Winging it in...Boston!

The future's not set. There's no fate but what we make for ourselves

Which is a great notion and one I would always say I truly believe in, but that didn’t stop me donating my hard earned dollars and offering up a quick prayer to Saint Anthony (patron saint of lost things and miracles) of Padua today; I figure that I have no particular lost items to find, so I am hoping that I can keep that miracle in the bag for when needed. I’m not really sure how big of a miracle $5.00 gets you tho, so here’s hoping I don’t need a big one.

I am now totally back in Boston and back to work, or at least I have been for the last two weeks, and I thought that meant I really ought to get back out and about and start blogging about it all again. I have to say I have really thrown myself into things this weekend. It has been great to catch up with friends over brunches and lunches and as ever I am sure I have eaten way too much food, and while I will complain about this to, well pretty much anyone who will listen, I have no intention of stopping as it is all so nice! I am busy trying to convince myself that I need the extra calories as after a summer of slacking off I have gotten my running shoes out of the closet and started a new training plan. At the end of June I was generally fairly impressed with myself, the running seemed to going well and I was feeling good about myself, so good in fact that I decided I deserved a seven week summer break. Turns out you lose that fitness level A LOT faster than you build it up! I know, this isn’t new information, but the last two weeks have been tough! I went from a 10K- and feeling good- to a struggle of two miles! Two weeks in and I am back to eight miles in 1 hour 10 minutes, so timing is still an issue, I still have ten weeks of the training plan to go tho… (I wonder if maybe that is a $5.00 miracle).

So, this weekend is the Feast of Saint Anthony of Padua, and a huge deal is made of this in the North End, basically it involves a good deal of food on sticks, and if food can be put on a stick I am all for it! (Today I have seen the usual fair of “stick food” candied apples, cheesecake, corn dogs, marshmallows, strawberries etc, along with bananas, an entire fruit salad, fried dough, and my personal favorite- New York Strip steak! I love whoever thought of adding a stick to that dish and I am deeply disappointed not to have ever seen it in Texas.) While I am on the topic of food tho, the smells from the restaurants and the street vendors were deliciously out of this world. I am actually genuinely sorry I don’t have a blog smell app. It all looked so amazing. I did risk buying some fudge, and I do occasionally have fudge related …. Issues, so this was a brave step. The lady who sold it to me did so with the promise that it had won prizes in the last three years for being the best in Massachusetts; I can totally see why! OMG it was good. Yes, I do still have some in the fridge and I am not clutching my arm- yet!

Anyway, Saint Anthony, the North End, and time for the history portion of today’s blog… I have mentioned it before as being part of the Freedom Trail and having Paul Revere’s House, The Old North Church and Copp’s Hill Burying Ground in the district. This area of Boston did actually start out as an island, and although land fill has now closed the gap and roads and bridges criss cross the city linking it to the rest of Boston I still find getting there a little challenging. This is mainly because I am more than a little special when it comes to navigational needs. Thus, while I took the subway, and all I needed to do was walk six blocks I found myself heading back into downtown Boston as I can’t tell east running streets from those running south. I should get a compass on my wrist rather than a watch! This area of Boston did originally start out as the area of choice for the wealthy and well connected British governors, families and supporters, this lasted until the British Loyalists left Boston and headed north for Nova Scotia during the revolution. Following the war it was left to degrade on its own, and it wasn’t a particularly popular place to be until the 1840s when Irish immigrants fled to the US during the potato famine years. Famous connections from this time (again-see, I listen on tours, and delight in reading building plaques- I really need to get a life) are John F. Fitzgerald (JFK’s Grandfather) born on Ferry Street, and JFK’s mother, Rose, born on Garden Street. Over the next fifty years this area was home to Eastern Europeans as they gradually displaced the Irish and then the Italians as slowly moved in.

In recent years this has been proclaimed one of the safest areas of the city, and crime figures (well, unorganized crime figures) would seem to bear this out, and would possibly provide some support for the idea that the area is “helped” by certain Mafia like connections. I have no idea how true this is, but I do know that I love walking along the streets and hearing people gossiping in Italian, seeing and smelling the authentic food, and eating Mike’s Cannoli. In short this weekend is a feast weekend. It was started in 1919, by Italian immigrants from the small town of Montefalcione in Avellino, to honor their local saints, Anthony and Lucy, and has now become the largest Italian Religious Festival in New England. Street parades and super food are never a bad way to start a weekend!

As it turns out $5.00 was not enough to stop me getting lost today! I spent a little time driving around Concord before I managed to find The Old Manse. As mentioned, my sense of direction is less than good- so I do tend to build in time for this. All was not a total loss; I did discover that Concord is mega pretty, and very quaint, in a Colonial Williamsburg kind of a way. I did also find The Old Manse and the old North Bridge. This was where the first shots of the Revolution were fired (or at least part of the battle site that they were fired on- I think it actually started on the opposite side of the field), and then, less than a century later the residence of Emerson, Hawthorne and continued visiting place of Thoreau. I might be slightly more impressed if I knew more about their literature and they weren’t just vague names that I have a general awareness of. I shall definitely be taking a bit more time to read their work more carefully. The Old Manse was built in 1770 for the patriot minister William Emerson and his loyalist wife Phoebe. William Emerson was killed in battle and his wife married again; the new Minister, Ezra Ripley. Ezra Ripley really did replace William Emerson completely. He took his job, lived in and owned his house, married his wife and raised his children!

It was here- and actually in the same room, that Emerson drafted and wrote his essay “Nature” and Hawthorne later wrote Mosses from an Old Manse- this being the manse in the stories. Hawthorne and his wife started their married life in this manse, in fact the first three years were spent here, and they have etched various messages and ideas into the glass. I’m not sure I would get away with doing that in a rented house today, especially as they didn’t pay any rent for their entire stay and they were later evicted owing £300! I suppose a pay back of some sort is that the vegetable garden, which is still in evidence today, was originally planted by Henry David Thoreau in honor to the Hawthornes’ wedding. With some many original features still in the house, and so many interesting characters that lived here- poets, writers, painters, philosophers, politicians- and somehow left a mark it is very reflective of developing American culture.