Maine Lobsters

Who could leave Maine without honoring their lobsters??
Fully seventy percent of all lobsters harvested in New England are caught in Maine waters.

This is a terrible iPhone picture of a picture - too much glare, and it looks like my fingers are wrapped around the man's legs as though he was a paper doll!  LOL!  But, if you look closely - really, really closely - you will see the lobster claws he is hanging on to.  They are enormous!


When the momma lobster gets ready to lay her eggs she lays on her back, curls up here tail and "extrudes" thousands of eggs no bigger than the head of pin.  They're suspended there, in a jelly-glue mass for nine months!  Those eggs that don't stick won't hatch, and they become seafood themselves for other critters.

Kinda like a frog doesn't look like a frog when it hatches, lobsters resemble insects because they don't have claws.  Baby frogs are called tadpoles; baby lobsters are called larva.  Over the next month the larva will transform itself by growing and shedding its shell three times.  These lil' critters don't weigh anything so they are doomed to float around as bait until they get that final, heavier shell and sink to the bottom of the ocean.  Now it becomes a game of hide-and-seek.  As it grows it does more seeking than hiding - and that's when the lobster fisherman's trap gets 'em!

Some of those Maine lobsters live to be 100 years old and are as big as a small child at 27 pounds.  They come in all different colors, the rarest being blue lobsters, but there are red, white and yellow spotted lobsters, too.  They all turn red when you toss 'em in the boiler pot!  Mmmm-mm-mmmm!

Kennebunkport, Maine

I have heard about the Bush home in Kennebunkport, Maine for what seems like decades!  Never, ever thought I'd get to see it in person.  Not tour it, it's still a home to the Bush family, but just to see it because I've heard so much about it over the years.
 

 

It's on a spit of land called Walker's Point.  (Look at that!  These crazy New Englanders even SCUBA dive here!)  Now, that spit of land is guarded by a fierce lookin' gate, and if I remember correctly, there's even a little bridge you would have to drive across before storming the gate.  

 Maybe no one else does, but the people of Kennebunkport loved George Herbert Walker Bush.  (Did you catch that the location is named Walker's Point - as in George Herbert WALKER Bush?)  

 "For our Friend and 41st President 

George H.W. Bush

An 'Anchor to Windward'

As he was for our nation and world during

four years of tumultuous and historic change,

so, too, has Kennebunkport served, in the

 words of St. Paul, "as an anchor of the soul, 

both sure and steadfast" to him.

presented by those who love him as much

as he loves this special place.

Snowy Beaches

Silly me!  It never occurred to this Texas girl that there would ever be snow on a beach!  Isn't it beautiful?  And that SKY!

Nothing holds these New Englanders back.  Look at all of them going for a stroll on the beach, ocean on one side, snow on the other.   They even picnic in the snow!

 

Me?  Not so much.  I'm layered to the nth degree!

East Coast Surfers, Lighthouses and Homes

Most people - including me - associate surfing with the West Coast and Pacific Ocean, but don't discount surfing the Atlantic.  Hardy New Englanders simply don't allow the cold to hold them back!

 

 

Can you imagine how many storms this lighthouse has weathered?  And it looks better than I do!!

 I think the one at Fort Williams is the prettiest.

 But they all have their appeals.  Isolated on a rock outcropping from shore would be a stunning place to suffer a hurricane.  But it certainly looks as though this house was built for it!

The homes are nothing to sneeze at either!!  Can you imagine the heating bills???

Grandkids Christmas - 2015

Every year we try to come up with some long-distance gifts we can give all of the grandkids.  This year was a bit of a challenge though as the older grandkids are now impossible to buy for!  But I like to keep a photographic record of what we come up with so I don't duplicate something in years to come.  So, here it is.

Seems intricate coloring books are in this year, and I found one that is also full of Bible scripture  Excellent choice, if I do say so myself! 

If you have coloring books one must have things to color with.

Lil' Timer got lots of stuffed animals and a book to read.

Hairbands are always good for those long, beautiful tresses.  The hacky-sack proves that they still have some tom-boy in them!

Ever heard the term, "sock it away"?  What's that sock on the right side of the picture - and what might be inside that sock?  Hmmmm.  Of course, for this lil' boy there are no headbands, but there are some pocket combs.

It really IS a lot of work putting it all together!

What A Meal!

By the time we finished with the USS Constitution we were famished!  We were also a long way from the car, so we had to find a place as we walked.  We ended up in this restaurant where no one was speaking English.  We felt kind of strange, but, wow! what a meal we had!

How To Recruit The Crew of a Warship - In 1812

Your crew mates will be about 5' 6", average age of 27, 7-15% black, gray eyes, brown hair cut short or tied back in a braid, 5-10% would be tattooed with initials, anchors, hearts or a cross, and quite possibly be missing fingers and be covered in burns and scars - and maybe wearing a peg-leg!

If you sign on to be a maintopman (main-top-man) you are expected to be up in the highest sheets (sails) in all kinds of weather but most especially during battle.  The enemy always angles for the rigging to cripple the handling of the ship.  YOU are supposed to dodge all the munitions and knot and splice and fix up the sails and lines.  (There are no "ropes" on a ship; they are called lines.)  The tools you will have to work with are your ears, to hear orders, and your hands to obey orders.  Oh, and a pocket knife in case something unexpected gets you tangled up.  During the War of 1812 there are four recorded instances of sailors falling from the rigging.  None survived.



 As one of over four hundred sailors aboard you ARE expected to do WHAT you are told WHEN you are told - period - and to do your job promptly and CHEERFULLY.  Otherwise, there WILL be a flogging.






 Off duty, life wasn't so bad.  Every man wants to nap in one of these!



All sailors had to holystone the deck if they wanted securing footing in a storm or battle.  The holystone was a block of sandstone.  Big ones were called "bibles" and smaller ones called "prayer books."


One of the reasons sailors have always had a friendly (?) feud going with the marines is because the marines were to stand at the gangway armed with a musket to ensure that none of the new recruits changes his mind and tries to escape!  Conversely, in battle, the marines had only muskets to defend themselves with - and these were the kind where you loaded with a lead ball, tore a cartridge of gunpowder open, poured it in (saving enough for the "pan"), and rammed it home.  Then poured the remaining gunpowder in the pan and set it off with the strike of a flint.  All the while rolling up and down and left and right with the ship trying to keep their powder dry, dodging cannon balls and bullets from the British.  Marines aren't so bad.

Back! Back, Ship! Back!

 

Square-rigged ships, like the USS Constitution, cannot sail wherever they choose.  They can only sail at an angle to the wind and never directly into the wind.  During a battle, the ship's Captain had to think about that and how to keep the guns pointed at the enemy at all times.  

On February 20, 1815, Captain Charles Stewart did MORE than accomplish this while attacking TWO enemy vessels at the same time!  He encountered the HMS Cyane and  Levant from the preferred windward side (that allows him to fill his sails with wind to improve maneuvering, while denying that wind to the opposing ship.)  After fifteen minutes, the bigger but faster Constitution ranged alongside the lead enemy ship.  Through skilled sail-handling, Stewart and his crew stopped Constitution's forward momentum and even moved backward! to avoid taking fire from the second enemy.

THEN he maneuvered to divide the two British warships and fight them one at a time!  

Whoa!  Think about THAT!  Make a ship the size of the Constitution stop dead in the water and then go in reverse?  All the while fighting a battle with roaring cannon and billows of smoke so thick one probably has no clue what ship was where.  Captain Stewart - and his awesome American sailors - were amazing!

It was fighting like that that caused the British Admiralty to order their commanders to engage an American frigate only when the British had a superior force.  Even then, as in this case, it made no difference.  America won the War of 1812 because of her magnificent sailors!  Anchors away!  Woo-hoo!

This is a photo180 years later - in 1992 - of the Constitution is in dry dock... and a photo of her crew - all hands on deck - in 2015.

U.S.S Constitution

First of all, what does the "U.S.S" stand for?  United States Ship, of course!  Just like H.M.S. stands for Her Majesty's Ship.

The U.S.S. Constitution  ...

was ordered to be built by George Washington - and is the oldest commissioned warship in the world.  Launched in 1797 with a crew of 400 men and boys, she got her nickname during the War of 1812 when she and her crew defeated four (count them, f-o-u-r) British frigates! 

Now, you ask, what's a frigate?  Well, in 1812 it was a square-rigged war vessel intermediate between a corvette and a ship of the line.  No, no.  Not that kind of corvette!  A corvette in sailor's terms was a ship that had a flush deck and usually one tier of guns. Corvette's were sleek and fast, which is probably why Chevy chose that name for their muscle-car.  A ship of the line, however, was slow and heavy.  It was square-rigged warship having at least two, and as many as four, gun decks and designed to be positioned for battle in a line with other such ships, hence the name.



How, might you ask, did one ship defeat four?  Well, though the Constitution was made of oak, it was America's live oak, Quercus virginiana.  Yeah, so?  Well, American trees were a lot older than anything in England - or any where else in Europe - because no one had been cutting them down wholesale for centuries to build ships and war machines and castles.  What Europeans were using were relatively young trees.  You might say America's oak was aged - and it is incredibly dense, and rot-resistant.  Anyway, the oak in the Constitution's hull was so hard that the English cannonballs just bounced off of her sides!  The nickname Old Ironsides has stuck with her all of these years. 




Though the Latin name implies the timber came from Virginia, Old Ironsides' timbers actually came from the swampy shores of Georgia.  (I'll bet our pastor from Kaua'i, who is a native of Georgia, will like this...)  The shipbuilders sailed to Georgia with 80 New England axemen to chop down the timbers needed to build the frigates that George Washington ordered.  Those hard-as-nail live oak trees along with the heat, humidity and mosquitoes either killed those New Englanders or sent them scampering back north!  Only a total of four of those Yankees managed to survive to the end of the job.  Most of the timber was harvested by slaves provided by local families.  (We've learned the hard way that cutting down live oak trees in East Texas will ruin a good chainsaw in no time at all.  Can you imagine how hard it was back in the 1700's to fell a live oak tree using an axe!)

So, what does it mean to be commissioned?  She's not a floating museum; she's still a warship with sailors assigned tours of duty aboard her, and, when she's not in dry dock, they sail her!

For the near future, however, Old Ironsides is in dry-dock.  Her copper hull is being replaced, among other things, and this sailor (assigned to the crew - at his request!) is manning a table of the copper plates that will be used.  With a special stylus, he is encouraging visitors to sign their names.  So, Granpa and I signed, and our names will be attached to the bottom of the oldest commissioned warship in the world.  That's kinda cool!

Today, she sails with a whole lot less than the 400 originally assigned.  She probably won't be doing any battle, but when she did back in the day, her captain signed on 30 boys to carry gunpowder to the gunners during battle.  Fifty of the men were marines serving as sentries.  She also had probably 10% of her crew made up of black Americans.  ( I confess, looking back there are a whole lot of jobs I'd like to have tried my hand at - but sailing is definitely, unequivocally NOT one of them.  Just thinking about it makes me seasick!  But I'm mighty proud of the sailors who have taken to the seas to defend America around the globe!)

The Old State House

This is Boston's oldest public building.  Dating back to 1713 it was built as the seat of the British colonial government. 

This is where it all began!  This is where the British Royal Governor and the Massachusetts colony's Assembly debated the infamous Writs of Assistance (1761) and Stamp Acts (1765). 
 
Today, we would know the Writs of Assistance as general search warrants.  Back then, though, there was no due process and the British could search anywhere for anything at any time with no cause.  We might have been colonists, but we were still British citizens, and as such, due the same legal protections as if we were in England.  Those rights were guaranteed in English common law. Ol' James Otis, employed by the British Governor as Advocate-General, quit his job as prosecutor  and volunteered to defend the colonists against this action.  Before the Superior Court of the colony of Massachusetts, James Otis spoke for FIVE HOURS in defense of these English subjects:

I take this opportunity to declare that whether under a fee or not (for in such a cause as this I despise a fee) I will to my dying day oppose, with all the powers and faculties God has given me, all such instruments of slavery on the one hand and villainy on the other as this Writ of Assistance is.

The ultimate response to this abuse was the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution for the United States.  (SEE!  There WAS a reason for all of the things our Founding Fathers did!)

As for the Stamp Act, it was SOP (standard operating procedure), in order to generate revenue, for the British to require a government stamp on everything from legal papers to a deck of cards .  They needed to raise taxes to pay for the recent French and Indian War (across the "pond" it was known as the Seven Years' War) fought by the British on behalf of their colonists against the French and Indians.  Today, we would know it as a sales tax.  Fair enough.  But, British Parliament passed said Stamp Act without giving colonial representatives an opportunity to debate the issues in Parliament.  Hence the outcry still heard today of "taxation without representation."

It must have seemed an enormous victory to the Americans/no-longer-colonists when the Declaration of Independence was first read to Bostonians from the east balcony of this Old State House on July 18, 1776.  What a day that must have been.  Fifteen years of fussin' and fightin' and it was all wrapped up in our Declaration and Constitution.  All of the wrongs forced onto a people - and those two documents protected Americans from ever having to suffer the oppression again.  Well, until recently when Obama forced the Obamacare Act down the throats of all Americans - forcing us to buy - at exorbitant rates - healthcare we don't want or need...  Obviously, we don't have the guts our forefathers did.  We've just opened our pocketbooks and poured out the money.  Fools.

Boston and the Irish Famine

Boston is as Irish as it gets in America.  

The plaque that goes with this statue says:  Lest We Forget

The commemoration of The Great Hunger allows people everywhere to reflect upon a terrible episode that forever changed Ireland. The conditions that produced the Irish famine - crop failure, absentee landlordism, colonialism and weak political leadership -- still exist around the world today.  Famines continue to decimate suffering populations.  The lessons of the Irish famine need to be constantly learned and applied until history finally ceases to repeat itself.

(Unfortunately, I don't believe that mankind CAN learn from its mistakes.  We certainly haven't since the beginning of recorded time.)

Starting in 1845, a virulent fungus devastated the potato crop, depriving poor Irish families of their main source of food and subsistence*.  Ironically, as thousands of Irish starved to death, the British government then ruling Ireland callously allowed tons of grain to be exported from Ireland to pay absentee landlords their rent.  "The stranger reaps our harvest, the alien owns our soil." wrote Irish poet Lady Jane Wilde.

The grate famine which ravaged Ireland between 1845-50 was the major catastrophe of the 19th century.  It brought horrific suffering and loss to Ireland's 8.5 million people.  Over one million died of starvation and disease.  Another two million emigrated, seeking sanctuary in Boston and other North American cities.  Those remaining in Ireland suffered poverty, eviction, and the decimation of their culture.  This memorial remembers the famine, known in Irish as An Gorta Mor (The Great Hunger).  It depicts the Irish exodus from their homeland, their arrival in Boston and ultimate triumph over adversity in America.  It was dedicated on June 28, 1998, as part of the 150th anniversary of The Great Hunger.


Another plaque says:  The American Dream

Despite hostility from some Bostonians and signs of NO IRISH NEED APPLY, the Famine Irish eventually transformed themselves from impoverished refugees to hard-working, successful Americans.  The leadership of Boston Irish like John Boyle O'Reilly, Patrick Collins and Richard Cardinal Cushing culminated in a descendant of the famine generation, John F. Kennedy, becoming the nation's first Irish Catholic President in 1960.  Today 44 million Americans claim Irish ancestry, leading the nation in Medal of Honor winners, and excelling in literature, sports, business, medicine and entertainment.  

I liken what the British did to the Irish to what the American government did to the Native Americans when they allowed the millions of buffalo (bison) to be slaughtered almost to extinction.  The buffalo were to Native Americans what the potato was to the Irish.  Shame on both the British government and the American government. 

However, what was, is.  The Irish came to America and "moved on."  They haven't demanded special treatment or minority status.  They just put their shoulders to the grindstone and have made successes of themselves right and left.  No namby-pamby treatment for them.  They were - and are - people of pride and strength of character.  The Native Americans also have claimed no special treatment.  They live in their nations on reservations or have assimilated into the American lifestyle.  Again, people of pride and strength of character.  I for one am proud to be a descendant of Native Americans.

*subsistence -- especially means barely sufficient to maintain life.  I always think of existence and sub-sistence.  Below the level of existing.

Headed Into Boston Today

Just thirty minutes away from Merrimack, New Hampshire is the amazing city of Boston!

 

So rich in history it is impossible to describe!  We were here once before, from Hartford, Connecticut on our second contract as medical travelers (http://www.thetravelerstwo.net/2011/08/hartford-connecticut.html), but it was raining cats and dogs and battleships even.  We tried our best to sight-see, but rain was coming down as though it was being poured out of buckets and water was running over the gutters right into the doorways of shops.  I've never seen rain like that!  No wonder they don't just have taxis but also the famous Duck Boats for tourists.

This trip we have bright blue skies - but it was cold!  However, buried somewhere in there

 

is the story of our Founding Fathers, of the first shots fired in the American Revolution (March 26, 1770)  (Not a typo.  The Boston Massacre happened in 1770.)  None other than John Adams, the future second President of the United States of America, defended the BRITISH involved in that shooting.  Fair play is part of what America was founded on, and Adams exemplified that even before "When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one nation to dissolve the political bands which have connected them to another..." The U.S. succeeded in its dissolution of its bonds to the British.

Here at Park Street Congregational Church in the much older Old Granary Burial Ground (established in 1660) are lie the bodies of many of those who began the fight for America's independence and the creation of these United States of America.   People like Paul Revere (1734-1818), Samuel Adams (1722-1803), several members of the "Boston Tea Party" of 1773 such as Joseph Shed and Matthew Loring, Robert Treat Paine who served as a military chaplain during the French and Indian War (1754-1763) and in 1770 led the prosecution of the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre,  John Hancock, the parents of Benjamin Franklin, Peter Faneuil, and (just to lighten the moment) Mother Goose.  Yes, that's right, Elizabeth Goose, the second wife of Isaac Goose.  She raised 10 step-children and 10 of her own - twenty children!  Is she the Mother Goose though?  James Otis (1725-1783) is also buried here.  He was a prolific pamphlet writer in the time of the American Revolution.  Pamphlets were the Facebook of the 1700's.  In one, "The Rights of the British Colonies, Proved and Asserted," he argued that since the Stamp Act had been passed in the English Parliament but bypassed the Colonial legislature, it was taxation without representation.  Now, where have I heard that before ...?

The oldest headstone was carved in 1672.  

Many of those headstones sport skulls and crossed bones and grim reapers. 

These images were supposed to remind the living to be God-fearing Puritans and of the mortality of the body.  Samuel Sewall (1652-1730), who presided over the horrific Salem Witch Trials, is also buried here! You need to remember that the Puritans were still around in the 1770's.  At the conclusion of the American Revolution/War of Independence, the things you and I might see on a headstone, like angels and cherubims, began to appear.  (Thank goodness!)

Unfortunately, in the 1830's, graveyards began to evolve into botanical cemeteries.  I say unfortunately because, to compete with new, commercial graveyards, older places like this church graveyard began to move "organic groundskeepers" (cows and pigs) out, and arrange existing headstones into neat little rows to make human grounds-keeping easier.  For good or bad, the bodies were not rearranged. So, who really IS buried under those names???

And, last info on the Granary Burial Grounds, does anyone remember this "Hunt For More":

Compliments to "Jimmy's Tangents."
http://jimmysgranary.com/GranaryGuide.pdf
http://www.jimmysgranary.com/hrgranarymap-left.jpg

Even Queen Elizabeth thought this place was necessary to honor and visited her on one of her trips to America.

The Town Tomb

While Granpa was working in Manchester, New Hampshire, we lived in Merrimack.  Each day that I took him to work we passed this cemetery.  One day I noticed the inscription on this little building.

It says, "1878 Town Tomb."  Huh?  So, when I got back to the house, I googled it.  Wow!  There's everything from restaurants to Halloween stores - but nothing to explain this picture.

Hmmm, what could it be.  I mean, I've seen family crypts before (Duh!), but a TOWN tomb?  Lets see, we are in the far northeast.  It did take us three and a half days of driving to get here!  Are we far enough north that the ground freezes solid and graves can't be dug?  Do they put caskets in here until the Spring thaw?

Finally Granpa asked around at the hospital, and that's exactly what the deal is.  Why do I find it creepy that there's bodies stacked in there (probably frozen)?  I suppose it's better than to stack them in the barn until the Spring thaw...  Still.  I'm glad I live in Texas where the deer and the antelope play all winter and the ground never freezes!

(From a reader:  Saw your article on Town Tomb. I can tell you from experience it is tough on families. My brothers daughter died in February of 1992 they had a funeral service shortly after her death then they put the body in a tomb until June at which time they had a committal service. Remember I grew up in Maine. A lot of folks now days just have funeral home handle it all.  Can you imagine having a funeral for a loved one then a few months later having a committal service. Linda and I were very fortunate in that are parents died during the warmer months. Every cemetery in our area has a tomb and a few of the larger Churches have tombs.  There was a part of a older TV program called "Northern Exposure" where the bar owner, who was also on the local Cemetery Board went around asking every one how they felt and if they thought they would live thru the winter. If they felt they may not make it he would dig a hole for that person before winter set in!)

Moose Viewing Routes, Rules, and Regulations

I had always heard Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont were loaded with moose.  I felt sure we were bound to see a few zillion while we were here - especially once I found this map.  Not only did it show us the roadways most likely to give moose-sightings a chance, but it gave us moose tips, too.

For instance:

#1.  Apply brakes
#2.  Let up just before impact
#3.  Aim for hind end
#4.  DUCK!


Unfortunately, after days of driving these stupid moose routes the only moose we saw was at an outlet shopping mall!

Manchester, New Hampshire

Manchester is the capitol of New Hampshire, and it is the largest New England city north of Boston - with a population of about 110,000.  Add in the surrounding 'burbs and you have a population of about 410,000 - or 1/3rd of the population of the entire state of New Hampshire. 

I found us a little place in the rural 'burbs:

Now, don't get all wowser on me.  We just had the apartment on the left - see our van?  The rest of the place is a home.  Jean works at the Manchester hospital Granpa is contracted to, and that's how we got onto this place.  Sure beats an Extended Stay!

The driveway was a bit tricky once the snows came.  It wasn't just long, it was downhill if we were leaving - and there were curves!  Brett would clean it with his snowplow tractor attachment, but not always before I took Granpa to work.  One time I tried three times to get up the driveway before Brett plowed, and finally just parked the car at the road and walked up the driveway!