And if you grew up in New England, you've celebrated Patriot's Day many times. It marks the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord and just how out of touch Michele Bachmann is. Boston knows how to throw a city-wide party. School is out, some work is off, the Boston Marathon is run, and at 11AM the Red Sox always play the only MLB game to start before noon.
This year (Patriots Day fell on April 18th), I decided to get up with the re-enactors who have pesky habit of being historically accurate (speaking of re-enactors, have you seen these terrific Gregg Segal Civil War pics?). The Battle of Lexington happened at dawn, so I got into Lexington around 5AM. It was kind of surreal seeing Redcoats caught in the car headlights marching down the street past 21st century Americans.
I parked next to this guy who was in the process of sending himself back in time to join King George's army through the portal of his car trunk. He said he started as a Minuteman but has been a Redcoat the last few years. From the Redcoats' perspective, he said some were German, Irish and other nationalities and they were far from home regardless of their origination. The whole occupation was no picnic for them either.
Here's Buckman Tavern next to the Lexington Green. Roughly 80 Minutemen waited through the night here on Revere's word. When they heard from a scout that the British were close, they assembled on the Green where the stage was set for a shot to be fired, by whom we'll never know.
If you ever go to the Battle of Lexington reenactment, bring your 6 foot ladder. The Green was ringed by a crowd who all came prepared.
The Battle complete, the reenactors marched through town, did some military drills on the Green, and posed for photographs with the crowd. The crowd followed with their ladders. Some Redcoats stayed in character telling people to pay their taxes and asking them why they are not at work doing their part for the empire. There was another battle to reenact in Concord, but I was headed back into Boston.
On my way back to the car, the American Flag offered two good photo ops.
Once in Boston, I met up with one of my first roommates in Boston, Brian, and his fiance and friends. I'm not good with nicknames but if I could make one stick with Brian it would be Mr. Boston. He just seems to know everything and everyone, and he finds out about it all by actually talking to people and simply exploring - lost arts these e-days in my opinion. I didn't think a ticket to the Red Sox game was possible on Patriots Day. He had one. Didn't think you could ever enjoy yourself in the crush of people at Eastern Standard waiting to get into the game... he had a booth up front. See the peanuts? He bought a 5 lb bag so he could give them away at the game... we had standing room only tix so we'd do a bit of moving.
We watched the Marathon on TV at the Eastern Standard and timed it to see the first runners and wheel chair athletes pass us by. Here's Ryan Hall headed towards his 2:04.55 finish... the fastest any American has ever run but still dropping him in 4th place for the day.
On the way to Fenway, fans did their best not to let theirs be the proverbial Dunkin' Donuts styrofoam cup that broke the camel's back.
Some of Brian's peanuts on the Fenway floor.
The Red Sox were doing well this day and handing it to the Jays. This a picture of the Neil Diamond "Sweet Caroline" 7th inning stretch.
Seeing a game at Fenway is a treat. I like history, and I like a stadium about to turn one hundred years old still being used. As of this writing, the Red Sox are one game behind my Pirates in the win column. It's no beginning of a history changing war... but it's a big surprise.
Great pictures, Mike.
ReplyDeleteJudy