1986 Historic Massachusetts (4/23/1986)

Tuesday, April 22, 1986

Kathy C arrives at 18:30 bearing a huge box of fresh fruit!

Wednesday, April 23, 1986

I had the day off and dropped my car off at Dayton Tire to have my Continental tires checked. We then drove in Kathy’s car to Wellesley, MA on SR-37 to I-295 to I-95. When we got off at Wellesley, it looked like NJ suburbs in the hills, with forsythia and tulip magnolias in bloom. The downtown had new façades and we found the Stitchery about 9:30. Kathy made some purchases, and we crossed the street to a cheese shop to get a snack of Edam cheese and crackers.

We took back roads north to Concord, passing Walden Pond and Henry David Thoreau’s house site, both now awfully close to the road! After driving around Concord Square, we headed to the Minute Man National Park. We passed an empty colonial home that turned out to be the William Smith House. He was captain of the Lincoln Minute Men. We found a foundation and remains of a fireplace chimney that turned out to be the Samuel Hartwell Farm Site. Nearby was a neat colonial building that was the Hartwell Tavern. We returned to the main road at a place called “Bloody Angles,” a local ambush point. We drove farther in the rain to the Battle Road Visitor Center to get information on the park. We learned the main part of the park was back above Concord. We drove back into Concord, passing The Wayside, a home of many authors, including the Louisa May Alcott, and later Nathaniel Hawthorne. We passed Ralph Waldo Emerson’s house and the Town Square. We stopped at the North Bridge, and first searched for a bird whose call we kept hearing, but couldn’t identify him.

Memorial obelisk at the North Bridge

We crossed the North Bridge over the Concord River and climbed the hill to the Buttrick House to visit the Visitor Center displaying Revolutionary War uniforms and dioramas of the area. In one of the gardens overlooking the North Bridge was a recorded message giving a glorified description of the “first shot heard ‘round the world.” Back in town, we went to several interesting shops, then left to drive up I-95 to Salem. Passed a witch house or two and parked in a huge lot in the middle of town. There was an information booth that was closed, but a sign said to go to the back door. The lock was broken, so it was easy to enter and pick up a map and some brochures. We followed the map to an empty shopping area to stop in a small craft store with items made by the elderly and handicapped. Kathy got in a friendly conversation with the clerk. We walked along a bricked-in street to the empty Salem Commons. Not too inviting on a wet drizzly day. We found Nathaniel Hawthorne’s House of Seven Gables and tried to count the gables.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's House of Seven Gables

We followed the waterfront of Salem Harbor. Stopped in a candy shop that featured items we had never heard of before, like Gibraltars (chewy candies that after a time become hard as rocks), and Black Jacks (anise-flavored stick candy). We opted for a chunk of fudge. We stopped in an India trade shop of spices, and wandered through the shops of Pickering Wharf. We found a pizza place to get some chowder, seafood for me and corn for Kathy, to warm us up. It was 16:30, so we headed home. We got take-out from Chopsticks for dinner.

Thursday, April 24, 1986

Kathy C left today.