Somewhere over the rainbow…
This weekend I had big plans, having not written for a few weeks while I was back in England, I thought this weekend would be good for exploring Falmouth, The Cape and heading out to the beach, with the possibility of a trip out to Bunker Hill and the USS Constitution on Sunday. Alas, the best laid plans etc, and it was not to be. The weather, which the forecaster assured me would be bright and sunny, turned out not to be. While this information was communicated to the general public someone forgot to send the memo to the weather gods, and thus Saturday dawned gray, wet, miserable and rainy. Having originally planned an early start this did mean that I could roll over and get a couple more hours in bed- never something I complain about.
Under the misapprehension that the rain couldn’t possible last all day, I headed for Downtown Boston and Quincy Market. This in itself was an interesting experience as Gay Pride had arrived in Boston this weekend. Well, in actual fact it is a 10 day event that started on June 4th and finishes this weekend, but the big parade was scheduled for Saturday outside City Hall. For a city founded by the Puritans (in 1630) and in a state with fairly strict Blue Laws, it is also a very gay friendly place to be. There are certain areas where it would appear more acceptable than others, but I can think of a few places within a three block radius of my apartment that happily fly a gay pride flag.
I have to say that Government Center is not one of the prettier areas of Boston, and while it does apparently have a salacious past, once being known as Scollay Square, and being the most notorious red light district in Boston, it is now a concrete mess. Redeveloped in the 1960s it now consists of ugly 1960s concrete buildings, one serving as the Boston City Hall, and the other being the John F. Kennedy Federal Building. Far be it from me to point out any parallels between morally reprehensible characters and those who ply their trade on street corners and in porn dens.
Whilst I was wandering around I did manage to tick another box on the Freedom Trail attractions, and wandered into the King’s Chapel Burying Ground. The graveyard is quite pretty in and of itself, containing some beautifully carved headstones. It also contains the tombs of a few prominent Bostonian residents, such as John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts, Mary Chilton, the first Pilgrim to set foot on Plymouth Rock and William Dawes, who is never remembered for his part in the Midnight Ride, possibly due to the fact that he doesn’t make an appearance in the famous Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem, and thus the credit falls entirely to Paul Revere. King’s Chapel is also quite cute, even if it is missing a steeple, apparently they ran out of money. This church does have an interesting history in that in 1686 King James II declared it an Anglican Parish and this was a Church of England church; a move that for obvious reasons did not sit well with the Puritans. However, Boston is nothing if not a hotbed of change and revolt, and thus in 1754 when the Americans were first really starting to assert some dissention with British Rule it was redesigned, and by 1789 it had become the first Unitarian Church in the USA. As if to further distance itself from its Anglican beginnings, it does also boast the biggest bell cast by Paul Revere.
By this point I was starting to feel tired, achy and a little bit sorry for myself, I should have guessed what was coming next… Needless to say, I did not manage to get out of bed and make anything of Sunday, other than feeling even sorrier for myself and very poorly sick. I am not a big fan of being sick at the weekend.
This weekend I had big plans, having not written for a few weeks while I was back in England, I thought this weekend would be good for exploring Falmouth, The Cape and heading out to the beach, with the possibility of a trip out to Bunker Hill and the USS Constitution on Sunday. Alas, the best laid plans etc, and it was not to be. The weather, which the forecaster assured me would be bright and sunny, turned out not to be. While this information was communicated to the general public someone forgot to send the memo to the weather gods, and thus Saturday dawned gray, wet, miserable and rainy. Having originally planned an early start this did mean that I could roll over and get a couple more hours in bed- never something I complain about.
Under the misapprehension that the rain couldn’t possible last all day, I headed for Downtown Boston and Quincy Market. This in itself was an interesting experience as Gay Pride had arrived in Boston this weekend. Well, in actual fact it is a 10 day event that started on June 4th and finishes this weekend, but the big parade was scheduled for Saturday outside City Hall. For a city founded by the Puritans (in 1630) and in a state with fairly strict Blue Laws, it is also a very gay friendly place to be. There are certain areas where it would appear more acceptable than others, but I can think of a few places within a three block radius of my apartment that happily fly a gay pride flag.
I have to say that Government Center is not one of the prettier areas of Boston, and while it does apparently have a salacious past, once being known as Scollay Square, and being the most notorious red light district in Boston, it is now a concrete mess. Redeveloped in the 1960s it now consists of ugly 1960s concrete buildings, one serving as the Boston City Hall, and the other being the John F. Kennedy Federal Building. Far be it from me to point out any parallels between morally reprehensible characters and those who ply their trade on street corners and in porn dens.
Whilst I was wandering around I did manage to tick another box on the Freedom Trail attractions, and wandered into the King’s Chapel Burying Ground. The graveyard is quite pretty in and of itself, containing some beautifully carved headstones. It also contains the tombs of a few prominent Bostonian residents, such as John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts, Mary Chilton, the first Pilgrim to set foot on Plymouth Rock and William Dawes, who is never remembered for his part in the Midnight Ride, possibly due to the fact that he doesn’t make an appearance in the famous Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem, and thus the credit falls entirely to Paul Revere. King’s Chapel is also quite cute, even if it is missing a steeple, apparently they ran out of money. This church does have an interesting history in that in 1686 King James II declared it an Anglican Parish and this was a Church of England church; a move that for obvious reasons did not sit well with the Puritans. However, Boston is nothing if not a hotbed of change and revolt, and thus in 1754 when the Americans were first really starting to assert some dissention with British Rule it was redesigned, and by 1789 it had become the first Unitarian Church in the USA. As if to further distance itself from its Anglican beginnings, it does also boast the biggest bell cast by Paul Revere.
By this point I was starting to feel tired, achy and a little bit sorry for myself, I should have guessed what was coming next… Needless to say, I did not manage to get out of bed and make anything of Sunday, other than feeling even sorrier for myself and very poorly sick. I am not a big fan of being sick at the weekend.
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