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| >> Static Item >> Article >> Travel >> ID #1321145 |   |
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Moving often has many drawbacks, but it also affords many opportunities to see new places and to travel to surrounding areas without a lot of effort. Thank you to Scarlett
 for the opportunity to share one of my earlier travel spots this month.One of my favorite places to live was northeast Massachusetts, where we made several trips into Boston, visited Plymouth and Salem and ventured further to Gloucester and up along Maine's coastline. This month, however, I would love to "introduce" Henry David Thoreau's hometown of Concord, Massachusetts. Concord is not a large place. It doesn't take an expert driver to maneauver the roads or to find Monument Square. Our destination was about a mile and a half from the Square, in fact we never went to the Square itself, instead opting to tour Minuteman National Park. At one end of the park stands an obelisk dedicated on July 4, 1837, an unremarkable date other than being exactly four months after the incorporating of Chicago, Illinois and less than a month after the Broad Street Riot in Boston due to the Irish and English failing to get along in America (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1837). This is perhaps why finding information on what the monument says is a daunting task. In fact, I didn't find it, and my photos are from 1992. So, moving on...   On the other side of the obelisk is the Old North Bridge, or rather a replica of the Old North Bridge. You may remember it as the setting for the "shot heard around the world." This is where the American Revolutionary War physically began; right here in peace-seeking Thoreau's hometown. The serene setting and calm river belies the history and does look more like an existential writer's retreat, even with the few tourists wandering the artistically curved bridge.  If you're inclined to surrender to the tranquility and forget the town's history, the other side of the bridge will bring it quickly back to life with the Minuteman statue. Designed by Daniel Chester French, who later sculpted the seated Lincoln in Washington DC, the statue commemorates the area's farmers who, in a minute's time upon being called up, dropped their plows and ran to their new country's aid to protect their way of life. Subscribed upon the stone base is the first stanza of Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Concord Hymn" --  "By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood And fired the shot heard round the world." Emerson was an editor in Concord as well as a writer and became Thoreau's mentor upon seeing his work offered for publication in the journal. Encouraging the younger man, in whom he saw himself, Emerson provided land for Thoreau to build a small cabin. It sat along Walden Pond, the birthplace of its namesake literary work. This is a reproduction of where Thoreau lived and worked:  One hour in Concord is all you need to hit the highlights of the historical town, but as writers, it would also be a beautiful place to grab a notebook and a blanket and let ourselves live simply and peacefully for an afternoon. Who knows? Maybe it will set the scene for another yet-to-be masterpiece. Source: http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/walden/index.html For more travel photos/descriptions, see "A Virtual Visit: US Travels" 
© Copyright 2007 Voxxylady (UN: voxxylady at Writing.Com).
All rights reserved.
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