I decided it was time to brush up on our history and drive to Concord, to wander around the place where the Revolutionary War started. Besides, my favorite “Schoolhouse Rock’’ segment is “The Shot Heard ’Round the World,’’ and my kids know the lyrics by heart.
My teenage stepkids weren’t in town, so it was just me and the little ones, who I knew wouldn’t be up for walking the entire route along which the local militia marched and fought on April 19, 1775. So we parked our car at the North Bridge Visitor Center on Liberty Street and wandered as far as my 4-year-old’s legs would allow.
We got farther than I thought we would. We explored the gorgeous gardens at the visitor’s center, stopped by what was left of a couple of historic houses, followed a long, sandy path through an overgrown field, and, about half a mile later, found ourselves at the Minute Man statue. Sculpted by Daniel Chester French to commemorate the citizen soldiers who rallied to expel the British Regulars, it marks one end of the North Bridge; a tall monument, erected in 1836, stands on the other side. Between those two spots the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired.
Once we crossed the bridge, we followed a path to the Old Manse, home of the Rev. William Emerson (grandfather of Ralph Waldo Emerson), stopped to inspect a 19th-century boathouse, and listened to a recorded four-minute history lesson about Major John Buttrick of Concord and how he gave the first-ever order for the Colonists to attack the British (“Fire, fellow soldiers, for God’s sake, fire!’’). We saw the grave of the fallen British soldiers, the stone marker flanked by two British flags and inscribed: “They came three thousand miles and died to keep the past upon its throne. Unheard beyond the ocean tide, the English mother made her moan.’’
After stopping to watch families of geese swim along the Concord River, we hopped back into the car to follow the historic route that the Minute Men took to chase the Redcoats back to Boston, which conveniently runs along Route 2A. We passed the former homes of authors Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and stopped at Meriam’s Corner. Since the paths here meander through the fields where the six-hour gunfight known as “Battle Road’’ began, my kids were happy to be “off leash,’’ so to speak; they ran and played to their hearts’ content while I soaked up the history.
About 3 miles later we pulled into a parking lot and braved the rain to see the site where Revere was captured by the British. The monument — a circular area set behind a low stone wall— was ankle-deep with rainwater, which my kids thought was fantastic. While I read the placards out loud, they splashed in the gigantic puddle, pausing only to ask if Revere was actually buried under the stone slabs. (Answer: No.)
All in all, we spent more than two hours exploring the Minute Man National Historical Park, and that left plenty of sites to visit on another day. If the weather is nice, we’ll bring a picnic — and the big kids — and make a day of it sometime soon.