I know many people find history boring but history was always my favorite subject in school. I’m a creative type and I think to me, history has always felt like a collection of stories rather than a list of dates.
The American Revolution is such a wild period in world history isn’t it? It wasn’t common practice at the time to decide you’d had enough with your mother country and create a written declaration listing all of the reasons why you felt you were being treated unfairly and why, therefore, you’ve made the choice to become independent. We opted right then and there that we did not want to be ruled by a king. After the war, when it was time to create our very own form of government, we created a system of checks and balances to ensure that no singular person would ever have sole power over the people. These checks and balances are being tested more and more in this country every single day and it was very humbling to stand where true patriots like Paul Revere stood 250 years ago fighting for the very thing we are faced with today. No kings.
The streets of Boston are filled with so many historic sites. I could have spent so much more than a day walking the Freedom Trail and really diving into some of the bigger points of interest like Paul Revere’s house and Old North Church. Our country is so young compared to other parts of the world but for us, buildings from the 1600s feel ancient and rich with culture from another world ago. But, history loves to repeat itself and its human nature not to learn from our mistakes. Homemade signs reminding passersby of the consequences of tyranny was a stark reminder that we still have a long way to go as a nation.
As much as I wish I could say that historical context was the basis for this trip, it was actually baseball. One of Kevin’s bucket list items is to see the Detroit Tigers play in all of their opposing stadiums and it was time to cross Fenway off the list. With so few original ballparks left, it was such a fun experience. Both teams were hoping to clinch their playoff spot at this game so it was an exciting atmosphere but unfortunately for us, it was the Red Sox’s night for victory. We would have our moment the next day thankfully but it would have been awesome to have been there for the moment.
Now you know I couldn’t go to Boston in the fall and not get some spooky season fun in the mix. The end of September is definitely the time to go to Salem. The Halloween festivities have begun but the crowds haven’t. Of course we took all the Hocus Pocus and witchy photos! But just like with Boston, the historic component was there too. In high school I played Martha Corey in The Crucible (very minor character but let me have it okay!). It was very cool to see her immortalized at the Salem Witch Trial memorial.
Seafood was eaten, Boston Lager was consumed, and we followed the red brick road. We didn’t see everything we hoped to see so we’ll definitely be back. Maybe as part of a New England roadtrip. Nothing wrong with that! Sometimes you gotta go where everybody knows your name…
