A Little About History

by Marsha Ward

I put myself on a different schedule here a couple of month ago, and determined to be prompt and punctual in putting up my posts.

Here it is Saturday. Guess when my day was. Right. Yesterday!

However, I will do a little Blogger Magic, and you'll never know this isn't Friday, heh-heh.

I'm pretty sure I missed looking at my appointment calendar because I was riveted to the TV and news of the gruesome happenings in Boston and the surrounding area. At the time, it struck me that it was a perfect time to point out that on the night of April 18-19, other significant events occurred in the vicinity.

As Longfellow's much-maligned poem tells us:

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

No, we're too busy texting, checking Facebook, surfing the Internet, or watching TV, to concern ourselves with anything so out-of-date as History!

Not so far removed from Cambridge and Watertown are the towns of Lexington and Concord, where April 19 means something quite different than the date of capture of an alleged terrorist bomber. (Okay, I went back and gave him the benefit of the doubt, as is legally responsible.)

History isn't a bad thing, my children. Learn of your roots. Learn how men and women in the past gave you this America we hold dear by their sweat, blood, and tears. Learn where the guts and gumption of the first responders of this bloody week got those attributes.

History! Dip into it once a day.