In Massachusetts, Economy Hits Home

— -- STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. -- It's hard to feel further from Wall Street out here on the rails -- as we roll past the lush green and picturesque towns in Western Massachusetts.

But the economic turmoil that's rocking so much of the country is evident -- in the empty, rusting buildings that dot the landscape, and mostly in the conversations we have when we climb off the train.

Even in gorgeous Stockbridge -- a liberal enclave, with a tourist economy that hasn't been hit the same way so many other parts of the country have -- the unease is real.

I commented to Connie Montgomery, a retiree who lives in Stockbridge, about how far we felt from Wall Street on a perfect day in this Norman Rockwell town -- as we got ready for a brief concert featuring James Taylor and Yo-Yo Ma.

"Oh yeah -- but we're not," Montgomery said. "There's a lot of retired people who depend on investments, and it's just very shaky."