CONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS: THE PLACE THAT SHAPED A NATION

Top: Minute Man Statue and the Old North Bridge
 Middle: Walden Pond   Bottom: Wayside Inn

Exploring Colonial America: First Stop--Concord

After spending a wonderful few days on the islands of New England, I drove back to Boston where I stayed with Pat and Bill, friends I made on the “England, Scotland and Wales” tour in 2012. I couldn’t have asked for more gracious hosts. They not only invited me into their beautiful home, but took great care to show me many historic places that are practically in their backyard! I walked around Thoreau’s Walden Pond, visited Louisa May Alcott’s home, ate lunch at the oldest working inn in America (Longfellow's Wayside Inn), and stood on the very spot where the Revolutionary War began.

 Left,Thoreau's Walden Pond--Right, my friend and guide, Pat.

 Dorothy finally leaves Kansas

Being a girl raised in the west, early American history has always been merely words in a book. It’s only when I see these places of great significance to our heritage do they become real to me. In seeing them, only then do they become profoundly meaningful in a way that is hard to describe. I sometimes feel like Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” waking up into a whole new reality. Take for instance the first place Pat took me to visit:  Louisa May Alcott’s home in Concord.

Orchard House, Louisa May Alcott’s Childhood Home

Most everyone knows that the Revolutionary War started on the fields of Concord, which forever changed our nation’s course. However, I didn’t realize it also was the hotbed of intellectual thought, which in turn changed our nation’s philosophy. Surprisingly, one of the most unlikely spots for that to happen was in Louisa May Alcott’s childhood home, located right in the heart of Concord. Louisa, as you may recall, wrote Little Women, a favorite childhood story about growing up in her “orchard house” along with her three sisters, mother and often absent father. And, it is the father, Amos Bronson Alcott who surprised me.

Transcendentalism made easy

Louisa’s father, Amos Alcott, a respected social and educational reformer was a staunch proponent of Transcendentalism as were his friends and neighbors: Emerson, a philosopher, Thoreau, a naturalist and rebel, and Hawthorne, a novelist. From 1834 to 1888, these four leading intellectuals called Concord home. If you are anything like me, I’ll bet you thought Transcendentalism came over with the Beatles and the Maharishi in the 60’s. What the heck IS Transcendentalism, I thought as I roamed from room to room in the Alcott’s home.

It seems it all started with Emerson’s Essay on Nature in 1836, which simply stated that “…people, men and women equally, have knowledge about themselves and the world around them that “transcends” or goes beyond what they can see, hear, taste, touch or feel. This knowledge comes through intuition and imagination not through logic or the senses. People can trust themselves to be their own authority on what is right.” I’ll bet that went over big with the local churches!  ushistory.org

 Louisa May Alcott's home. She wrote Little Women at the age of 26 in her bedroom on the second floor.

Although money was always short in the Alcott home, it had to have been a wonderful place to grow up. Mr. Alcott believed in the equality of women and the freedom of the human spirit to achieve in an encouraging atmosphere. As examples of his educational philosophy, he famously encouraged a student to take a ruler to his own hand when he made a mistake, and allowed the baby in the family, May, to draw all over the walls of the house because they couldn’t afford to buy paper. What a great dad!

Amos Bronson Alcott's school house next to his home.

Longfellow’s Wayside Inn

Leaving the Alcott’s home, Pat and I drove to nearby Sudbury and enjoyed lunch at Longfellow’s Wayside Inn, the oldest continuously working inn in America. Built by David Howe in 1716 as a “hous of entertainment”, it sits beside the old Boston Post Road, one of the first mail routes in the country. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow visited Howe’s Tavern in 1862 and was so taken by the place he wrote a series of poems called “Tales of a Wayside Inn”, one of which “The Landlord’s Tale” (more widely known as “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”) made the place famous. The Inn was renamed in Longfellow’s honor in 1892. Longfellow's Wayside Inn.

Longfellow's Wayside Inn, the oldest working Inn in America.

Henry Ford bought the Wayside Inn in 1923 with the intention of creating a living museum of Americana. He added buildings to the property including the one-room Redstone School (relocated onto the property in 1925), a fully functioning Grist Mill (built in 1929), and the Martha-Mary Chapel. Read more.

 Redstone School House, 1798. Scene for the famous poem "Mary Had a Little Lamb". (For those of you who remember Sean, he volunteered to pose as the "lamb".)

 Grist mill, 1929. Built by Henry Ford as part of a park dedicated to Americana.

Martha-Mary Chapel next to the Little Red Schoolhouse.

Old North Bridge and the "shot heard 'round the world"

After a deliciously authentic lunch of chicken pot pie, Pat and I drove a short distance to see the Old North Bridge on Battle Road. It was here that one of the successive owners of Howe’s Tavern, Ezekiel Howe an officer in the colonial army, led the Sudbury Minute Men into battle with the British that started the Revolutionary War. Starting at dawn on April 19, 1775, they fought the Red Coats all day long eventually forcing them the entire way into Boston. There they claimed victory in Charlestown at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

The battle that forever altered our destiny took place at the Old North Bridge and where the famous “shot heard ‘round the world” was fired (a line from Emerson’s poem, Concord Hymn). The British, defending the bridge, shot first at the approaching militiamen but retreated when the colonists returned fire.

 Old North Bridge, site of the "shot heard 'round the world" and the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775. 

The Minutemen Statue commemorates the date.

As I looked around at the peaceful fields and hand stacked rock fences, I could just make out the distant sounds of gunfire and shouts of the soldiers on the quiet breeze rustling through the trees. To think that such a momentous occurrence took place in a lovely bucolic landscape is hard to imagine, but at the same time, I felt the spirits of those brave men who had the courage to stand up for what they believed in and my heart gave thanks for a country where I can live in freedom.

Thanks a million, Bill and Pat!

***Double click on any picture for a full screen slide show.

Good reading:  “The Concord Quartet: Alcott, Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau and the Friendship That Freed the American Mind” by Samuel A. Schreiner Jr.

Next time: Mount Vernon and the Hunt for George’s Teeth!

“YOU’RE SURE TO FALL IN LOVE WITH OLD CAPE COD”

 Map of the "Islands of New England" Tour courtesy of Collette

Cape Cod, the Proud Arm of Massachusetts

 (Photo courtesy Google Images)

On the final day of the tour we climbed aboard our big silver bus one last time for a leisurely drive through Cape Cod. The Cape is shaped eerily like an arm flexed into a muscle and  our hotel in Hyannis is about midway on the underside of the bicep. From there we took the 6 highway all the way up the arm into Provincetown located on the knuckles of the curled fist. Along the way, I could easily see why anyone would fall in love with Cape Cod.

(Melanie, our Tour Director, liked to say she was born and raised in the armpit of Cape Cod. Pretty nice for an armpit, I'd say!)

JFK's Memorial

A couple of days prior, we’d stopped to visit John F. Kennedy’s memorial on the Lewis Bay waterfront in Hyannis Port. It is an achingly beautiful place to have a memorial, overlooking a crystal bay filled with sailboats. I could imagine JFK’s spirit often visiting here knowing how much he loved Cape Cod and sailing. It’s fitting that the inscription under the presidential seal is this quote from a victory speech he made in Hyannis, “I believe it is important that this country sail and not sit still in the harbor.”

John F. Kennedy's Memorial in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts

Stony Brook Gristmill, circa 1751

 We would make many stops on our journey, but few would be as pretty as our first stop at the Gristmill. Like most of Cape Cod, it is enough that the beauty of the scene gives us a moment to appreciate life as it is lived and enjoyed in the moment.

Stony Brook Gristmill is one of the best preserved mills on the Cape.

Alice and Eugene

East Hampton Windmill circa 1808

 One of the best things about traveling with a collection of strangers is that they often turn into friends along the way, which happened with Alice and Eugene. Early on, I couldn’t help notice that they were an interesting couple: an older man accompanied by a younger woman, and an expectant one at that. Sweetly deferential to him, Alice helped Eugene with his luggage and whatever else he seemed to need. They obviously had a special bond. All of us were politely curious and eventually their story became known. Three months earlier, Eugene and his wife had planned and paid for this tour, but shortly before the trip began, she passed away. However, instead of cancelling the trip, Eugene and his daughter Alice decided to go together turning what could have been a sad time of missed memories into one they will both remember as a very special shared experience between father and daughter. We admired their courage to carry on, but most of all, the expression of love of a daughter for her dad touched us the most. Thank you, Eugene and Alice for allowing me to tell your story. You both will always be in our hearts.

The Kettle Ponds

An interesting geological phenomenon in Cape Cod is the “kettles”. Formed around 18,000 years ago after the last ice age, they are large round holes in the landscape caused by melting chunks of glaciers. We stopped at a one called Salt Pond, unique because it captures ocean water and actually has tides. What I found fascinating is that some of these kettles filled in with vegetable matter and became bogs which now grow some of the best cranberries in America. Who knew that we had giant glacier pot holes to thank for the the cranberry relish on our Thanksgiving tables!

  Salt Pond in the foreground and smaller kettles
 in the background (to the right of my head!)

Nauset Beach

Not far up the road, we stopped for a photo op at Nauset Beach and discovered that a whole lot of other people thought to do the same. Dodging bodies made it hard to take any good pictures, but I managed to take a few. We didn’t stay long. It was time for lunch in Provincetown and a very special excursion!

P-Town!

Provincetown, known to insiders as P-Town, is located on the knuckles of Cape Cod’s fist. It’s a unique town in many ways: unique in its culture as well as its wild white dunes. Apparently, the locals are very tolerant of alternative lifestyles and celebrations can get quite colorful. But from what I hear, it’s all the Pilgrims fault. The Mayflower landed here first in 1620 before ending up at Plymoth. About half of the passengers consisted of religious “Separatists” and the other half “Strangers”. It was here in P-Town that they made an agreement with each other called the Mayflower Compact that allowed for saints and sinners to co-exist in this new country and P-Town took them at their word. However to my eyes, it looked to be a regular beach town and beach towns always have their characters.

After lunch, I piled into one of Art’s Dune Tour SUV’s and set off to check out the dunes. Before leaving however, the excursion driver let out half of the air in the tires so our SUV wouldn’t bog down in the sand. After that came one of THE best rides in my memory. If you ever get to Provincetown, you absolutely must take one these tours. It will make your whole trip.

Cormorants hanging out at the beach.

All too soon, the tour was over.  Asked what I thought of the experience, I honestly said that this is one trip I could take every year. It was that fun.

OLD CAPE COD

If you're fond of sand dunes and salty air
Quaint little villages here and there
You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod.

If you like the taste of a lobster stew
Served by a window with an ocean view
You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod.

Winding roads that seem to beckon you
Miles of green beneath a sky of blue
Church bells chimin' on a Sunday morn
Remind you of the town where you were born

If you spend an evening you'll want to stay
Watching the moonlight on Cape Cod Bay
You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod

Watch the Video of the trip!

 Thanks Everybody!!

NEXT TIME: Exploring Colonial America

NANTUCKET ISLAND, A FAVORITE PLACE REVISITED

 Islands of New England Tour, map courtesy of Collette

Nantucket, a former whaling port, is one of my all time favorite places to visit. It’s one of those feel good places: laid back, chock full of historic charm and small enough to be enjoyed in a day’s time. My spirits lift the minute I get off of the boat as if the ghosts of old grizzled mariners are welcoming me home.

An island 30 miles off shore from Cape Cod, it’s only an hour’s ride away on a first class luxury Nantucket ferry. Unlike the leisurely boat ride I took to Martha’s Vineyard, I elected to stay inside this time so that I wouldn’t arrive looking like Captain Ahab after a night chasing Moby Dick. Comfortably snug in the cabin, I relaxed back into my seat and enjoyed the sensation of the boat skim the waves as if they weren’t even there and watched great sprays of ocean water soaking the decks.

 Scenes of historic Nantucket Town

It had been 10 years since I had last been here and I had one mission in mind—to replace my stained and worn out Nantucket sweat shirt with a new one. As I searched from shop to shop, I noticed that the merchandise was not as posh as it had been. I missed that. This was one place I looked forward to splurging a bit on my souvenirs. I’d enjoyed the experience of browsing through upscale boutiques housed in historic store fronts, pausing occasionally to sit on a park bench on the ancient tree lined cobble stoned streets to watch the world go by.  Mildly disappointed that the long skinny arm of the slow economy had reached even into my beloved Nantucket, I finally found what I wanted and became proud owner of a new zip up jacket with NANTUCKET emblazoned across the front. Hopefully, this one will last until my next visit to the island.

 

My next favorite thing to do on the island, besides shop, is to roam the quiet residential streets and attempt to soak up its romantic past.  Nantucket has had settlers on it since the 17^th century and the entire island has been designated as a National Historic Landmark. The cobbled streets of downtown lead off into narrow carriage wide lanes lined with small grey cottages.  Clustered intimately together, they are separated by sweetly groomed gardens hemmed in by white picket fences. Since whaling was Nantucket’s main industry, the cottages were originally inhabited by sailors and ship captains. Now their modest appearances mask very wealthy interiors. It is a millionaires retreat while still retaining its unpretentious Quaker charm. And, I like nothing more than to peek into their gardens.

 The white walkway is made of crushed shells.

 “Putting on a Good Front”

One of the many charms of both Nantucket and Cape Cod are the weathered grey exteriors of the colonial cottages. Years ago, oil based paint was very expensive so the frugal residents painted only the fronts of their cedar homes allowing the sides to age into deeper and deeper shades of grey. Paint colors on the fronts are now restricted to grey, yellow, blue or brown, so forget it if you like purple.

Built to withstand the harsh winters and styled to blend in with the wild landscape, the Quaker distaste for adornment influenced their plain, no nonsense exteriors into three basic types: a half Cape has two multi-paned windows on one side of a door; a Three Quarter Cape has two windows on one side, a door and then one more window; a Full Cape has four windows separated by a door. However, once inside, the interiors are very similar. Cape Cod Houses 

From left to right, Half Cape, 3/4 Cape, and Full Cape. Notice the unpainted sides of the Full Cape.

We spent the rest of our time there touring the island which I had never seen before. The land is spacious and uncluttered with billboards or big box stores, retaining its untamed wild beauty. Pulling off the side of a rural road, we stopped to admire a Nantucket lighthouse.  I stood quietly for awhile feeling the cool breeze on my skin and memorized the vision of the brightly painted lighthouse silhouetted against a brilliant blue sky framed by waving golden sea grass and vowed to return again and again.

All too soon we had to leave Nantucket, but as if to compensate for the disappointment of leaving this relaxing haven, a lobster feed had been planned for us on a beach in Cape Cod. Of course I wore my new NANTUCKET jacket and begonia pink ball cap, and had two helpings of “chowdah” just to ease the pain!

 Kicking up a little sand on Cape Cod and the ring leader was our Tour Director Melanie! 

(That's her in the white top in the middle.)  Life ain't over 'til it's over. Just ask this bunch!

It had been a long day by the time we dragged ourselves onto the bus for the ride back to our hotel. Just as we settled into our seats, we heard our bus driver Josef’s booming voice over the loud speaker singing:

“Show me the way to go home.

I’m tired and I want to go to bed.

I had a little drink about an hour ago

And it went right to my head.

Everywhere I roam

Over land or sea or foam

You can always hear me singing this song

Show me the way to go home!”

One by one we joined in until we sang along with him at the top of our lungs all the way home. It had been another great day.

 

Watch the Video of the trip!

Next time:  "You're sure to fall in love with Old Cape Cod!"