The weekend where everyone moves in Boston

Unlike most communities, Boston has a moving season. Initially, moving season came about because of the college schedules. Boston has a lot of colleges. It isn't a college town, it's a beerfest. Because so many students move out of the city in May, the summer is like a breath of fresh air. You can actually drive down streets in the Back Bay and get someplace in a reasonable amount of time. You might, if you are exceedingly lucky and talented and have a bumper sticker that says "Visualize Parking", find an on-street parking space. There are seats in restaurants, the lines at movie theatres are reasonable, and you can actually fit in a bar. Between families leaving in droves for weeks on the cape, and the absence of students, Boston actually becomes livable in the summer.



But like all good things, there is always an end in sight. That end is Labor Day Weekend. It starts out small, so you hardly notice. Linens & Things gets really crowded. Finding a parking space at Target becomes difficult. Anna's Taqueria has lines out the door. So does every ice cream shop in the area.

There is a whiff in the air. It's truck exhaust. The city has become the UHaul capital of the world. UHauls and their ilk double and triple park as people unload their stuff onto sidewalks crowded with garbage bags and old sofas.


The garbage is piled higher than the winter snow drifts and apartments change hands. Sometimes, as if by miracle, you even see a tradesman's van parked in front of some lucky person's apartment. This means his slumlord has been cited for some horrible indescretion and must, by law, actually take action instead of just taking rent. I know, it's a crime, isn't it?


In the suburbs, you see larger moving vans blocking driveways as crews load and unload gigantic trucks. People with out of state license plates appear in the streets. There's one from Washington State, a couple from Vermont, a bunch from New York, and even some from odd places like Alaska, Hawaii, and South Dakota. Everyone moves to Boston at least once in their lives, and if they do, it's most likely on Labor Day Weekend.


Most of the residents of the city know to clear out during the moving season. The traffic jams to the Cape and Maine start on Thursday, well before the long weekend even starts. Some very lucky folks take the whole week off. They do so knowing that upon their return there will be new neighbors, loud music pouring out of speakers set in windows, and those first Freshman parties with kegs hanging off balconies.



Ah yes, it's the sounds of fall in Boston. Welcome to the magic land of college, you newbies.

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