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Back in Boston

~ . . . the home of the bean and the cod, not to mention liberalism, history, the "shot heard 'round the world"–and holding it together after the Boston Marathon Bombing.

Back in Boston

Category Archives: Back in Boston

“This is what Democracy looks like!”

23 Monday Jan 2017

Posted by Virginia Smith in Back in Boston

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IMG_8814 (1).jpg

Friday, the day of the U.S. Presidential Inauguration, belonged to Donald Trump, but Saturday was for the 65,844,954 Americans who voted for Hillary Clinton–and the millions of people around the world who fear the upcoming reign of Donald Trump as the most powerful person in the world.

Women and their supporters marched in Washington, Congo, Berlin, New York, Peru, Mexico City, London, Chicago, Belarus, Sydney, Boston–a total of 673 cities and towns around the world. I haven’t marched in a major protest for years, but when I heard about the Boston Women’s March, I knew I would be part of it.

Throughout Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Quincy, Arlington, wherever there was a train station, people flooded onto the “T,” heading for Boston Common.  Dating from 1634, this is the oldest city park in the United States.  It was  used for public hangings until 1817, and is where the British camped in 1775 before leaving to battle the colonials in  Lexington and Concord, which signaled the start of the American Revolution.

The trains were absolutely packed, with everyone clutching onto whatever they could to stay upright.  img_8803

As we reached Boston Common, a sea of pink Pussy Hats brightened a leaden sky:img_8811

And then we started to peruse the signs.  img_8834

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And my favorite:  img_8838

We listened to speeches from Massachusetts notables, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, Attorney General, Maura Healey, and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh.  When the march began, we stood in place for another hour as we waited for the bottleneck of people to clear.  The organizers apologized:  they were expecting 25,000 people, but at that point it was clear there were many more, with the final tally at 175,000.

After the march, many of us sojourned to the Public Garden,  one of the most beautiful city parks in America:

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At the “Make Way for Ducklings” statues, Mother Duck and her ducklings were adorned with Pussy Hats:img_8868

There were children of all ages, from babies to teeenagers:img_8884

At Arlington Street, bubbles cascaded from the Arlington Church, protesters called out, “This is what Democracy looks like,” and bells rang out “We Shall Overcome” and “God Bless America.”IMG_8892.jpgIt is estimated that over 5,000,000 people around the world marched, providing a powerful message about how they want Democracy to prevail in the most powerful nation on earth.

This beautiful song was sung at the Women’s March in Washington.  I haven’t heard anything this gorgeously rendered in a long, long time.  Have a listen:

Women’s March song, “I Can’t Keep Quiet.”

The Cape Cod seaside

25 Thursday Aug 2016

Posted by Virginia Smith in Back in Boston

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Cape Cod beaches, Cape Cod seaside, Cape Cod shells, New England beaches

New England has gorgeous beaches, with long stretches of white sand, as here on Cape Cod and elsewhere, and also intricate, rocky coastlines, which are found mostly in Maine, whose 3,478 miles of coastline is longer than California’s.

New England beaches aren’t known for their gorgeously varied, multi-colored shells in the way the Florida and Gulf Coast beaches are, but if you look closely, you can come to appreciate the mussel, clam, oyster, whelk, scallop, slipper, quahog, and jingle shells that predominate here on the upper East Coast of the U.S.

Yesterday, on a beach at the tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, I noticed how subtly beautiful the shells, rocks, and seaweed were as they rode together on the waves of high tide.

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Almost reminiscent of a Tree of Life.

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Seaweed at sunset.

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Slipper shells piled on top of other slipper shells in a Yertle-the-Turtle pile.

A shell serving as an incubator for tiny shells.

A shell serving as an incubator for tiny shells.

 

 

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The rocks can also be gorgeous, especially if contrasting seaweed is attached!

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A riot of colors.

Night comes to the beaches of Cape Cod.

Night comes to the beaches of Cape Cod.

Brexit: Britain votes to Leave the EU

28 Tuesday Jun 2016

Posted by Virginia Smith in Back in Boston, US vs UK

≈ 1 Comment

Screen Shot 2016-06-28 at 1.55.28 PM

It was so close.  So breathtakingly close, only a few percentage points apart.

But still, most people thought that “Remain in the EU” would squeak through.

The first I knew of the final vote for the UK to leave the EU was when I landed in Dublin at 5 a.m. on June 24th, the day after the referendum.  An airport worker, an Irishman, said, “It’s daft, really.  Now we have to put back the border controls between Ireland and Northern Ireland.”  Northern Ireland is now out of the EU, and Ireland remains in, so there will no longer be a borderless free flow of travel for the Irish.

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, of the ruling Conservative Party, has resigned. Jeremy Corbyn, the head of the other main party, the Labour Party, is under a great deal of pressure to resign;  he is blamed for the failure of “Remain” due to his lack-luster support.

Screen Shot 2016-06-28 at 2.58.03 PM.jpg

Jo Cox

It was, in many ways, a very un-British campaign, with lies and threats and racist comments flying.  An up-and-coming young MP, Jo Cox of West Yorkshire, was shot and killed by a mentally unstable supporter of the “Leave” campaign who had ties to U.S. neo-Nazi groups.  The UK banned handguns in 1996,  but this man constructed a gun by following an instruction manual he bought from the neo-Nazis.   Jo Cox was the mother of two young children, had worked for the children’s charity, Oxfam, and was seen as an emerging leader of the Labour Party.  Her murder was a terrible loss, and a direct outcome of the vitriol of the EU referendum.

In this campaign, both sides lied.  The Conservatives said that the Turks wouldn’t be up for membership in the EU for 20 years (a major sticking point for many who voted “Leave”).  It now appears that the process for considering Turkish membership in the EU is beginning in two days, on June 30.

The right-wing UKIP (UK Independent Party) said that if “Leave” won, 350 million pounds a week that was paid by the UK to the EU would now be available for the NHS (Britain’s National Health Service), and they’d be “building a new hospital every week.”  That wasn’t true, either, and they are busy backtracking.

At least a small part of the vote was a protest vote;  some people voted “Leave” to make a point that they were unhappy with the way that the EU bureaucrats made decisions, and were stunned when “Leave” actually won.

A prominent “Leave” group listed the following points on its website:

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With the group telling people (see the second point, above) that “It is not legally binding–the European Court can tear it up the day after the referendum,” who can blame people for being confused?

The immediate reaction by the “Remain” group after the ballots were counted was shock, which soon turned to anger and fear.  Amongst the “Leave” group, there was a feeling of joy, perhaps also tinged with some fear.  Amongst those who ultimately voted “Leave” but debated until the very last minute, I sensed a feeling of resignation and a need to “get on with it,” because, as I heard said numerous times, “The people have spoken.”

There are also calls for a second referendum, to overturn this one.  But it’s clear that this isn’t going to happen.

What was obvious in the vote was that there was a huge split between London/Scotland (“Remain”) and the rest of England and Wales (“Leave”), and between young people (“Remain”) and older people “Leave”).

 

Screen Shot 2016-06-28 at 1.55.34 PMScreen Shot 2016-06-28 at 1.55.43 PM

One clever clogs, Michael Shaw, has created a new country comprised of the strongest “Remainers,” Scotland and London.

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Immigration was a huge part of the vote to Leave, with the worry that the Turks would be granted EU membership, and therefore the right to live in the UK.  Parts of England, particularly around Essex and Lincolnshire which have substantial numbers of immigrants from Poland and other EU countries, want to limit the number of people from overseas coming to live in the UK, which they couldn’t do under the EU mandate.

London, the financial capital of Europe, desperately wanted to “Remain” in order to maintain its power, financial and otherwise.  Under “Leave,” the British pound is at the lowest level in 31 years, and shares around the world have dropped dramatically.  Richard Branson is saying that Virgin shares lost one third of their value.

But this vote was not just a split between the UK and the EU, it was a split within the UK. In the countryside and smaller towns and cities, there was a sense of backlash against Londoners and the political establishment;  a feeling that Londoners have little or no respect for anyone outside London, that they think non-Londoners are “simpletons,” and don’t understand what it’s like to live without vast amounts of money  and with new threats to their traditions.

There was also a backlash against President Obama, generally very highly regarded in the UK, due to his comment that if Britain left the EU, it would go to the back of the line in terms of trade deals.  “He’s trying to manipulate us,” I heard;   “He wants to continue to exert his influence in Europe by working through the British puppets.”

Most members of my own family, who live in the countryside of England, voted “Leave,” though some were very much on the fence until the last moment.  One wrote to me, “My head says one thing, but my heart says another.”

The farmers in my family, like most farmers and fishermen in the UK, were delighted to have the chance to jettison the onerous and sometimes ridiculous rules sent down from Brussels, the headquarters of the EU, dictating how they run their farms.

Others in my family believe that “Leave” would allow them to get better health services through the NHS (National Health Services), with fewer “health tourists” from countries in the EU with substandard medical care clogging up the queues for Britons.

But the truth is that no one knows what’s going to happen.

Whatever happens, it will be life- and nation-changing.

The British have wielded enormous influence in the world, far more than their size warrants. They have been some of the world’s greatest scientists, explorers, thinkers, and writers, and were the last hold-out against the Nazis when the rest of the Allies had succumbed.  They fought to the very end, and won.

If anyone can do it alone, they can.  If anyone can sort it out, they can.

I wish everyone involved in this referendum the best of British.  Luck, that is.

 

 

 

A close call and a school “lockdown.”

27 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by Virginia Smith in Back in Boston, How we're coming along

≈ 3 Comments

My 7th grade daughter’s school was on lock-down today due to a “police incident.”

Since the school shootings and the Boston Marathon bombing, schoolchildren in Boston routinely have “lock-down drills,” in which they are told to lock the doors, turn out the lights, and get under their desks, but this time it was real.

Half a mile away from my daughter’s school, one man shot another man, and then drove to a street right outside her school, and threw–or forced–two men, bleeding from stab wounds, out of his car.

I was one of the first people to know about it.  How did I know so quickly? Easy.

In the five minutes between the first incident when he fled the police after shooting his first victim and the second incident when two bleeding men jumped or were tossed onto the street–he came extremely close to crashing head-on into my car.

It was a typical Wednesday morning, and I was tooling up Harvard Street. I’d done some work, gone to the gym and Whole Foods, and was now going to pick up my mother from her memoir group at 12.

And then a car came hurtling towards me. On the wrong side of the road. My side of the road.  Coming right at me.

I slammed on the brakes and blasted my horn.  The driver didn’t slow in the slightest.  At the last minute, he swerved back into his own lane and passed my car with only inches to spare.

I pulled over and called the police.  I didn’t want him to hit and kill any pedestrians, or God help us, the many preschool children walking around town, holding onto a rope.

I got the police dispatcher, and told her what I’d seen.  She put me on hold for about five minutes, then she said that the guy I was describing “might be involved in an incident further down Harvard Street.”

I asked if he’d hit a pedestrian, and she said no, so I breathed a sigh of relief.  While I been talking to the police dispatcher, four police vehicles had passed me at high rates of speed, going in the direction of the man.

I picked up my mother at 12, and drove home, shaking.  Near my house, Harvard Street was blocked off by seven marked and unmarked police vehicles, and an ambulance.IMG_2940There was already a news helicopter in the air overhead.IMG_2941

I finally made my way through the diverted traffic, arrived home, and walked back to the police blockade.  The car was not here.  The man had fled from a crime scene for the second time.

I described the car—white, with New York license plates—and the driver–mid-20s, light brown skin, maybe Hispanic.  I looked out onto the street and saw a red cap, black jacket or sweater, and a white shirt with blood on it.

Bloodied clothes on Harvard Street

Close-up of the clothes strewn on the street.

I went home, and soon after, I received a phone call and an email from the interim School Chancellor who said/wrote:

“Due to police activity in the vicinity of [my child’s and one other]Schools, students at these two schools are being kept inside for the remainder of the day. All students and staff are safe and police are present at both schools. This is a precautionary measure while the police are conducting an investigation.”

I sent my daughter a text, telling her that the bad guy was “long gone,” and she texted back, “Ok.  It was so scary everyone is freaking out.  I was worried about you guys are you safe????”

I assured her that we were.

Outside the school at the regular pick-up time, my best friend, I, many other parents, a police officer, the principal, the two assistant principals, and the guidance counselor stood and talked about what we knew, which wasn’t much beyond the fact that the three victims had been taken to hospital and that the man had fled. My daughter told me that most of the girls had been sobbing in the locker room, and that they had had to crouch under their desks.  I felt so bad for all of them.

I sure didn’t expect anything like this to happen in my very safe town in Massachusetts.  Life here is good–very good.  Violence and school lock-downs are just not supposed to happen here.

But today they did.

 

Boston: “Wicked pissah!”

24 Sunday Jan 2016

Posted by Virginia Smith in Back in Boston, US vs UK

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There’s a Boston UK, which on the eastern part of England in Lincolnshire, and a Boston USA, which is on the East Coast of America in Massachusetts.

Map of Boston, UK.

Map of Boston, UK.

Map of Boston, USA

Map of Boston, USA.

 

 

 

 

 

Boston USA was obviously called after Boston UK, but I don’t think that Boston UK has quite the . . . uniqueness . . . of Boston USA.

Boston USA is known for its world-class educational institutions, including Harvard and MIT, its superb medical care, its crazed Red Sox (baseball) fans, its Brahmins (the old WASP aristocracy), its old Irish gangsters (think Whitey Bulger), and its distinctive native accent, in which “R”s are put at the end of the words that don’t end in an “R,” so that a word like “idea,” becomes “ideee-errrr.”  In words that actually end in an “R,” “R”s  are nowhere to be heard, as in the famous “Pahk yah cah in Hahvahd Yahd” and a carwash is called a “spah for yah cah.”

Take a look at these videos for a good laugh and a new insight into Boston culture.  It’s all true!

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Seth Meyers, late night TV host, on Boston’s accent.

 

Courtesy, flickr user makelessnoise.

Courtesy, flickr user makelessnoise.

Why the rest of the US isn’t like Boston

Featured photo above of Boston harbor at night is courtesy of Flickr User rjshade.

 

US vs UK: Boston: “Wicked pissah!”

24 Sunday Jan 2016

Posted by Virginia Smith in Back in Boston, US vs UK

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There’s a Boston UK, which on the eastern part of England in Lincolnshire, and a Boston USA, which is on the East Coast of America in Massachusetts.

Map of Boston, UK.

Map of Boston, UK.

Map of Boston, USA

Map of Boston, USA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boston USA was obviously called after Boston UK, but I don’t think that Boston UK has quite the . . . uniqueness . . . of Boston USA.

Boston USA is known for its world-class educational institutions, including Harvard and MIT, its superb medical care, its crazed Red Sox (baseball) fans, its Brahmins (the old WASP aristocracy), its old Irish gangsters (think Whitey Bulger), and its distinctive native accent, in which “R”s are put at the end of the words that don’t end in an “R,” so that a word like “idea,” becomes “ideee-errrr.”  In words that actually end in an “R,” “R”s  are nowhere to be heard, as in the famous “Pahk yah cah in Hahvahd Yahd” and a carwash is called a “spah for yah cah.”

Take a look at these videos for a good laugh and a new insight into Boston culture.  It’s all true!

Screen Shot 2016-01-23 at 7.42.04 PM

Seth Meyers, late night TV host, on Boston’s accent.

 

Courtesy, flickr user makelessnoise.

Courtesy, flickr user makelessnoise.

Why the rest of the US isn’t like Boston

 

Featured photo above of Boston harbor at night is courtesy of Flickr User rjshade.

 

The Boston Marathon Bombing, two years later: “the difference between us and them.”

16 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by Virginia Smith in Back in Boston

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Church bells in Boston began tolling at exactly 2:49 p.m. today, the time that the first bomb went off near the Finish Line of the Boston Marathon two years ago.

It was a day similar to today, sunny, and relatively warm. On that day, I watched the Marathon on Beacon Street at mile 24, two miles from the Finish Line, for about three hours.  I sat in the sun with the MBTA trains running ten feet behind me, surrounded by a festive crowd cheering on the runners.

Around 2 o’clock, I walked the half mile to my home, and turned on the TV to keep watching.  And then the bombs went off and nothing was ever the same in this city.

Three people, two women and an 8-year-old boy, died that day, and 264 people were injured, many who lost legs or were harmed by shrapnel placed inside the bombs for maximum damage.

Two days later, I went down to Boylston Street to see the memorial that had risen up, just in time to help move all the flowers, notes, tennis shoes, crosses, shirts, hats, and other items from one location to another as Boylston Street was being opened up to traffic.

Last Friday, the surviving Tsarnaev brother was judged guilty on all 30 counts by a jury, and now we are awaiting the sentencing phase.

If the Commonwealth of Massachusetts had been allowed to try the case, Tsarnaev would be facing life in prison, because Massachusetts outlawed the death penalty in 1984.  But because the federal government took over the case, presumably so that he could be sentenced to death, people who were referred to as “death-qualified” were the only ones allowed on the jury, so we may very well end up with a death sentence for a state that has outlawed it. However, it will only take one lone person on the jury to vacate the death sentence.

I am very proud to live in a city, and a state, that provided such first-rate medical care to the victims and saved so many of their lives.  I am also very proud of Boston which, even in the face of this extreme crime, maintained its belief that it is wrong for the state to murder a murderer.

As Kevin Cullen, a prominent columnist at the Boston Globe wrote,

“For all the horrific suffering that was on display in Courtroom 9 over the last month, revealing the darkest impulses of some, there was also a remarkable amount of testimony about many extraordinary acts of bravery, of humanity, of selflessness, of kindness.

If the Tsarnaev brothers represented the worst of the human condition, those who ran to help their victims represented the best.

Karen McWatters, who lost a leg to the bomb that Tamerlan Tsarnaev placed outside Marathon Sports, told of how she pressed her head against that of her friend Krystle Campbell and slid her hand into Krystle’s as they both lay on the sidewalk. The last thing Krystle Campbell felt, beyond the searing pain in her shredded legs, was Karen’s warm face and comforting hand.

After the bomb that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev left outside the Forum restaurant exploded, Lauren Woods, a Boston police officer, refused a superior officer’s order to leave Lingzi Lu’s side, even after it was obvious the 23-year-old Chinese grad student was dead.

“I didn’t want her to be alone,” Woods said. . . .

Their actions, all of their actions, were an affirmation of the sanctity of life, even for a murderer like Tamerlan Tsarnaev. It was the ultimate repudiation of what the Tsarnaev brothers did. It showed, like nothing else, the difference between us and them.”

And that is why I hope that this jury, handpicked because they said they could hand down the death penalty, remembers that they are living in a state where most people oppose it, and make a stand for the “difference between us and them.”

The 119th Boston Marathon will take place next Monday. We will never forget what happened, but we are betterboston-marathon-memorila-675 than these murderers, and I hope that the people on the jury remember that.

Snow’d Rage: “Space-savers” and the Boston Blizzard of 2015

02 Monday Mar 2015

Posted by Virginia Smith in Back in Boston, How we're coming along, Humor/humour

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IMG_9792We’re still digging out in Boston after 100 inches of snow, and it’s not always pretty.

The paths are, well, impassable (here’s my dog in a maze-like tunnel that a neighbor carved out to the street). . . get-attachment

. . . and the snow has turned to ice.  Two-way streets have become (at most) one-lane, cars have remained under snow since the blizzard first hit on January 29th, and there’s nowhere to park.

Tempers are increasingly short.  So I’ve coined a new term:  “snow’d rage,” which is what happens when your road rage is snow-related.

Perhaps the worst snow’d rage happens when you’ve been circling for an hour through the streets of Boston looking for a parking spot and you find only piles of snow-covered cars that haven’t moved since the start of the blizzard:IMG_9834

Or when you find a perfectly good, shoveled out spot that has a space-saver in the middle of it.

What is a “space-saver”? I hear you ask.

A space-saver is something that I’ve only seen in Boston.  You use it to “claim” a parking spot that you’ve shoveled out on the street so that no one else can park there.

A “space-saver” takes many forms:  it can be a lawn chair, step stool, box of Pampers, plank of wood, ironing board, vacuum cleaner, carpet, laundry basket, open umbrella, a recycling bin or a garbage can.  Anything and everything that says: “This spot is mine because I dug it out, and if you dare even think about parking in it, your tires will be slashed before you can say “space saver.”

Here are some space-savers.  The more typical:

A casual grouping of lawn chairs:IMG_9832

Traffic cones:IMG_9746

And the more unusual:

A mannequin:

Courtesy, AP photo by Elise Amendola

Courtesy, AP photo by Elise Amendola

A box of diapers and cat litter:17snowmess05-7511

And my favorite, a large Pooh:poohspot

And then, of course, there are those who took revenge on the spot-stealers:

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The former mayor, Thomas Menino, tried to restore some semblance of order by allowing people to reserve their parking spaces for 48 hours after the start of the blizzard, but after that, he’d have the garbage trucks ply the streets, throwing all the space-savers into the truck.

That hasn’t happened with this blizzard. Space savers have been out since it started.

The new mayor, Marty Walsh, ordered the garbage trucks to be out in force starting yesterday, collecting all the space-savers.  But until then, watch out.  Move them at your peril. And, as we’ve heard, people are simply moving in new space-savers.  Plus, there’s more snow on the way.

New England blizzard of 2015

28 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by Virginia Smith in Back in Boston

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Blizzard of 2015, Boston blizzard of 2015, New England blizzard of 2015

The view out my second-floor window.

The view out my second-floor window.

All night and all day there’s been the sound of metal scraping against asphalt as snow plows ply our streets.  For the past 48 hours, there’s been a blizzard here in New England.

As the world’s weather is becoming more extreme, the traditionally moderate climate of England where my family lives is experiencing more pelting rainstorms, snow, and hot temperatures.  And on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean where I, my kids, and my mother live, New England is also getting more windstorms, nor’easters, snow, and blazing summer heat. For the past two days, we’ve been having the sixth worst blizzard in Massachusetts’ history.

No one wanted to underestimate or be unprepared for the blizzard, so for the two previous days, the news channels have been full of information about its predicted 24-36 inches of snow and gusts of 70 miles per hour.Screen shot 2015-01-27 at 2.45.49 PMThe mayor of Boston shut down the public transportation system when the storm began, and ordered all cars off the road. It hasn’t been so quiet here in the Boston region since that day after the Boston Marathon bombing when we were told to stay inside while the police searched for the bombers. See my post about this here.

For the blizzard, we were told to have enough provisions on hand to last at least several days.  When I went to get food, eggs were almost gone . . .

IMG_9635. . . as was the bread:IMG_9636

I grabbed three loaves of bread, a jar of peanut butter, containers of juice, bottled water, and canned goods, in case the gas and electric went out, and pasta, flour, sugar, and chocolate chips, in case the utilities stayed on.

The grocery store was very busy, but as one shop assistant told me, it was nowhere near as bad as last night when the queues stretched to the very back of the store.IMG_9638

The storm began in the early morning hours of yesterday, Tuesday, dropping 4 inches of snow per hour, with gusts of 70 mph. Luckily, our boiler, which is on its last legs, and the gas and electric, held up, so it was a day of watching Netflix and baking chocolate chip cookies. Boston and other towns declared snow emergencies, with two days off school for the kids.

Today, Wednesday, was quite pleasant–cold, around 19 degrees, but no wind.

Snow from the street had been piled into huge mounds:

IMG_9656

Everywhere people, including my neighbors, were out shoveling.  That white mound behind the man is his car covered by snow.IMG_9676

Snowplows are everywhere:Snowplow during the blizzard of 2015

Signs had been posted telling people to not park on the major roads:IMG_9668

And police were out ticketing people who chose to ignore the signs:IMG_9700

Children, of course, had the best time, making snow angels and igloos, and sledding.IMG_9685

After an hour of shoveling out the sidewalk and the car, we took ourselves off to Starbucks for a well-deserved treat, looking out at the mounds of snow while sipping our hot chocolate.

IMG_9653

We fared pretty well, but New England towns along the coast caught the brunt of it.  Marshfield, Mass., had extensive flooding.

A view of Marshfield, Mass., courtesy, Eric

Courtesy, Eric Murphy

As did Scituate, Massachusetts.

Courtesy, Boston Globe

Courtesy, Boston Globe

We in and near Boston got through pretty much unscathed, except for huge bills for our cities and towns for snow clearance, but there were people on the coast who lost their homes.  A blizzard is a force of nature not to be ignored.

Memorial Day, 2014, in a New England town

26 Monday May 2014

Posted by Virginia Smith in Back in Boston, US vs UK

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Memorial Day, US Memorial Day

Memorial Day, armed forces veterans

For Memorial Day last weekend, I am posting a video of a small parade in my New England town.

There were the usual representatives of the Armed Forces without whom no Memorial Day parade would be complete, accompanied, as always, by bagpipes, a tribute to the many people of Irish descent who have historically lived in the Boston area.

If you read through a list of names of police officers and fire fighters in Boston and the surrounding towns, you will still see a goodly number of Irish names–whole families, with grandfathers, fathers, uncles, cousins, from the same families–though there have been some small recent attempts at diversity.

Rag-tag colonials with a fife and drumNo New England parade is ever complete without a motley crowd of “colonials” with their fifes and drums, and indeed, we had a few of them, playing “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and other Revolutionary War-era songs.

“Yankee Doodle” was the name that the British mockingly called the colonials during the French and Indian War (the song dates from around 1755), but instead, the colonials adopted it for themselves and mockingly sang it back at them.

The first four verses of Yankee Doodle Dandy goes,

Yankee Doodle went to town,
A-riding on a pony
Stuck a feather in his hat,
And called it macaroni.

Yankee Doodle, keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy!

Father and I went down to camp,
Along with Captain Gooding
And there we saw the men and boys,
As thick as hasty pudding.

Yankee Doodle, keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy!

And there we see a swamping gun,
Large as a log of maple
Upon a duced little cart,
A load for father’s cattle.

Yankee Doodle, keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy!

And every time they shoot it off,
It takes a horn of powder
It makes a noise like father’s gun,
Only a nation louder.

Yankee Doodle, keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy!

As the Library of Congress says, “The British sang Yankee Doodle to berate the Americans during the Revolutionary War. A dandy is a vain gentleman. Macaroni was a fancy style of dress. Hence, a common soldier putting a feather in his cap would not make him a distinguished gentleman, nor a dandy.”

And again, only in New England, is a banner for the “Daughters of the American Revolution” followed by women of this heritage (see the video).  Being a member of the “Founding Families,” such as a Daughter of the American Revolution, used to be a very prestigious thing, but now it’s mostly forgotten, except by themselves.

World War II "ammo truck"

The rear of the parade was brought up by a World War II “ammo truck,” followed by our Town Selectmen and various people.

On Memorial Day, a three-day weekend, many people leave town to go to visit their families or stay in their country homes on Cape Cod and in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, or other nearby states.  The large town celebration is several weeks later, on Flag Day, which includes the colonials with their fifes and drums, and also a wide assortment of Town officials and groups.

On this Memorial Day I am remembering my grandfathers and great-uncles who fought in World War I and II, and all of the millions of others who have given their lives for their countries.

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