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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

My Massachusetts

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I lived in Massachusetts from the time I was a toddler until I graduated from college.  Sometimes I wish I had stayed, at least in New England.  But mostly I am glad that I have lived in Ohio, Illinois and California.  (pic from NESN)

New Englanders, and in particular Bostonians, are afflicted, er, imbued with inordinate pride of place, and it could be that I am no different.  But, I have experienced the virtues of other areas of our beautiful and proud country.  There is so much to see and to love.
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(Photo from boston.com, credited to Joao Bustolin of Somerville; the glow on the right is coming from the lights at Fenway Park.)
One thing I have learned in my travels is that some Americans have come to expect an arrogant superiority from folks “back East”.  One young lady eventually confided that she hadn’t wanted to get to know me, simply because I was from the east.  I smile now when I think of it, because of all the wonderful friends I made, and all the fun I’ve had seeing different places.  So it means all the more to me that people from all over America, and even all over the world, have made declarations of kinship with Boston since the tragic occurrences since last Monday’s Marathon.  I don’t know what the news coverage was like where you live, but I had NECN (New England Cable News) on most of last week, and the only news was about the Marathon. 
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There was some little bit of coverage of the explosion in West, Texas, but still the vast majority was focused on the Boston attacks and subsequent pursuit of the culprits.    So, I want to say that even though I am blogging about what’s going on here in my little corner of the world, my thoughts and prayers are also with the people of West, as they mourn their losses, and try to rebuild their lives.
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On Sunday, Jeff (DH) and Sean (DS3), and I drove down through Boston to attend a lacrosse game at beautiful Stonehill College in Easton.  DSCN2392My middle son Evan (DS2), #11 (lt. blue jersey) in photos,  plays club lacrosse at the University of Maine at Orono (UMO), and they had traveled to Stonehill for a 3 pm match. 
(Ian, DS1, also attends UMO and had club baseball games in Boston, but they were canceled, maybe because of the preceding week?)

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It was a beautifully bright and sunny day, but a bit nippy, about 50 degrees, and breezy.  The trees were budding out a little ahead of ours, but the city is not yet in bloom.



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Including the 3 of us, I counted 8 UMO Black Bears fans in the stands, so I met and talked to the other family.  It was sort of fun to watch except that the Bears were quite outmatched.



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Stonehill’s team was about 3x larger than ours, so they always had fresh legs to sub in. 
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But I don’t go to LaX games for the winning part of it. 



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(Which is good, because LaX is still in its infancy in our town, and we are routinely beaten.)




Next post will feature Quincy Market/Faneuil Hall pictures in Boston.

5 comments:

acorn hollow said...

since I live in NH 2 hours from boston. we have watched it nonstop.
we make routine trips into boston for my husband's Dr. I have only lived in New England my whole life.
between Maine and NH. to think that the whole united came together how amazing is that?
Cathy

Ocean Breezes and Country Sneezes said...

Hi Wendy, I see my friend Cathy from Acorn Hollow, stopped by too! I'm a born & bread Yankee, so this attack really hit home, as you read in my post. Thank you for your kind words!

The recipe is delicious! The men in your life will LOVE it! If you can't find the pappardelle pasta, just use the widest noodles you can find. Pastene makes a wideish noodle with a ruffled edge. I do know you can find them at Trader Joe's.

Looks like you had a nice day watching the game and chatting with new folks at the game!

Carolyn said...

It was such a tragedy-both in Boston and Texas.
We always enjoyed going to watch soccer as some of our children played when they were young -one of our sons still plays!
Take care,
Carolyn

Annie said...

Tragedies that have been felt the world over . . .

Lorrie said...

Here on the west coast of Canada the Marathon has been making the news as well. What a connected world we live in.