Boston Holocaust Memorial

Back to our anniversary trip to New England...

This was a more sobering part of our trip.  We had eaten at the "Union Oyster House" (next post) and when we started walking toward the subway station we saw the "Holocaust Memorial" in the little park in front of the restaurant.  I failed to get a picture of the entire site so I am going to borrow one from a website.

It wasn't quite dark when we were there so it wasn't lighted but you can see it is beautiful.  The six towers represent the six major concentration camps used to exterminate the Jews (or the six lower candles of the menorah).

 There was steam coming out of the grates below each tower with twinkling lights in the grates.  I don't know the significance of this but it was a nice effect.

 There were a million numbers etched onto the glass on each tower...a total of six million to represent the number of Jews killed in the holocaust. 

I know our world has taken "discrimination" to a whole new level but it would do for us to remember the lessons of the past...and the commandments of the Bible...Jesus said: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"...

My Dad

Missing my Dad today...

One of the best memories of my Dad is him sitting in his recliner with the radio in his lap (no television) listening to sports...spring, summer, late summer it was Cardinal Baseball.  Fall and winter...Mizzou Tigers (he didn't like NFL).  Winter and spring...basketball...which seemed to be his favorite.

He ran a used furniture store for a couple of years and an old man in the neighborhood started to stop by and visit.  Dad called him "Three Dollar Bill" because his name was Bill Hann and he was always trying to buy stuff with a "three dollar bill"!  He bought a heating stove off of Dad and agreed to pay it out so much per week.  He made one or two payments and then Dad noticed he didn't stop by anymore and there were no more payments.  Finally Dad stopped him on the street and asked why he hadn't been coming by.  Of course it was the money and Bill was ashamed to face Dad with his account in arrears.  Bill had a big turnip patch so Dad told him if he would bring him a sack of turnips every now and then, he could consider the debt paid.  Dad would rather take the loss than to lose the friendship.  That's the kind of man he was....

Leamon Riggs

1932-1985

Chet sings it like I feel it...

Curious....

I

 I have found many survey markers in my twenty eight years of surveying and this is not the most unique one I've ever found.  However...I am reminded from time to time that whatever was at hand at the time was used by the old surveyors.  This appears to be a 1/4"-3/8" metal rod with a decorative top set in an embedded rockpile.  I had to pull it up a little to get a picture of it.  This is in Shannon County Missouri so if I was a betting man...which I am not...I would bet the farm that this was set by Vern Wilkins, Esq.!  (other reasons are; that the actual line is about 17' south of this marker and it is 1319' west of the marker at the E1/4 corner...)

Ah Ha!  I just looked closer at the picture below.  This is part of an old metal bedstead!  The kind with the decorative "lacework" of metal rods with decorative tops!  (See the picture from the web below)  They broke or cut off the "connecting rods" on each side of the head which you can see in my picture below.

Boston Freedom Trail

(Finally getting time to post some more of our anniversary trip!)

We took a guided tour of part of the Freedom Trail in Boston.  This is our guide, Abigail Adams (known as Nabby or Abbey), youngest daughter of Samuel Adams.  She was an outstanding guide!

 This is the Franklin Stone in the Granary Burying Ground....NOT Ben Franklin..!...Ben Franklin hated Boston and refused to be buried there.  The Bostonians did not take the snub well and decided to raise a huge stone for Franklin's parents!  Franklin's parents were extremely poor and couldn't afford a large stone but thanks to the city Fathers....they have the largest stone in the cemetery!

Nabby standing at Paul Revere's grave.  The small stone to her left is his actual grave stone (actually his foot stone).  The one on her right was placed by the City Fathers of Boston.  What is all over the ground at the foot of the marker???  See below...

 Thousands of pennies!!!!!  After all Paul was a copper smith!  And Yes....I did throw down a penny at his grave!   BTW "Mother Goose" is also buried in this cemetery!  They don't think she actually wrote the "Mother Goose" stories but repeated stories she had heard to her children which were finally written down in story form.

 Nabby standing at Samuel Adams grave stone.  Another great Patriot! (Note the pennies on top of the stone)

The Old State House.  This building faces the site of the Boston Massacre, which is where I was standing when I took this picture.  On July 18, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was read from this balcony.

 Faneuil Hall otherwise known as the "Cradle of Liberty" because of the speeches made here by Samuel Adams, James Otis and other patriots urging independence from Great Britain.

 The weather vane on top of Faneuil Hall.  What is it??  If you were asked during the Revolutionary War...and you didn't know what it was...you were shot as a British spy!!!  OK all you patriots out there, zoom in on it and tell me what it is!!!

 The site of the first public school in America.  Ben Franklin (statue), Samuel Adams and John Hancock attended the school at this site.