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–– Roy M. Goodman
GREAT BARRINGTON – For many tourists, finding joy in a trip to the Berkshires may be as easy as walking into the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce in Great Barrington.
“It’s small and doesn’t look like much from the outside but the soul of the place is huge, said Joy Lyon, the manager of the Chamber’s visitor center. “It’s a little oasis where people can take a deep breath and relax.”
Carol Shulman, from Baltimore, an artist and writer, said she and her husband came to the Berkshires for “the holistic culture – looking for something “left of center.”
“You’ve come to the right place,” Lyon told them. “Twenty years ago, a woman couldn’t walk down Railroad Street without a chaperone. Now it’s the little SoHo of the Berkshires.”
Barbara, a New York City resident who would only give her first name, said, “Tanglewood drew us, the culture kept us and we’ve been coming back to the Berkshires every year for 36 years – part of our heart is here.”
Mike Greenwald from Long Island put it differently.
“I don’t come up here to think,” he said. “I come up here just to be.”
Sara Holliner first came to the Berkshires when she attended Camp Lenore in Hinsdale as a child. Holliner and her family considered a weekend retreat in the Poconos and the Catskills but chose the Berkshires for the “combination of nature, culture, ski areas — and because there are no bridges to cross to get here.”
Frank and Lee Landford from Dover, N.H., stopped in for directions on their way to Hancock Shaker Village. They were just happy to have found Briarwood, because their two “babies,” Ceili and Piper, Maltese and Peekapoo brother and sister dogs, were welcome there.
Those visitors provided a brief snapshot of Lyon’s interaction with the many people who come to the visitor’s center seeking advice nearly every day.
Lyon, born and raised in Liberia, West Africa, moved to Chicago when she was 13 and to the Berkshires when she got married. She became the manager of the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce 12 years ago through “serendipity.” Her job, she said, is to “match expectations and needs with member services or products” and her mission is to “give something to everyone who comes through the door and keep the home fires burning.”
She gave Donald Crossman, from Virginia, directions to his uncle’s place in Worthington. She gave Lois Hartwick, owner of the Carriage House on Route 23, a hug when Hartwick dropped by to see if Lyon needed help on a busy Saturday. She gave a Chamber neighbor advice to plan his visitor’s arrival time due to the closing of Route 7 for the parade on Sunday, and she gave Bill and Julie Gauld, RV campers from Sterling, time to look around and confer with each other before she asked if they needed help.
Asking Lyon for something – a favor, directions, the new phone book, suggestions and advice – is like doing her a favor.
“I feel like the E.F. Hutton of the community,” she said.
It is true that when Lyon speaks, people listen. It is also true that she is one of those rare individuals who listen when people speak. And some of the questions she’s heard have provided her with many entertaining entries in the journals she keeps in hopes of writing a book one day:
“I just booked a room. Do your motels have indoor plumbing?”
“I’m prone to nosebleeds. What is your elevation?”
“How much is the half price on your free tickets?”
“What is this rash on my foot?”
“I'm here. Now what?”
“I never met a tourist I didn’t like,” Lyon said. “They are the same people we are. The only difference is that they are not blessed to live here so it is imperative that we share our blessing with them. Doing so, we make the space we are in twice better.”
Lyon’s favorite memory is of Judy, a tourist from Connecticut who stops by once a year to say hello.
“Judy was going through a bad time a few years ago and needed a place to stay where she could relax and reflect on which path to take in her life,” Lyon said.
She sent her to a motel with the perfect sitting area for thinking and because she thought Judy would be comfortable with the motel owner, who was a great listener.
“She was so pleased with my advice that she came to me again and asked me to suggest a restaurant,” Lyon said. “She was uncomfortable going out alone and wanted somewhere she wouldn’t feel out of place. I sent her to a little café, where I knew they would make her feel at home.”
According to Lyon, Judy walked past the café three times that evening, peeking into the window. It was crowded and there was only one seat left at the bar. With Lyon’s advice ringing in her ears, Judy took a deep breath and entered the restaurant. She sat down next to a local man and they had a conversation.
“The last time I heard from Judy, she and this man she met that night were still having long conversations because Judy came back to introduce him as her soul mate,” Lyon said. “I was so glad that I was there at that time and that place to point her in the direction of happiness.”
Giving directions is an important part of Lyon’s job. She directed a man from New York to the local justice of the peace once Massachusetts had legalized gay marriage. She pointed hunters in the direction of wild turkey to hunt for their Thanksgiving dinner. She aimed the female Harley rider, dressed in black, toward the Methodist church. And she helped map a route for the bus driver who, when he made his scheduled stop in front of the Chamber to pick up the passengers bound for New York City, confessed to Joy, “I’m new. How do I get to New York City?”
When Lyon first took the job, she said she knew “where Big Y, the dry cleaner and the thrift store were. I didn’t know Norman Rockwell from Chesterwood or north from south.” She now has all the important information and she is more than happy to share it. She knows who has ticket deals, how to get to the llama farm, where to rent a canoe, the best places to ride a bicycle, which hotels still have rooms available and that “It’s not a good idea to stop in the middle of a crosswalk on Route 7 to get a better signal on your cell phone.”
She said, “I studied and I learned and I still love the job as much today as I loved it on my first day.”
Merry Oislander, who runs Lakeside Terrace in Monterey, described Lyon as “the essence of fun.” Bill Harwood of Coffingbostwick, who has known Lyon for 30 years, said she is “extremely able and always willing to help people.”
On his way to Virginia, Chris Sheehan from Ohio stopped by for the bus schedule. He had just completed the first leg of his Appalachian Trail hike at Mount Greylock. He said the first thing he learned his first day on the trail was “how out of shape I am.”
“But the second thing I learned,” he said, “was that if I really buckle down and stick to something, I can do it.” Lyon admires the hikers she meets and always asks them the most important thing they have learned in their journey. She said the majority say how little they need to be happy.
When she was born, Lyon’s father, Dr. Harold Percy Lyon, wrote her a letter. In it, he said, “I promise I will make your life interesting but I can’t promise you happiness – that is yours to choose.”
Lyon said, “I find myself in the moments I’m in now doing and being everything that I love to do and be. Even when things go wrong, I’m almost always happy — on the inside, where it counts.”
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