The Bridges of Washington County

Everyone was all a-buzz was about “The Bridges of Madison County.” I was curious to see what all the fuss was about, so I decided to check it out of my local library, which was a tiny, one-room library serving two small communities in Washington County, PA, where I was living at the time. There was a 22-person waiting list. “Oh, we don’t have any copies of that on the shelf right now,” the clerk told me, “and we won’t for a long time.”

There was a copy of the book not two feet from me on a return cart, but I assumed out loud that it would be going to the next person on the list. The clerk suddenly became very serious. “Oh, you don’t want that one,” she said, with a clear disdain as though the book were contaminated in some way, “that’s a rental copy.”

Rental copy? This was a new one to me. I asked her about the rental rate. “Ten cents a day,” she said, shaking her head. I looked at the book. It was a very small book- not too much thicker than a dime itself. It was Friday, I had the whole weekend ahead of me, and I was a pretty fast reader. How long could it take? I decided to splurge, and checked out the book.

I took the book home and settled down with it after dinner. I read it in one sitting, finishing it in a couple of hours. I returned it to the library the next morning, paid my dime, and went on my way. Let me tell you, the book and I were both worth it. It was a perfect little romance novel.

SPOILER ALERT – do not read further if you’ve not read the book and don’t want to know how it turns out. I should tell you that actually reading the book shouldn’t take much longer than reading the rest of this blog.

You see, Robert Kincaid, a loner photographer for National Geographic is on assignment to photograph the covered bridges of Madison County, Iowa, when he gets lost, and happens upon Francesca, a lonely Italian housewife, lounging on the porch of her farmhouse. She is bored because her husband and children happen to be away at the State Fair for the weekend. Robert stops to ask directions, and, well, one thing leads to another, and they end up having a deep, meaningful affair and a lot of sex for the rest of the weekend. Ultimately Francesca knows that she cannot betray and destroy her family and sadly bids farewell to Robert, who moves on. How romantic, how sad, how noble!

My sister had also read the book, and she and I were talking one day about the plausibility of the story. Forget the moral considerations of their love affair. They are fictional characters in a romance novel – certainly we can’t hold them to the same standards as real people. However, what were the chances that Robert would happen upon Francesca in the first place?

I insisted that it could happen in real life – heck, it could happen to anyone. You know, some photographer could get lost while trying to find the 21 covered bridges in Washington County- this was before all those computerized mapping services and GPS. I had been lost in Washington County a few times myself since moving there some years earlier. While you’d never catch my family showing their livestock at the State Fair (we didn’t have any livestock, unless you counted our little terrier mutt, Zero) they could have been away for the weekend at a Yes concert or something. Maybe I wasn’t a housewife but I was of Italian descent. I was interrupted by my sister’s laughter. “You would never be hanging out on your front porch – you never spend anytime outside,” she said. Okay, she had me there.

We weren’t done with Robert and Francesca yet. We set about casting the movie. She suggested Isabella Rossellini as Francesca, and I knew that Kris Kristofferson would be a great Robert Kincaid. Perfect- ideal casting!! When the time came, obviously Isabella and Kris weren’t available because they cast Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood instead. I did see the movie when it was broadcast on network TV. From 8 pm to 11 pm one Sunday night. Three hours?? Even with commercials added, that was a stretch. Not that much happened in the book, really. It felt like they were playing Robert and Francesca’s love affair out in real time. I thought it would never end. It actually took me longer to watch the movie than it had taken me to read the book.

In case this whetted your appetite for covered bridges, the 39th Annual Covered Bridge Festival in Washington and Greene Counties will be held September 19 and 20, 2009. For more information and maybe even directions, check out the website, http://visitwashingtoncountypa.com/outdoor.php?select=washbridgefest.