Party Like It’s 1769

POSTCARD FROM NEW ENGLAND

Greetings, one and all:

Today was all about blasts from the past.  I took loads of photographs, but it’s late and I have to rise early tomorrow to head out to sea to talk to whales.  You’ll have to wait for visual stimuli.  

But I can report that today’s historic preservation activities consisted of following ghosts of my former self — the self that rode a big red fire truck down Main Street in one 4th of July village parade, the self that pedaled a bike past  [John] Hancock’s wharf to go visit a dozen donkeys, the self that always ordered a hamburger when we stopped at the roadside clam shack.

To prove to you how untrustworthy some histories can be, my sister and I got in a silly disagreement about whether I had really taken a painting class at the George Marshall Store (now a contemporary art gallery).  She insisted that it had been an actual store that sold penny candy (which it was another time we lived in the area — different from when I took an art class).

The headline (“Party like it’s 1769”) is taken from a t-shirt seen in the sale bin at the Portsmouth Brewing Company with an 18th century lovely in outlandish make-up wearing a party hat.  History having some fun.  So much more engaging than sober history.  But I guess you wouldn’t find sober history at a brewing company, now would you?

Having fun.  Wish you were here.

xo