walking in poughkeepsie…
For this assignment I choose to walk down Washington Street partly because I’m a freshman and don’t have a car. The beginning of the walk began with my friends and I witnessing a car accident on Route 9 between a teenage girl and an older man. We continued walking and noticed kids playing and swinging on a playground and many people going out for a walk. A variety of cars drove by from old, almost falling apart cars to nice, freshly painted mustangs, mostly all blasting loud music. All of the side streets we passed were mostly residential and there were little kids running around, most of the people were from African American descent. We walked passed gas stations and little cafes. An ambulance passed as well as many motorcycles and people walking dogs. There was a lot of litter on the ground and at some points my friends and I did feel uncomfortable walking around. Some of the people seemed to be looking at us oddly and we tried to rush passed them. We also had about 6 or 7 cars beep at us and just continued. On our way home we passed a man walking with a woman who we suspected was homeless. He was pushing a shopping cart filled with random things and he started telling us that we dropped a dollar and pointed to the ground. We all looked to where he was pointing and there was nothing there. He started laughing hysterically said through his mouth with no teeth, “Got you, got you!” and walked away. This was between 3 and 4 in the afternoon on Sunday, September 23rd. Overall, I was fairly uncomfortable with this assignment and walking around in downtown Poughkeepsie, especially because I am a freshman and not familiar with the area. Before we started walking, we went to the Campus Deli and asked the man who worked there what would be a good street to go on and he recommended Washington. I think the things that I saw were a good representation of what the everyday is like in downtown Poughkeepsie.
