Yankee Doody Dandy

Songs have played an important role in developing a sense of pride about one’s country. “Yankee Doodle Dandy” is a traditional song that predated the American Revolutionary War. Today, it is the state song of Connecticut. The tune of “Yankee Doodle Dandy” was much older than its lyrics, well known across western Europe. The melody of the song may have originated from an Irish tune, “All the way to Galway,” or a Middle Dutch harvest song from 15th-century Holland, with nonsense words. The British with this song were insinuating that the colonists were lower-class men who lacked masculinity, emphasizing that the American men were womanly, feminine, or dandies. The lyrics came from a pre-Revolutionary War song originally sung by the British military officers, written in 1755 by a British Army surgeon, Richard Shuckburgh, while campaigning in Rensselaer, New York. They intended to mock the disheveled, disorganized colonial “Yankees” with whom they served in the French and Indian War. The British troops sang it to mock their stereotype of the American soldier as a Yankee simpleton who thought that he was stylish if he simply stuck a feather in his cap. The macaroni referred to wigs that a gentleman might wear. However, it then became popular among the Americans as a song of defiance. They added verses to this song that mocked the British and hailed George Washington as the Commander of the Continental army. By the Battle of Bunker Hill, less than two months after Lexington and Concord, this song would become a popular anthem for the colonial forces. By 1781, “Yankee Doodle Dandy” had turned from being an insult to being a song of national pride. The current version seems to have been written in 1776 by Edward Bangs, a Harvard sophomore who also was a Minuteman. He wrote a ballad with 15 verses which circulated in Boston and surrounding towns in 1776. A bill was introduced in the House of Representatives on July 25, 1999, recognizing Billerica, Massachusetts, as “America’s Yankee Doodle Town.”

“Yankee Doodle went to town

A-riding on a pony,

Stuck a feather in his cap

And called it macaroni.”

In 1942, there was a movie called Yankee Doodle Dandy about George M. Cohan, known as “The Man Who Owned Broadway,” starring James Cagney. Cohan wrote the popular song “Over There” during World War I. This film was a major hit for Warner Brothers, and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning three, just as World War II was starting in the USA. In 1993, Yankee Doodle Dandy was selected for preservation in the USA National Film Registry. Have you ever heard the song “Yankee Doodle Dandy”?

Nineteenth century poetry around Concord

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1892), who was a descendant of the Mayflower travelers, described the first shot fired by the Patriots at the North Bridge in his “Concord Hymn” in 1837. He immortalized the events at the North Bridge in this poem that became important, because it commemorated the beginning of the American Revolution. For much of the 19th century it was a means by which Americans learned about the Revolution, helping to forge the identity of this young nation.

“By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled;

Here once the embattled farmers stood;

And fired the shot heard round the world.”

The American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1817-1882) wrote the poem “Paul Revere’s Ride,” in 1861, on the verge of the American Civil War. This poem commemorated the actions of the American patriot Paul Revere on April 18, 1775, although with significant inaccuracies. It was first published in the January 1861 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, a partly fictionalized poem story about Paul Revere. In this poem, Revere rides his horse through Medford, Lexington, and Concord to warn the patriots. Longfellow’s maternal grandfather, Peleg Wadsworth, was Revere’s commander on the Penobscot Expedition.

“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.”

The poem fluctuated between past and present tense, sometimes in the same sentence, symbolically pulling the actions of the Revolution into modern times and displaying an event with timeless sympathies. Longfellow’s poem is not historically accurate but his “mistakes” were deliberate. He was purposefully trying to create American legends, much as he did with works like The Song of Hiawatha (1855) and The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858). Longfellow’s poem is credited with creating a national legend around Paul Revere (1734-1818), a previously little-known Massachusetts silversmith. His own obituary did not even mention his midnight ride, but instead focused on his business sense and his many friends. The fame that Longfellow brought to Revere, however, did not materialize until after the Civil War. Thus, we see the importance of poetry in developing attitudes about wars and patriotism. What do you know about Paul Revere and Concord?

Happy Thanksgiving! – 2025! – The First Thanksgiving

Since I am writing about Massachusetts, I thought it might be nice to write about the first Thanksgiving, as best we know about it today. In the fall of 1621, the English Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag Native indigenous Americans shared an autumn harvest feast. This three-day celebration involving the entire village and about 90 Wampanoag, a symbol of cooperation and interaction between English colonists and Native Americans. The event later inspired 19th-century Americans to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday in the United States. The harvest celebration took place at the historic site of the Patuxet villages, as a celebration of the first successful harvest season of the colonists. Thus, the first Thanksgiving took place during the autumn of 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Although no one back then used the term “First Thanksgiving.” Many myths have surrounded this first Thanksgiving, since very little is known about the event itself. However, we do have two valuable firsthand accounts of that feast. The first account is from William Bradford (1590-1657) and his journal titled Of Plymouth Plantation 1620-1646, while the other is a publication written by Edward Winslow (1595-1655) titled Mourt’s Relations in 1621. Neither chronicler of the event referred to it as Thanksgiving. Celebrating a fall harvest was an English tradition at that time, since the pilgrim colonists had much to celebrate. The 53 pilgrims at this first harvest celebration were the only colonists to survive the long journey on the Mayflower and the first winter in the New World. Disease and starvation struck down half of the original 102 Mayflower colonists. With the help of the local Wampanoag tribe, they had a hearty supply of food to sustain them through the next winter. Guests at the feast included 90 unnamed Wampanoag native Americans from a nearby village, including their leader Massasoit. One of these native Americans was a young man named Squanto, who spoke fluent English. He had been appointed by Massasoit to serve as the pilgrim’s translator and guide. Squanto (1580-1622) of the Patuxet tribe of the Wampanoags, had learned English prior to the pilgrim’s arrival, after he was captured by other English explorers and spent time in Europe as a slave, before returning to his homeland and the tribe in Plymouth. Squanto’s involvement as an intermediary in negotiating the friendship treaty with Massasoit that led to the joint feast between the Pilgrims and Wampanoag. The names of the pilgrims present at this harvest celebration included only four women, twenty-two men, with twenty-five teenagers and children. Neither Bradford or Winslow’s writings reveal what was served at the first Thanksgiving meal, besides fowl and deer, but guesses can be made based on the types of food they often wrote about like mussels, lobsters, grapes, plums, corn, and herbs. Thus, at least 90 Wampanoag natives joined 52 English people to mark a successful harvest. That is the simple story of the First Thanksgiving in the fall of 1621. What do you know or think you know about the First Thanksgiving?

Concord, Massachusetts

Today, the town of Concord, Massachusetts, has a population of 18,491 within 26 square miles, with a median household income of $184,086. Nashua, New Hampshire, is 23 miles north, while Boston is 19 miles to the east. The town center is near where the Sudbury River and the Assabet River join to form the Concord River. Concord was established in 1635 by a group of puritan English settlers. Besides the events of 1775, a rich literary community developed in Concord during the mid-19th century, centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), and his old Manse house. Emerson was at the center of a group of like-minded Transcendentalists living in Concord. Among them were the author Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) and the philosopher Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888), the father of Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888), who lived at the Wayside Home. Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) was another notable member of Emerson’s circle. Today, their homes have become museums. They are buried on Authors’ Ridge in Concord’s Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. This substantial collection of literary talent in one small town led Henry James (1843-1916) to dub Concord “the biggest little place in America.” Concord has maintained a lively literary culture to this day. Notable authors who have called this town home in recent years include Doris Kearns Goodwin, Alan Lightman, Robert B. Parker, and Gregory Maguire. In 1849, Ephraim Wales Bull developed the now-ubiquitous Concord grape at his home on Lexington Road, where the original vine still grows. Welch’s, the first company to sell grape juice, maintains a headquarters in Concord. The Boston-born Bull developed his Concord grape by experimenting with seeds from some of the native species on his farm outside Concord, down the road from the transcendentalist’s authors. In the 20th century, Concord developed into an affluent Boston suburb and tourist destination. Concord is also notable for its progressive and environmentalist politics, becoming the first community in the United States to ban single-serving water plastic bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in 2012. Are you familiar with the importance of Concord?

The militia at Lexington and Concord

That Thursday afternoon of June 14, 1984, we headed to the revolutionary sites at Lexington and Concord, about 18 miles west of Boston. We had lunch at the Colonial Inn in Concord, south of the old North Bridge and near the Old Manse House in Concord. I believe that we rode around in our car to look at all the various historic sites after we had lunch. The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first major military campaigns of the American Revolutionary War, that eventually resulted in the colonial American victory. These battles were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County in the colonial-era Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington and Concord. I grew up in Middlesex County, but in Carteret, New Jersey. These events marked the outbreak of armed conflict between Great Britain and the Patriot Militias from the American Colonies. In late 1774, there had been the so-called Boston Tea Party that led to the formation of a Patriot provisional government known as the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. They called for local militias to train for possible hostilities. This Colonial provisional government effectively controlled most of the Massachusetts colony, outside of the British-controlled town of Boston that the “redcoats” had occupied since 1768. In response, the British government in February 1775 declared Massachusetts to be in a state of rebellion. About 700 British Army regulars in Boston were given secret orders to capture and destroy the colonial military supplies, reportedly stored by the Massachusetts militia at Concord. Through effective intelligence gathering, the patriot leaders had received word weeks before this expedition that their supplies might be at risk. Thus, they had moved most of them to other locations. On the night before this first battle, the warning about the British expedition had been rapidly sent from Boston to militias in the area by several riders, including Paul Revere and Samuel Prescott. The first shots were fired just as the sun was rising in Lexington. Eight militiamen were killed, but the British suffered only one casualty. The militia was outnumbered and fell back, while the regular British soldiers proceeded on to Concord, where they broke apart into smaller companies to search for the colonial military supplies. At the North Bridge in Concord, approximately 400 militiamen engaged 100 British regulars at about 11:00 AM, resulting in casualties on both sides. However, the outnumbered red coat regulars fell back from the bridge and rejoined the main body of British forces in Concord. The British forces then began their return retreat march to Boston, after completing their unsuccessful search for military supplies. However, more militiamen continued to arrive from the neighboring towns. Gunfire erupted again and again between the two sides, and continued throughout the day as the British troops marched back towards Boston. The colonists were stunned by their success. In their accounts afterward, British officers and soldiers alike noted their frustration that the colonial militiamen fired at them from behind trees and stone walls, rather than confronting them in large, linear formations in the style of European warfare. No one knows who fired the first shot, but they started shooting at each other. Today, there is a reconstructed North Bridge in Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord. There is also a statue known as The Lexington Minuteman at the town green in Lexington, Massachusetts. What do you know about the Minute Men of Massachusetts?

Massachusetts

Massachusetts, officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts like Pennsylvania, is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern USA. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode Island to its south, New Hampshire and Vermont to its north, and New York to its west. With a 2024 Census Bureau-estimated population of 7,136,171, it is the most populous state in New England, the 16th-most-populous in the United States, and the third-most densely populated USA state. Massachusetts was a site of early English colonization. The Plymouth Colony was founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims from the Mayflower ship. In 1630, the Massachusetts Bay Colony got its name from the indigenous Massachusett people, translated as “near the great hill.” Boston became known as the “Cradle of Liberty” for the agitation there that later led to the American Revolution. Originally dependent on agriculture, fishing, and trade, Massachusetts was transformed into a manufacturing center during the Industrial Revolution. Before the American Civil War, the state was a center for the abolitionist, temperance, and transcendentalist movements. During the 20th century, the state’s economy shifted from manufacturing to services. In the 21st century, Massachusetts has become the global leader in biotechnology. The state’s capital and most populous city, as well as its cultural and financial center, is Boston and the Greater Boston area. Other major cities are Worcester, Springfield, and Cambridge. Massachusetts has a reputation for social and political progressivism. Harvard University in Cambridge is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, with the largest financial endowment of any university in the world. Both Harvard and MIT, also in Cambridge, are perennially ranked as either the most or among the most highly regarded academic institutions in the world. Also, Massachusetts’s public-school students place among the top tier in the world in academic performance. Thus, Massachusetts is the most educated and wealthiest among the USA states. The early history of Massachusetts included the Mayflower Compact, the Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts Bay Colony, New England Confederation, the Dominion of New England, and the Province of Massachusetts Bay. In 1852, Massachusetts became the first state to pass compulsory education laws. In the 20^th century, the Kennedy family dominated with JFK as the 35th President of the USA. The concept of “Mass Save” was created in 2008 by the passing of the Green Communities Act of 2008. Scituate is the municipality with the highest percentage of people identifying Irish ancestry in the USA at 47.5%. Irish Americans constitute the largest ethnicity in Massachusetts, followed by Italians, African American, and Hispanics. Some people speak with a Boston accent. As far as religion goes, 34% are Unaffiliated, 34% are Catholic, 22% are Protestant. Massachusetts was founded and settled by Puritans in 1620, and soon after by other groups of Separatists/Dissenters, Nonconformists, and Independents from 17th century England Anglicanism. A majority of the people in Massachusetts today remain Christian, but the descendants of the Puritans belong to many different churches. What do you know about colonial Massachusetts?

Old Sturbridge Village

On Thursday morning, June 14, 1984, after breakfast at the Public House, we set out to spend the morning at Old Sturbridge Village, located on U.S. Route 20. This living museum re-created life in rural New England from the 1790s to the 1830s. In 1984, we paid $7.50 each for Margaret and myself, and $3.50 for Joy. Margaret and Joy enjoyed themselves at the various displays at this largest living museum in New England, covering more than 200 acres. This Village included 59 antique buildings, three water-powered mills, and a working farm. Costumed interpreters demonstrated and interpreted 19th-century arts, crafts, and agricultural work. George Washington Wells with his family and others formed the Wells Historical Museum in 1935. After a pause for World War II, they changed its name to Old Sturbridge Village and opened it on June 8, 1946. Attendance climbed, mostly through word of mouth. In a 1950 article in The Saturday Evening Post, this village was featured as “The Town That Wants to be Out of Date.” Old Sturbridge Village had more than 40 structures. The countryside consisted of outlying farms and shops. The Mill Neighborhood featured various commercial structures that relied upon the millpond for their power. The Center Village represented the center of town, with the town green as its focal point, containing many buildings, including the Quaker Friends Meetinghouse, the Center Meetinghouse, the Salem Towne House, a Law Office, the Richardson Parsonage, the Asa Knight Store, the Thompson Bank, the Fenno House, the Fitch House, the Grant Store, the Tin Shop, the Broom Shop, and the Printing Office. There was a Cider Mill, a Shoe Shop, a Blacksmith Shop, a Cooper Shop, and a Pottery Shop. Many of these were small about 10’ by 10’. Of course, there was a farmhouse, with a barn, outbuildings, and fields. There also was a Gristmill, a Sawmill, and a Carding Mill. They had people showing how they prepared food in an early 19th-century kitchen. A potter produced handmade goods on an old-fashioned wheel. A shopkeeper displayed typical early 1800s goods. A woman demonstrated spinning wool into yarn. A tinsmith demonstrated how tinware was produced. This Village was a popular wedding location and has appeared in many TV shows and films. Filmmaker Ken Burns’s Hampshire College undergraduate thesis in 1975 was an educational film made at Old Sturbridge Village called Working in Rural New England. I have a booklet and six postcards from there, plus the menu from the Old Public House. We had a good time. However, it was time to move closer to Boston. Have you ever been to a living museum?

Sturbridge, Massachusetts

That evening of June 13, 1984, we arrived at Sturbridge to spend the night at the Quality Inn in Sturbridge. Sturbridge is a town in Worcester County, home to Old Sturbridge Village, a living history museum, and other sites of historical interest. The population was 9,867 at the 2020 census within 39 square miles. Sturbridge was first visited by the English Puritans in 1644 when John Winthrop the Younger visited this area. He bought the land from the Tantasqua and mined graphite, lead, and iron. This mine stayed in the Winthrop family as late as 1784, and was in operation until 1910. Sturbridge was first settled in 1729 by settlers from Medfield, and was officially incorporated in 1738. New Medfield and Dummer were considered as town names before the town was named after Stourbridge, England. Sturbridge is bordered by Charlton and Southbridge to the east, Union, Connecticut, and Woodstock, Connecticut, to the south, Brimfield and Holland to the west, and Brookfield and East Brookfield to the north. Sturbridge lies approximately 29 miles east of Springfield, 16 miles southwest of Worcester, and 55 miles west of Boston. U.S. Route 20 runs through Sturbridge, and the junction of I-90 and the eastern terminus of I-84 is located there. This town has a 97% European heritage. This was a typical New England small town in Massachusetts. In the morning, we had breakfast at Ebenezer’s Crafts Public House Tavern that was named after the founder and keeper of the Inn in 1771. Colonel Ebenezer Crafts entertained the Revolutionary troops with culinary Yankee feasts and specialty drinks that are still going today. As a tribute to the colonel, the atmosphere has maintained its 18th century ambiance with vintage brass beer taps and rum barrels. This Public House was on Sturbridge Commons and is still there today. Have you ever been to Sturbridge?

Delaware Water Gap

Then we drove along the Delaware Water-Gap Park, a 70,000-acre national recreation area administered by the National Park Service in northwest New Jersey and northeast Pennsylvania, a 40-mile stretch of the Delaware River designated the Middle Delaware National Scenic River. This Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area is on the eastern edge of the Poconos. At the area’s southern end lays the Delaware Water Gap, a dramatic mountain pass where the river cuts between Blue Mountain and Kittatinny Mountain, between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. More than 4 million people visit this recreation area annually, many from the nearby New York metropolitan area. Canoeing, kayaking, and rafting trips down the river are popular in the summer. Other activities include hiking, rock climbing, swimming, fishing, hunting, camping, cycling, cross-country skiing, and horseback riding. We did none of that. We only drove along the river with its numerous historic sites along the way. This national recreation area was established in 1965 instead of a dam project which would have flooded a large region north of the Water Gap. The Appalachian Trail runs along much of the eastern boundary of the park, which has significant Native American archaeological sites. In addition, many structures remain from early Dutch settlements during the colonial period. The Delaware River runs through the gap, separating Pennsylvania from New Jersey, but is less than 1,000 feet. In the 17th century, the Dutch and the English each claimed both sides of the Delaware River as part of their colonial lands in America. George Washington crossed the Delaware River with his troops during the Revolutionary War at Christmas in 1776. Have you ever seen the Delaware River?

Bushkill Falls in the Pocono Mountains

The first day of our eastern trip was in Bushkill Falls, nicknamed the “Niagara Falls of Pennsylvania,” high in the Pocono Mountains of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Charles E. Peters opened this 300-acre park in 1904. His family owned this park until Aramark took it over in 1995 and bought it in 2023. We were there when they were celebrating their 80th anniversary on June 13, 1984. Bushkill Falls is a series of eight privately owned waterfalls, the tallest of which cascades over 100 feet in the Pocono Mountains into the Delaware River. The Pocono Mountains are a geographical, geological, and cultural region in Northeastern Pennsylvania, a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, that overlooks the Delaware River to the east. The name Pocono is derived from the Munsee word Pokawachne, which means “Creek Between Two Hills.” These wooded hills and valleys have long been popular recreation areas, accessible within a two-hour drive to millions of New York metropolitan and Philadelphia area residents. Many Pocono communities have resort hotels with fishing, hunting, skiing, and other sports facilities, but we did not go to any of them. This Pocono region has a population of about 340,300, which is growing at a rapid pace. By 1960, the Pocono Mountains rivaled Niagara Falls as a honeymoon destination, attracting 100,000 couples a year. Skiing became a $230 million per year industry in the Poconos in the 1970s. Bushkill Falls was the majestic Main Falls, a 100-foot drop off a cliff. The deep pool at the bottom had ferns, mosses, and wild flowers. The other falls were less spectacular, seventy feet and less. However, trails and bridges laced the area, affording splendid views. The walk to the Bridal Veil Falls where the mountain path leads deep into the forest was scenic. Spring-fed waters tumbled down the mountainside in a series of lovely falls that are so misty in their appearance that they are named for brides of love, Little Bush Kill, Pond Run Creek, Bridal Veil Falls, Bridesmaid Falls, Laurel Glen Falls, and Pennell Falls. To be honest, I was a little disappointed. I had expected something a little better. I know that Margaret and Joy were not excited about these mini-waterfalls. It also was hot. Thus, we did not spend too much time there. Are you familiar with the Pocono Mountains?