To the editor:
“Jules” is a gentle comedy about loneliness and isolation among the nation’s elderly. We open on Milton (Ben Kingsley) addressing the Boontown Select Board. The town slogan, “A great place to call home,” confuses people, he says. Tourists might conclude that the town is a good place from which to call home. “We should change it to, ‘A great place to refer to as home,’” he suggests. “We need a crosswalk on Trent Avenue,” he continues, as his elected officials sit stone-faced. “And also,” he tells the board, “a UFO has crashed into my backyard and taken out my azaleas.”
What follows is a delightful story of a little blue man and the three elderly residents who find friendship through their efforts to protect him. I’d give it four out of five stars. But this isn’t a film review. It’s a letter about traffic safety.
The grammatical nitpicking sets up Milton as a comical crank. Even Joyce, his equally comical crank (Jane Curtin), berates him: your UFO story makes them “take all of us less seriously!” But the UFO is not imaginary, and Trent Avenue really does need a crosswalk, as we see later when Milton is walking home at dusk. (He is no longer mentally fit enough to drive a car.)
Milton represents older folks in small towns across America who struggle to be seen, to have their mobility needs addressed. That struggle was on display at the December meeting of Marblehead’s Traffic Safety Advisory Committee. Residents spoke passionately about long-standing concerns that had fallen on deaf ears. They pleaded for help. Chairman Gary Hebert, for his part, was generous with the committee’s time and stayed his gavel. The exchange was educational and in some sense productive. As the committee develops standard operating procedures to hear public concerns directly (as the town bylaw requires) these exchanges will become more productive still.
Perhaps one day a UFO will land in your azaleas, and, like Milton, a little blue man will emerge to help you find community. Until then, you might find it in our shared struggle for safer streets. Please contact the committee directly with any and all mobility concerns, questions, ideas. Call or email Kyle Wiley (781) 631-0000 or wileyk@marblehead.org and cc Thatcher Kezer kezert@marblehead.org. They will record your input and transmit it through Hebert to the committee.
Dan Albert
Leicester Road
