A Country is Born

The east coast is old, really old comparatively for someone who was born and raised on the west coast.  Yesterday, was Halloween and we had stopped at the March Farm in Bethlehem, CT to take part in some fall festivities and spend the night next to their fish pond.  As we were walking back from the corn maze, I noted to my right, an overgrown line of stacked boulders that rolled down over the hill.  I am guessing many people walk by these rocks and don’t even notice their presence, but it made me wonder what their story was.  Were they placed there 200 years ago?  Who was the farmer that stacked them?  What animals or equipment was used to collect them and lift them?

The history in the New England states blows your mind.  In Bend, Oregon we place homes that were built in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s on the historic register, which granted, they are for that part of the world.  But, in Massachusetts or Connecticut something historic dates back to the 1600’s or 1700’s.  In Boston, we saw graves of settlers that died in the late 1600’s!

With all this history surrounding us, it created the perfect classroom for all of us to learn a bit more about the Revolution and the birth of America.  Of course, we all learn American history in school, but for most of us, just a fraction of it sticks.  Our hope in visiting this part of the country was that the history would become meaningful for our kids and reminded the grown-ups of what they missed out on or forgot from middle school. 

Our first stop one Monday afternoon, was the Minute Man National Park and “Battle Road” where the “Midnight Riders” rode out to warn the villages of Lexington and Concord.  The British soldiers were lined up four abreast and 300 yards long as they marched out of Boston towards Lexington.  It was that previous night that Paul Revere was captured in the very spot we were now standing.  Your mind rolls back in time and you imagine what it might have looked like, smelled like and sounded like on that important date of April 19^th, 1775.  Rebel soldiers running through the trees.  British soldiers marching to the drum beat of a drummer boy, all dressed in red.  The smell of wood smoke coming from the colonial homes lining Battle Road.  It all seems so real and tangible as we meandered down the orange and yellow tree lined path.

Our day in Boston was dreary and wet this last week in October.  We started at the USS Constitution or “Old Iron Sides” as she was called by many.  I am sure on a beautiful, sunny day (pre-Covid) this place would have been crawling with tourists, but we were literally the only ones at this historic site besides a few National Park rangers reading their books.  In general, Boston felt very quiet with about half the restaurants closed and very few tourists walking the Freedom Trail like us.  Despite wet feet and cold hands, we walked nearly the full 2.5 miles of the trail, starting in Boston Commons and ending back at the USS Constitution.  Our favorites stops included touring Paul Revere’s home and walking through the Granary Burying Ground where the likes of John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Paul Revere are buried.

Our history lesson has just begun on this road trip.  As we continue down the east coast, we will be stopping in historically significant places like New York, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and Gettysburg.  Our hope is that as adults we will be reminded of what we learned as children.  And that our children will understand how we came to be as Americans, how our freedom was earned and the struggles that were endured that has allowed them to live the life they now live.