Advertisement
Published: October 27th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Hey, all you friends and relatives, relative friends, and friendly relatives, we found out that we're not homesick, but we're friendsick. Give us a call or e-mail us about what's happening back home or in your lives. Like how are you doing, Marna? (775) 450-6685 or rscott@pyramid.net.
Next, I must apologize for the spelling of Plimoth Plantation. I had it right in front of me and put a "u" where they didn't! For all you Dayton teachers, I almost bought two Plimoth Plantation DVD's to solve our old video problem, but I didn't. 😊 There were several school buses filled with children of all ages on field trips to Plimoth and to the Mayflower. Now, I always liked field trips and felt they were very valuable, though exhausting. But I have to be honest. Seeing those teachers and those kids didn't make me miss taking kids on field trips at all! Rich didn't miss it either!
On the way out of town when we stopped for fuel, we asked the gas station attendant why the school buses had a company name on them. We thought maybe a company bought some buses to transport workers, like they do to the mines in
Elko. No. the bus runs are contracted out to a company, and operate in about eight different towns. A few towns still run their own buses, but the trend is to contract the routes out. This company has 37 buses that run three times a day - at noon for the kindergarteners, too. Thier buses are about two years old, and they can't be more than 10 years old unless they have a special inspection. The contracts are put out to bid. The company that's running the buses took a hit this year with the fuel prices because, obviously, the high prices were not in their bid. We drove north to Lexington and Concord. (Hi, Janet P., Barbara P., and the J.M. Guthes) It was overcast, cold, and occasionally drizzly, so we figured it was a good day to go inside museums, etc. Our first stop was the Ralph Waldo Emerson House. It wasn't open, but I took a a picture. It was wonderful just to be at his house. He was such a great thinker.
Just up the block was Orchard House, where Louisa May Alcott lived for years. We took the tour. It was well-done and we got
to see the whole house.
What an interesting family! The real Alcotts were much more interesting than the Marches, who were certainly well-loved. Nancy really wanted to be like Jo in "Little Women", when she was a girl, and so did our Jo! Rich (I'm so surprised) wasn't quite as excited to be there! He doesn't think he read any of her books! Anyway, Louisa's father, Bronson, was quite the thinker about education, abolition, vegetarianism, and more. Her sister May was a gifted artist. One of her students sculpted the Minuteman statue AND the statue of Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial. Louisa was a nurse during the Civil War. Her mother was one of the first social workers, and she did bring home scarlet fever which led, eventually, to her daughter Elizabeth's death. Nancy bought Louisa's biography and is finding it fascinating. In the house, in Louisa's room is the little desk that her father made for her to write on, in a time when girls weren't supposed to have desks. Louisa was also the first woman to vote in Concord. What a woman!
We had lunch in cute little downtown Concord. Then we drove out to Walden Pond. It's
actually quite large. Now, people use it for swimming and boating like any other lake around. You could imagine Thoreau in his little cabin out there, thinking about and studying nature. Oh, that was a thrill for both of us, too. He was an influence on our young lives.
Next stop was the Minuteman National Park. We walked from the hill where the house of Major Buttrick stood. In a field down the hill, the Minutemen and the militia were mustering because Paul Revere's warning that the British were coming was heeded. (An aside from Rich: If the Minutemen had had Viagra, they could have been men of the hour!) groans 😞 The British were coming to seize their arms to try to keep down the fomenting rebellion. We walked on to the rebuilt North Bridge where the British were on one side and the militia and Minutemen were on the other. The British fired and killed two Minutemen, and Major Buttrick gave the order to fire back on them, killing two redcoats. A running skirmish continued all the way back to Boston, about 17 miles. The graves of the two British soldiers are right there by the bridge. What
a thrill to be at the site where the Revolution started! Emerson's grandfather lived in the house right next to the bridge and he was out there with the militiamen encouraging them. His wife watched from the house. Later, their grandson wrote the poem about the "shot heard round the world". This battle was considered the significant start to the war because both sides gave orders to fire. In Lexington, no one gave the order, but shots were fired anyway. So, on the east side of the bridge is an obelisk honoring the British soldiers, and on the west side of the bridge is a statue of the Minuteman honoring the Americans.
Nancy continued on to the Old Manse, the Emerson-Ripley house, and took the tour while Rich walked back with Daisy to drive over. It was a fascinating tour, too. Another amazing family. Ralph Waldo lived there for a time, and so did Nathaniel Hawthorne and his new wife. Thoreau planted a garden for them as a wedding gift. What a town! We bought books by Emerson and Hawthorne.
What a great day! Nancy was starting to have brain freeze in map-reading, so we thought it would be safest
to head back.
On the interstate, there were signs that said "Caution. Low salt area" The road crews had to use less salt near reservoirs and other sensitive areas where they didn't want the salt run-off to get into the drinking water. Then, they had to warn the drivers that there was less salt to melt the ice during their winter driving. They also had signs about "breakdown lanes". These were actual lanes on what we would call the shoulders, for people to pull over in if they broke down. BUT, there were additional signs that said "Okay to use breakdown lanes during rush hours" (and gave the times)! That made an extra driving lane, but oh boy, what if you DID break down! It was windy and cold and started to rain as we headed back to our little house.
We slept with visions of American history before our eyes.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.084s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 14; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0295s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Chris Koch
non-member comment
memories
Your pictures of the bridge and Concord remind me of my trip in high school. We couldn't walk near the bridge because the water was too high from spring rains. I just reviewed all of this with the fifth graders and am reading them Johnny Tremain. It may not make anything relevant for them but it sure does for me. Thanks for all of your writing I have so enjoyed reading your adventures, that is in between correcting papers :).