That was then

Old South Church at Copley Square at sunset. This United Church of Christ congregation was first organized in 1669.

— Photo by Rhododendrites

“Boston – wrinkled, spindly-legged, depleted of nearly all her spiritual and cutaneous oils, provincial, self-esteeming – has gone on spending and spending her inflated bills of pure reputation, decade after decade.”

— Elizabeth Hardwick (1916-2007), literary critic, short-story writer and novelist, in 1962

‘Every stone is a skull’

Oak Grove Cemetery, Bath, Maine.

— Photo by Seasider53

“Here, in Maine, every stone is a skull and you live close to your own death. Where, you ask yourself, where indeed will I be buried? That is the power of those old villages: to remind you of stasis.’’

— Elizabeth Hardwick (1916-2007) in The Collected Essays of Elizabeth Hardwick. She spent much time in Castine, Maine, during summers, especially during her marriage to poet Robert Lowell.