Author: Hank Garfield

After the Storm

Hank Garfield

Welcome to the new and improved Slower Traffic, 2021 edition. I hope you like the changes. If you’re here for the first time, thanks for taking a look. Please allow me to briefly re-introduce myself, and the blog.

Two questions I get fairly often. Yes, I am the Henry Garfield who writes the Moondog novels; and yes, I am a descendent of the 20th U.S. president.  I use Henry for the books and Hank for the blog, but most of my friends call me Hank.

I’m also the guy who lives in Maine without a car. The last year my name appeared on a valid car registration was 2006. In my home community this is still sometimes met with incredulity. “How do you do it?” people ask. Slower Traffic was born from that question.

Continue reading “After the Storm” →

2020 Hindsight

Hank Garfield

I started this blog in 2015, which seems like a thousand years ago now. Barack Obama was still president, the United Kingdom was still a member of the European Union, and the Cubs were still lovable losers. I had not yet been to Bulgaria or dismasted a sailboat. And of course, COVID-19 had not yet swept the planet.

The premise of the blog was that we don’t all have to own cars, even in rural places like Maine, where I live; and that our communities and our world will be better off if we curb the proliferation of motor vehicles.

During the past ten months I’ve had time to give this some thought. Perhaps, in this contentious time, it’s not a bad idea for us to revisit the premises of our convictions, whatever they may be, and re-evaluate them, in light of changed circumstances.

I’ve written on many topics in this blog, but it’s usually related to cars, and the liberation of not owning one. Before I decided to go car-free for a year in 2007, I wasn’t sure it could be done, at least not in Maine. Regular readers will recognize the story: one year became fourteen, and the financial and lifestyle benefits have been substantial. 

Continue reading “2020 Hindsight” →

A Writer Writes about Writers Writing

Hank Garfield

No politics. No cars, trains, buses or bicycles. I’m too tired for any of that. November provided many challenges and anxieties, but I haven’t missed a calendar month since starting this blog in March 2015, and none of my excuses for skipping this one seem compelling.

One could say that teaching three writing classes on-line and trying to write a new novel in 30 days might get in the way of writing a blog post. But other people seem to manage more than one project at a time. I try to keep playing my guitar while there’s no one to listen, and I look at marine catalogues and on-line stores while my boat sits on stands, covered for the winter. 

There’s a thing in November, a challenge for writers to produce 1,666 words each day until the end of the month. It’s even got a name, National Novel Writing Month, and an acronym so unwieldy that I have to keep looking it up: NaNoWriMo. One would think an organization of and for writers might come up with something catchier. It’s like a good book with a lousy title. 

Continue reading “A Writer Writes about Writers Writing” →