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We got up and met Dick’s sister, Barbara for breakfast at
one of her favorite local delis. Barb
and her partner Joan live about a mile away from where we were staying. We are allergic to their cat, so could stay
with them but were glad to have found as nice place so close by.
We had a nice catching up on our lives breakfast and then
were on to planning our next several days.
We when back to their house, and while Barb took the dog to doggy
daycare at Petsmart, Dick and Patti toured the Longfellow House, literally in
Barb’s backyard. This home had a rich
history, including being George Washington’s headquarters early in the Revolutionary
War when he was rousting the British from Boston. Later, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his
family bought the home and lived there for a very long time. The house is now curated by the National
Park Service and is open to tours. We
caught up with one and enjoyed a very informative look into the Longfellow
family life.
We especially enjoyed seeing his study where he wrote many of
his famous poems including “The Song of Hiawatha,” “Evangeline,” “The Village
Smithy” and many others. He was a highly
famous and successful popular poet in this time. And home stayed in the family for a long time,
so most of the furnishings were original.
It was really a beautiful home and we were so pleased to get inside it.
After our tour, Barb and Joan were ready to take us to see
The African-American History Museum in downtown Boston. The highlight of this visit, was an exhibit
of photos of Frederic Douglass, former slave and American statesmen. He was a very early adopter of photography as
a means of social change, and was the most photographed American man in the middle 1800’s. The photos of him all purposefully looked
dignified and serious. He was a force to
be reckoned with and a confidant of Abraham Lincoln. This pictures were extraordinary. We were sad that photography of these were not allowed but
soaked in the power of these amazing portraits.
Then we also were pleased to get a tour of the African-American
meetinghouse next door where many of the socially progressive people in the
1800’s spoke. Much of the abolitionists’
work as well as women’s suffrage speakers when they came to the Boston area
happened here. The building has been restored and still has quite a feeling of
the powerful words and events that happened there over the years. It is still used for concerts and talks
today.
It was a very hot afternoon, and we were tired out and ready
for dinner. We grabbed some good Mexican
food at a local place and then we got dropped off back at our lodging.
We spent the evening relaxing, working our blog and tuning
in to part of the Republication National Convention. We would follow this in bits and pieces
throughout the week via the internet as we had no TV access. We were award that Internet courage was very
complete and sometimes more than Dick could stand. We were both troubled by some of the speeches
and intolerance we heard. Tomorrow
would be a relaxing day.
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