Tonight I’m feeling my Boston roots. My godmother did my family history on both sides of the family and the biggest surprise (well, except for the fact that I’m as caucasian as Wonderbread, depsite my begging her to find someone, somewhere who might dispute that, LOL), is that both sides of my family go back to the Revolution.
Not such a surprise on my dad’s side, but complete shocker on my mom’s side. I’d give you the full genealogy, but that would be boring. Regardless, I’m still the proud granddaughter of men who were Italian and Russian Ukrainian* immigrants.
I would have loved to be around for this event this weekend – my beloved Gram (paternal grandmother) would not have missed it if she were still with us. I get my love of history and writing from her.
Anyway, I thought on this weekend of historical importance, I’d share some of the events of the day in Massachusetts.
*That’s a much longer and even more surprising story…
None of this erases the troubling and shameful history of how this country was colonized, but that’s a blog post for another day.
This is a totally open thread, and if you attended any protests today, bravo! You’re welcome to share your stories here (although I’m certain WG would also appreciate any photos you have to share this coming week).
Squishable Saturday Night Open Thread
NotMax
Afraid the amount of time I can stand (much less march) is significantly more limited than when I did so during the Viet Nam war,
Melancholy Jaques
Feel obligated to give a shout out to William Dawes & Dr Samuel Prescott who also raised the alarm on that fateful night. Perhaps their names were more difficult to rhyme or maybe didn’t scan well.
TaMara
@Melancholy Jaques: And after Revere was captured, they evaded capture and continued on to sound the alarm.
HopefullyNotcassandra
And the Longfellow poem was written a few months before the Civil War to awake the northern revolutionary dead and the slave entombed to help save the Union as a place where people could live, speak and breathe free.
https://www.biography.com/history-culture/a64339312/paul-reveres-ride
I love this country! It is such a tragedy we are currently under the rule of a man who so clearly hates everything that makes us so different from the countries that preceded U.S.
Thank you for this post, descendant of those who dared dream humans could be free !
Happy 250 anniversary to Revere and company too
John Revolta
A somewhat different take
-Robert Benchley, 1924
Another Scott
My J grew up in Concord. I’ve been there with her a few times.
Everyone who gets to Boston should walk the Freedom Trail and then go out to the North Bridge in Concord and see the National Historical Park there. It’s an interesting place, and rather small when one thinks about epic battles. A relatively small number of people changed history! There are lots and lots of wildflowers in the fields there now, so it’s beautiful in other respects, too.
And many/most of the buildings are still there. 250 years really isn’t that long ago!
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Joy in FL
Thanks for this post. I’m sleepy now, so I’m leaving the tab open and will read it in the morning.
They Call Me Noni
@Another Scott: We vacationed in Boston about 20 years ago and did walk the Freedom Trail. Also toured Paul Revere’s house and the Old North Church. Wandered around the campus of Harvard. So much history to see. It was a good vacation, lots to see and appreciate. We didn’t go to the North Bridge though.
David_C
@HopefullyNotcassandra: I love this country, too.
New England is special; even though I’m not from there, my roots there are deep, going back to 1620 and successive English (Puritan) migrations. My genes are thoroughly rooted in northwestern Europe, so I may be even more vanilla than our dear TaMara.
My ancestral, Reformed Protestant tradition notes that we are all sinners, and warns against power being in the hands of one or a few persons. Whether in England, France, or the Spanish Netherlands, my ancestors went against the authority of kings and bishops. Yes, our history is complicated, and my frontier-seeking ancestors were a complicated bunch, but sometimes we do live our stated ideals and move in the right direction. New England, and regions settled by New Englanders, have a history of reform movements.
Today will be busy: singing for two services and then off to visit the children and the 7.98 grandchildren.
zhena gogolia
Love that first image!
cmorenc
Alas, on my mom’s side, the family tree leads to folks who fought for the Confederacy, and on my dad’s side, folks who fought for Germany in WW1 and WW2, although to be fair to my mom and dad, she served in the Navy Waves in WW2 and he in the Army Air Corps as a pilot, albeit with the distinction that he never saw a day of combat, and one of his two brothers actually did see combat at the Battle of Remagen in the Army Corp of Engineers (the other bro served at a communications station in the Aleutians). I still have my mom and dad’s respective dress uniforms, crisp and neat enough to pass inspection today. And my dad’s old AAC leather flight jacket.
SFAW
Umm, not to pick nits, but Wonderbread was actually invented in the Middle East.
Yes, of course I’m kidding. Everyone knows it was invented in what is now Guangdong.
Scamp Dog
@cmorenc: I have my Dad’s Eisenhower jacket, from his time in the Army, after the war, though. I still wear it once in a while!
Matt McIrvin
I think it’s a little ironic that the protests this time around were muted in the Boston area because of the preparations for the Boston Marathon, which I think happens when it does ultimately *because* of our connection to the Revolution. I was doing a slightly premature Easter celebration with family.
Things are probably going to get uglier from here on as Trump gets less popular and more violent. I need to get out there again though, and we’re far from done protesting around here.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: I have been to Boston to meet my true love, and we all walked the Freedom Trail. It was awesome, as in awe-inspiring, to see all that history and remember, I mean really remember, why and how our country was founded. To see the bold truths they spoke out loud, even when it was surely dangerous. Our country’s founders were bad-ass
That was 20 years ago, and the Freedom Trail is seared into my memory.
H.E.Wolf
My latest batch of vintage (lick-and-stick) stamps for GOTV postcards feature the Old North Church* – part of the “Americana” series issued around the time of the Bicentennial.
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/fI4AAOSwXhZZ3h-K/s-l960.webp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americana_series
* Pronounced by my MA relatives as the “Old Nôth Cheuhch” (it’s hard to spell the lack of an “r” in “church”).
H.E.Wolf
@WaterGirl:
Amen; and thanks for the reminder that – in spite of falling far short of a perfect union for all – the Founding Parents were admirable in many ways.
We too can be badass. And will be.
rikyrah
I watched different TikTok videos on this, and got emotional.
This hits different in this era we are now in 🥺🥺😔😔
CaseyL
I haven’t been to Boston, but back in the Aughts I went to Philly for a vacation, and visited the Revolutionary War historic sites there. It was more interesting than I expected. ‘
See, I lived in Philly as a kid, and was in elementary school when they still did field trips to places like the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Carpenters Hall, and Betsy Ross’s house. So I got all of that as a child, and sorta-kinda remembered it
But it was a very different experience revisiting as an adult. I knew a lot more context, understood a lot more of the stakes. When the tour guide talked about how the independence plotters had to be careful carrying documents around, because even a meeting notice could get them arrested and jailed for treason, it felt like I was hearing the story for the first time.
I think about their bravery and resolve – and also think about the probable variety of their motives. Being “in it” for mere social or financial advancement when the potential penalty is being executed for treason… kind of weeds out the dilettantes, I should think.