Wadda!

At this rate, it will be two years before I get all of our anniversary trip posted!!!

How do you know when you are in the north east?....zoom in and check out the sign just above the front wheel!  You can see the Bunker Hill Monument in the background.

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

I really do not like the term "July 4th Celebration"...I know what it means and understand that why it is said but I try my best to state it as "Independence Day Celebration"...It just seems more appropriate...

 Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm." Then he said "Good-night!" and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide. Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street
Wanders and watches, with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread of the grenadiers,
Marching down to their boats on the shore. Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,
By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry chamber overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade,--
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town
And the moonlight flowing over all. Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, "All is well!"
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay,--
A line of black that bends and floats
On the rising tide like a bridge of boats. Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse's side,
Now he gazed at the landscape far and near,
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry tower of the Old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns. A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides. It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer's dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog,
That rises after the sun goes down. It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, black and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon. It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadow brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket ball. You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,---
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load. So through the night rode Paul Revere;=
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,---
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Ye Olde Union Oyster House!

May 15, 2011
I knew I would need to start planning months ahead for our anniversary trip so I started looking for good places to eat in Boston.  (Actually....there are hundreds of them!) So I made reservations at America's Oldest Restaurant - Ye Olde Union Oyster House - Est. 1826!

It was pretty pricey (at least for a couple of poor Hillbillies!) but once in a lifetime?...go for it!!!

 Three stories of....FOOD!!  We were served on the third story..

 YE OLDE SEAFOOD PLATTER, deep fried shrimp, clams, scallops,
calamari, oysters and filet of fish topped with onion rings

I have eaten some but not a lot of seafood which was mostly Red Lobster-Captain D's-LJS variety...so...When I tasted REAL fresh seafood I was hooked (pardon the pun)!  It was the best I had ever had!

PAN SEARED HALIBUT served with new potatoes, grilled tomato
and sugar snap peas

Tami does NOT like fishy tasting fish...I guess she wants it to taste like butter pecan ice cream!???  Anyway...this dish was perfect!  Fresh and delicious with great flavored sides!

 It was real crowded when we asked the waitress to take our picture so she was leaning back over another table to take this picture and could barely fit us in. 

FYI....The toothpick was first used in the United States at the Union Oyster House. Enterprising Charles Forster of Maine first imported the picks from South America. To promote his new business he hired Harvard boys to dine at the Union Oyster House and ask for toothpicks. (read more at the Union Oyster House website)

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.