My Vagabond Year: Boston, Massachusetts

Time to leave Canada. We crossed into the United States at the top of Maine (Jackman). Each of the 43 people on the bus had to go into the building (after waiting for one hour) and show a passport and a completed customs form. When we finally got inside it went very quickly. There was a tour bus just minutes ahead of us that was loaded with vacationers from Israel. They were told that they each had to complete paperwork, show their passport, AND PAY $6.00 EACH to compensate the security people for their time. Have you ever heard of such a thing? Charging people to come into this country? I am appalled and considering writing my congress person – if I could only decide who that would be? You know – California or Montana.

While progressing toward Boston, Massachusetts we passed through Portland, Maine. (Maine has a population of 1.4 million people; its capital is Augusta.) There we saw a delightful lighthouse – the most photographed I’m told.

Massachusetts has a population of 6,548,000 people. Boston was settled in 1630 by the Puritans and is the capital. Boston is the home of two major institutions of learning – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard. MIT students are known for their pranks with this one becoming part of the history books. Harvey Smoot was being initiated into a fraternity and was used as a measuring device for the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge. He was told to lie down on the bridge, where his head was marked his feet were then placed when he lay down again, and this was continued across the bridge. The bridge is now said to be 364 Smoots and an ear long.

Harvard University was established in 1636 as the University of Massachusetts Bay Colony. Later it was named after John Harvard. I have a great deal of confusion in my mind as I write this because the information on the Harvard website is definitely in contradiction to what we were told by our tour guide today. I’ll work at getting that straightened out and get back to you later, or not, depending on how it turns out. Anyway this statue is supposedly of John Harvard, but in fact Leonard Hoar who was the president of Harvard University from 1672 to 1675 was the one who posed for it. They had no pictures of Mr. Harvard so gave President Hoar the honor rather than naming a building after him. It might have been Hoar House?!?

And then there is the real meaning of Boston - Paul Revere and his midnight ride, which included the use of The Old North Church (an Episcopal Church which is called Christ Church). The second verse of "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

He said to his friend, “If the British march

By land or sea from the town to-night,

Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch

Of the North Church tower as a signal light,–

One if by land, and two if by sea;

And I on the opposite shore will be,

Ready to ride and spread the alarm

Through every Middlesex village and farm,

For the country folk to be up and to arm.”