| When Knighthood was in Flower
In Jersey City Heights Atop the tail end of the rocky Palisades, which line the Hudson River on the west side across from New York City, lies a section of Jersey City called the Heights. Roads run down from the Heights, through the last outcropping of the Palisades, into the back of nearby Hoboken. In the 80's, my husband and I often walked those roads. At the time they were deserted and overgrown. Ruined factories stood along them, with the ubiquitous ailanthus trees pushing trough their windows. The area was also used heavily for illegal dumping. The oddest things became part of the landscape. Like a boat, with its prow cutting through waves of old boards and devolving carpets. No doubt the area was an environmental disaster. But it was also beautiful, like a post industrial Angkor Wat. The ailanthus trees seemed to need so little actual earth. Ailanthus originally came from China, where they were called Tree of Heaven. And there was a hint of the divine in this forgotten pocket of urban land... Carola Von Hoffmanstahl, 1984 |
