I was born in Boston and grew up 20 minutes north of the historic city in Peabody. My school and summer camp field trips featured a revolutionary cycle of visiting the Boston Tea Party Museum, The Freedom Trail, Bunker Hill, Lexington & Concord, The U.S.S Constitution, Plymouth Rock, The Old Granary Burial Ground, Faneuil Hall, The Old State House, The Old North Church, The Old Meeting House and Boston Commons.
Visiting these sites added such a vivid backdrop to my elementary school history classes. I won’t say I took it all for granted, but it was just impossible to fully appreciate it as a child. I can easily recall the sites and sounds (and smells) of each location. I can even better recall the anecdotes my extremely talented history teachers would tell us about significant Colonial and Revolutionary War events and monuments in and around our Peabody neighborhoods. [In fact the land my house was built on, going a little further back in history to the Salem Witch trials, actually belonged to one of the prosecuted farmers of the trials, Giles Corey.]
Watching HBO Films ‘John Adams’ is blowing me away, refreshing my senses of all I took in as a fortunate child seeing all of these significant landmarks first hand. I can now fully appreciate the fact that on a Monday in 2nd Grade we would learn about the Boston Tea Party, and the very next day take a short field trip to Boston Harbor where the event took place a few hundred years earlier.
HBO is magically bringing so many characters to life in such a seemingly true and honest way; Ben Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Abigail Adams, Sam Adams (yes, the namesake for the Boston brewery), Thomas Jefferson and John Hancock. These aren’t fictional characters in a book — these are true American Patriots. It’s so cool.
Seeing the spirit and patriotic drive of John Adams is resurrecting more than just valuable memories for me. I have a renewed sense of pride coming from the area of the country that produced the patriotic charge, putting John Adams in place to lead other delegates toward independence. I know the focus of the mini-series will shift more towards the united colonies, but 2 episodes in and Boston has been as equally an important character as anything. And I couldn’t be enjoying that more.
I think about my son growing up not in or around Boston and it just seems so weird. History is always around us, but not as genuine and cherished for me as that found in New England. 7 episodes to go and I am looking forward to seeing it all play out and remembering how great it was to grow up with it all around me.
Wow! Thanks for sharing this with us. I had no idea about this mini-series. I’m going to look it up and watch it. Hopefully I didn’t miss too much! How cool it must have been when you found out about the land you used to live on! I share the same love of history that you have. I’m sure with such great parents Chase will grow up learning all that you both know about Boston and New England history!
I absolutely LOVE this series so far. My friend is a political science major and debates on teams, he thinks the debating and speeches in this movie is beautiful, I couldn’t agree more. I love the cinematography, acting, makeup, clothing..it all looks spectacular. If the rest of the series is as good as the first three, it will win many awards.
also enjoying John Adams, amazing men and women of the revolution.
Here is a smartly written and interesting article on John Adams and the current foreclosure crisis. Interesting to note the author Mike Bolen is a descendant of John Adams. http://www.MikeBolen.com
I was watching the HBO series John Adams tonight and there was a nod at George Washington’s false teeth. It made me laugh because I remembered that those teeth are on display in Baltimore at The National Museum of Dentistry. Not only that, the map that the American delegation in France used to identify the United States of America at the Treaty of Paris, the actual map from George III’s library, is on display at the Maps exhibitions running at The Walters Art Museum. Check it out http://www.visitmybaltimore.com/video/438/
I watched part 7 of the series last night. So few of our children today, really understand the history of our nation. I really would like to see this mini series shown in our schools. It was amazing!
Timely, considering the state of our union these days. I wish our 20 and 30 something citizens would take heart and look at what it took to make this country so special. I have 4 children ranging in age from 32 to 18, and I’d be very surprised if they knew much about what these folks went through to father this country.
Didn’t know that Adams and Jefferson both died on the 50th anniversary on the Declaration of Independence.