Yay yay holiday
House on Red Corner · 2009-04-16 · Eckenrode
Holiday Monday. Patriots’ Day. I’m not sure if that is why I have been given the day off, or because it’s the Boston Marathon or because our office building is closed.
Anyway, since we’ve been living here, history has been resonating in my head. And I needed to know more. So I have started listening to a podcast: an overview of American History before 1870.
I am up to where the Nationalists have rewritten the Articles of Federation, because Congress had no power to do anything, no one could trade with foreign powers, and everyone was going broke. So we’ve written some amendments, and we’re about to vote on this new constitution. Ooh what will happen next?!
Anyway, I found out that Patriots’ Day is a commemoration of the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War. Which, I have learned, was in fact a civil war, but if we had marketed it as a civil war, the French would not have been as forthcoming with their vital help.
Yay French - I think we are friends again, since this whole Somali pirate thing. Not that I have ever really had a problem with the French, myself. Although, the whole place is rather bourgeois, when you get right down to it, probably because they try so hard not to be.
Anyway, this first battle is something I remember from my podcast.
One of my mentors lives in Lexington, and that helped me solidify the story in my head, as I retold it to her. Apparently, General/Governor Gage was tipped off as to a stache of guns that the rebels had in Concord. So off he goes. But by the time he gets there, they have been moved, so he heads back. Around Lexington, the rebels start shooting at him. Bingo. Now we have two sides. Start of a war.
Re-enactments of these first battles of the American Revolution occur annually at Lexington Green in Lexington. It’s meant to be fun. Maybe one day we’ll go. Maybe even Monday! In the morning, a mounted reenactor with State Police escort retraces Paul Revere’s ride, calling out warnings the whole way.
There was no mention of Paul revere in my podcast, so I’ll have to read more about what actually happened there. I know the legend is inaccurate. A guy in costume told me once, and I take that seriously.