Freedom Trail
Join us as we take the the Freedom Trail right here in Boston! My college roommate, Karen, and her boyfriend come to visit and I take them along for the trail. Check out the Boston Commons, State House and so much more! There is lots to learn along the way and surprising it is all in my backyard. Include "Les métamorphoses du vide" 613 Album by Chapelier Fou I am begging for some more quotables! So please email them in sincerelyyours@writeme.com Find me on Instagram too @ceceknowsitall We also have an interactive episode coming up and there is a piece that you need that goes along with the podcast. To get this piece from me, please email me your name and address and I can mail you the piece to have for the interactive episode. It is coming soon so email me quick!
TRANSCRIPT
“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, but about learning how to dance in the rain” - Vivian Green. This is Sincerely Yours, and I am your host, Cece Denno
Hello pen pals hello, and welcome back to Sincerely Yours. I have the quotable, at the beginning of the show and it is “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, but about learning how to dance in the rain” Vivian Green; and that was submitted by one of my roommates, my other roommate from college Sarah. She has submitted other ones, but I liked this one because I do agree with the message. I do need more quotables, so if this is your first episode, or you are returning for another ones, I need submissions for quotables. You can send those to me any how - we have the email address at sincerelyyours@writeme.com you can also find me on Facebook or instagram at CeceKnowsItAll. I’ve actually had some audience members contact me on Facebook. That is a lot of fun. I would love to hear some more from you guys, so go ahead and reach out.
I have something a lot of fun for this episode, I had my other roommate from college Karen come and visit me in Boston with her boyfriend Will. We were trying to figure out something to do in the city and so I suggested that we do the freedom trail. Which was something that I’ve never done before but I had heard about. In the summer Boston sets up a route that has a lot of historical spots that you can visit along the way. The path was actually, in brick, in the sidewalk. We tried to follow it as best as possible. We actually ended up running out of time, so we couldn’t go to all the stops, so we missed Bunker Hill at the end. It was a lot of fun. We got to see very interesting things, and learned some things along the way. It was a pretty good way to kill a couple hours in Boston. Here we go you're going to travel along as we walk the freedom trail and the first stop was the Boston commons.
Cece: Boston Commons, America’s oldest park the Boston Commons began as a common grazing ground for sheep and cattle. William Blackstone settle on Beacon Hill with only his books for company in 1622. In 1630 puritans from Charlestown joined himto share the area’s potable spring but by 1635, Blackstone bristled at the increased population; sold his proper to the towns people of Boston and moved to roomy Rhode Island to satisfy his reclusive nature. He returned to Boston on a white bull some years later to propose to his beloved. Each household was accessed 6 shillings for the purchase of 44 acres of open land it was held in common by the people, and used as a pasture. The common later became a training field for the militia, and was utilized as aBritish army camp during the occupation of Boston. The Commons varied use also included a place to hang pirates and witches and publicly pillory criminals. It has also served a higher purpose for a place for public oratory and discourse. Rev. Martin Luther King spoke here. Pope John Paul II said mass here. Gloria Steinem advanced the feminist revolution on these grounds. Today, visitors to the commons may enjoy concerts, a performance of Shakespeare, or a simple calm respite from the bustle of city life.
I didn’t know that - that’s cool. There we go we have the Boston Common that pretty close to where I work. So I can walk there for lunch and just hang out. There’s always people there enjoying the sunshine. Enjoying the space. Of course we moved on to the state house.
Cece: Designed by Charles Bulfinch, the “new” State House was completed on January 11, 1798. Its golden dome was once made of wood, and later overlaid with copper by Paul Revere.
It was covered with 23-karat gold leaf for the first time in 1874. The land for the State House was originally used as John Hancock’s cow pasture. Today, the State House is one of the oldest buildings on Beacon Hill, and its grounds cover 6.7 acres of land. It is under the golden dome that senators, state representatives, and the governor conduct the daily business of the
Commonwealth.
Now, as you can imagine we go one from there we go to the Park Street church. The public school site Granary Burying Ground, The Kings Chapel and Burying Ground, the Old South Meeting House, The Old Corner Book Store, which is fun to see and is now a chiptole. Then we went on to the Boston Massacre site and the Old State House. This is about the time we started getting tired but we definitely stopped to learn a little more about the Boston Massacre site.
Cece: On March 5, 1770, at this site, a deadly skirmish erupted between nine British
“redcoats” and a large crowd of Boston residents. Angry over the town’s occupation by British forces, local toughs threw ice and hard words at a lone sentry outside the nearby Custom
House. The sentry was reinforced, the crowd became a mob, and the soldiers opened fire, fatally wounding five Bostonians. What British officials called the “Unhappy Disturbance at Boston,” Paul Revere labeled a “bloody massacre.” His widely circulated illustration of the event was a model of propaganda and did much to stir up antiBritish sentiment in the colonies. The British soldiers were tried for murder and were defended by John Adams, a young Boston lawyer who was as loyal to the idea of justice as he was to the Patriot cause.
It was really neat to find all this history right in my back yard. I’ve lived in Boston for 6 years going on 7, and I can’t believe I’ve never sought out any of these places. I always saw the brick lining for the path on streets. Never really had the idea to do this. Its really fun that Karen came with her boyfriend to go around the city with me. The Boston Massacre sight is really close to Fanuiel Hall which is a very popular spot in Boston. Lots of restaurant, bars, and stores. Then we went on to the North End, where Paul Reveres house is. We were pretty interested to go into the plantation that he had up there. Found out a bunch of information about Paul Revere stuff I never knew. He was actually an entrepreneur - or considered and entrepreneur at his time. Had many children, and rented out a portion of his house, and was a landlord and so there was lots of fun information to find out about Paul Revere and the North End. That was actually our last stop and we went to Regina’s Pizza. We did end up going to the Old North Church. Paul Reveres house was our last stop, we missed the Old North Church, Copp’s Hill Burying Ground, the USS Constitution, and finally the Bunker Hill Monument which is closer to my house which I thought we would do it backwards and start there but, we knew that we wouldn’t get to the whole thing. So we started at the beginning. It was a great time with Karen and Will we stopped at the cheers store in Fanuiel Hall and got a good laugh there. It was easy and simple and it you would ever like to come visit me in Boston, I would gladly show you a good time. There are many things to see and this is just one of them.
As I just mentioned I would love, love, love to hear from you guys. So please reach out to me. If you listen to the previous episodes of this podcast, you obviously know that I love podcasting. This week was podcast movement in Chicago, I didn’t make it this year but, I would love to be hopefully more in the podcasting community. I love the idea of having you guys be apart of my podcast. I really truly thank you guys for listening and spending time here. We’ll just look forward to other episodes. I have been planning a interactive episode. If you are interested there is a piece that I need to give you for the interactive episode, it might not be the next one but the other one then. I will need your name and address, I will not share the information but email me at sincerelyyours@writeme.com it will be a physical thing that you will need for the episode it goes along with the audio. So you definitely definitely want to email me. I look forward to next time.
This is Sincerely Yours, making sense of making it through life.