The World According to Chuck

“Scratch an American and you’ll uncover a million stories, backgrounds and cultures and countries of origin, but check our DNA and we all carry Boston.” — My column, three weeks ago.

Harvard

I had a short stay in Boston this trip, two days mostly filled with Beth getting ready to move and me whining about computer problems, so I essentially ended up with only a couple of hours to soak up some of one of my favorite cities.

“Soak” being a good word. It was raining big time that week, although coming off the driest Seattle June in a long time it was almost like going home. As, in a smartypants rhetorical way (see above), it was.

Beacon Hill

Beth has private students on Beacon Hill and had a couple of lessons to teach, so she left me with advice to remember where we parked (yeah, that worked) and I had the afternoon to play.

I walked up and down streets, headed for the state house, followed a tourist bus for a bit, picking up information I didn’t know (this was fun, felt like stealing, listening to the guide as I stood on the sidewalk; I’m a trivia thief, always have been), and mostly wandered through Boston Commons, getting a little lost and looking at statues.

And took a picture of some bar. People seemed fascinated by it, dunno.

No Norm

Mostly, though, I just savored being in the city, even for a short time. I’m a history reader, biographies mostly, and I dance through eras depending on my mood. In the past couple of years, though, I’ve returned to the 18th century, so this was like Disneyland (not It’s A Small World; some other parts).

And I read plaques and looked at statues, tried to capture the skyline with my cell phone and failed, got caught in three separate downpours and loved every minute. I made my way, finally, to a Starbuck’s, where I hung out with Bostonians and waited for my daughter to give me directions to the car, and thought about how I need another trip, or maybe many, before I get my fill of Beantown.

(The above is a statue honoring the discovery of general anesthesia. You gotta love a city that has room for this.)