Gina Hyams moved to the Berkshires from the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, Dave, and their then 10-year-old daughter, Annalena, in June of 2005, to to live closer to Dave’s elderly parents, who were in Norfolk, Connecticut. They’d rented sight unseen what turned out to be a wreck of a house in isolated Sandisfield, Massachusetts. That first summer was brutal. I hated having to drive 20 minutes to buy milk and I was bored with what I perceived to be the monotonous green of the Berkshire woods. My fantasy of rural life was that neighbors would knock on our door bearing pie. It wasn’t like that. When I knocked on their doors, most of the neighbors greeted me with frosty New England reserve. Annalena turned 11 that first October, and she didn’t know any kids well enough to invite them to a birthday party. It was sad. We were sad.
Fast forward to the next fall, though, and everything was better. We’d settled into our own home in Housatonic, where it only takes three minutes to get to Aberdale’s for milk. Annalena’s new friends secretly pooled their money to give the city girl a bike for her 12th birthday. Shortly after that, we got a dog, an English Springer Spaniel named Goose, whose required daily walks opened my eyes to the profound subtle beauty of the Berkshire landscape. I’ve found that diversification is key to cobbling together a living in the country (a.k.a. doing the “Berkshire Shuffle"). I work as a freelance writer, editor, and arts publicist. It’s been an honor to work with so many of the region’s cultural institutions: Berkshire Crafts Fair, Berkshire Grown, Berkshire Playwrights Lab, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Hancock Shaker Village, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, The Mount, and Spencertown Academy Arts Center. I’ve done pro bono work on behalf of Berkshire International Film Festival, Great Barrington Fairgrounds, Monument Mountain Regional High School, and WBCR-lp Berkshire Community Radio, and will soon serve as a volunteer mentor with Railroad Street Youth Project. In nine short years, I’ve gone from being a complete outsider to being a veritable pillar of the community.
My current book project is titled The Tanglewood Picnic: Music and Outdoor Feasts in the Berkshires. I envision it as a collective love letter to the quintessential Berkshire summer experience of picnicking on the lawn. The gift book will celebrate both over-the-top Tanglewood picnics with candelabras, bouquets, and little red wagons filled with champagne AND beloved simple picnics featuring classic deli sandwiches. I’m asking the public (meaning YOU, dear reader) to submit personal snapshots of Tanglewood picnics, along with favorite Tanglewood picnic recipes and tips from all eras of the festival’s eight-decade history. For details about how to contribute your memories, please see TanglewoodPicnic.com. There’s so much that’s idyllic about living here, particularly when news in the greater world is often so grim. I feel grateful every day waking up in our peaceful little house in the woods.
