landmark is the church which sits opposite the town square.

Why do I use the term “city” in quotes? Well Suardi, which has a population of 8,000, has the feel of a pueblo. But in the last year it was officially given city status by the government.

From a design perspective, one of the first things which caught my eye in Suardi were the sidewalks. Yes, there are your generic concrete and brick walkways.

But these are in the minority. Why opt for the ordinary. when you can indulge in your artistic whims?

If you are like me, with your field of vision focused downward, walking in these small Pampas towns like Suardi, Franck and Santa Clara is like a never ending art show. Some sidewalks have recurring geometric themes. The circle is a particularly popular motif.

The one on the far evokes memories of the lollipop-like frescoes on the Huntington Hartford Museum, which had a short run in the 1960's. The building still stands in Columbus Circle in New York City.

A brief digression. Huntington Hartford was the grandson of the founder of the Greater Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, more commonly known as A & P. What’s A & P, you millennials may ask? For the first half of the 20th century, A & P was the biggest supermarket chain in the country. (I used to buy their post-freshness donuts, which ran 16 cents per dozen, when I was in my twenties. What a deal!).

Huntington Hartford inherited a ton of dough from his grandfather (estimates range from $90 million to $500 million in uninflated 1950's currency). What did he do? Well, don’t rely on the Wikipedia entry, which is a puff piece. Hartford blew his vast inheritance on unsuccessful business ventures, quixotic forays into the arts and four expensive divorces, capping things off with chronic drug abuse. A classic riches to rags story. To quote the great opening line of one obituary, “In the annals of big spending with little to show for it, Huntington Hartford occupies a special place.”

But wait! I promised this piece would be light on writing. Back to the pictures. There are sidewalks with rough pebbled surfaces, which inflict painful abrasions on those who stumble upon them. For homeowners who like a brick pattern without any need for weeding, there’s a tile for you. Like something with a southwest (US, that is) flavor? Well, how about the tiles on the right.

Let’s say your not as rigid as me but more creative, like my wife. Why not depart from the traditional geometric styles and create wholly new patterns.

What if your marriage is about to founder over a dispute — brick or cement, gray tiles or red ones? People in Suardi have come up with the following creative solutions.

There are tiles with smooth glazed surfaces. Very attractive, unless you try walking on them after a rain. I think these tiles are unlikely to catch on in the US. They’d spawn too much litigation. (Actually, two years ago Suardi passed a law prohibiting the installation of any new glazed tile sidewalks).

And speaking of litigation, how about the ups and downs of the walkways in this town. Not a good place to walk around with your nose buried in the newspaper. This brought back to mind some of the bi-level sidewalks we encountered in Granada, Nicaragua.

There are walkways which feature subtle gradations of color, like the one below on the left. And then there are rather bland ones, like the one on the right. Why did I include the latter? Well …

…

… It reminded me of the first suit that I bought on my own. I was in my second year of college. There was a small men’s clothing store on the corner of University Avenue and Francis Street. A sign in the store trumpeted a 50% off suit sale. These were not exactly Yves St. Laurent products, but they did feature a revolutionary fabric — double knit polyester. A far superior product to wool or cotton, or so we thought. It doesn’t wrinkle! It stretches! (They neglected to add that it doesn’t breathe). And I found a stunner, a mustard colored ensemble with a subtle raised pattern, buried in the rack. Bell bottomed, of course.

At the end of the school year, I brought the suit back home to New York and proudly showed it to my mother. My mother was a rather blunt person. She made a Herculean effort to restrain herself, but it was for naught. You could easily read the expression of profound disapproval, coupled with astonishment, on her face.

I tried to find a picture of the suit on the internet. This is the closest I found:

Unlike Mr. Bowie’s, had no cuffs and was perhaps a little more muted in color. But looking back, it seems like I was not in bad company, if your taste runs towards androgynous celebrities.

My memory is a bit dim, but I think I actually bought two suits from that store. The other had a greenish tinge with subtle hints of electric blue running through it. A real looker!

The sidewalk below is one of my favorites. No, it does not relate to my past sartorial purchases. What inspired it? The answer lies somewhere in this dispatch…