Jules reminds us that yankees are not entirely without their virtues, keep ‘em close to home.
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Patriot Day25 comments to Patriot Day |
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We few up here still keep the memory of those old fellows alive. Other’s may forget, or move on to more recent affairs, but the stands at Lexington & Concord still resound quite strongly.
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Ralph Waldo Emerson. 1803–1882
Concord Hymn
Sung at the Completion of the Battle Monument, April 19, 1836
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BY the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
Thanks for the post. Being a westerner, I only know Patriot’s Day as the day they run the Boston Marathon. And no, I’m not fast enough to qualify.
As we celebrate Patriot’s day keep in mind Ray Nance who died Sunday. Ray was the last of the ” Bedford Boys.” 34 men from Bedford, VA who were part of Co A 116th IR, 29th Division, 19 of whom were killed on Omaha beach that morning 65 years ago this June. Another 2 would die before the end of the war in Europe. It is believed be the largest per capita loss of life for any American community during WWII. I am sure most readers of this page know the story.
In his book “Overlord” Max Hastings dedicates the work to his son, hoping that for him beaches will never mean more that sandcastles and swimming (I paraphrase). Because of men like Ray Vance, I think he got his wish.
Yes, we Yankees have been good for a few things over the years.
You folks over there in the Northeast corner might be Yankees Kris, but your our Yankees. And you’ve all been good for more than a few good things. ‘Course, you do talk kinda funny…
Ayuh, that’s what some folks keep tellin’ us.
We Southrons think you are alright. Just don’t come down and stay here. We are then required to change your name to something else, but still including “Yankee.”
I’m of the opninion, reinforced by a lifetime of living around here, that Yankees and New Englanders in general , of all backgrounds/antecedents, are not driven by the need to blow their own horn informing the world at every opportunity, of just how great they are…the unique events that this day commorate speak for themselves…the citizens of the Bay State and it’s former Eastern Counties…now known as Maine… have reason to quietly remember and celebrate. Best
Quite right Snake. Frankly, the history books do that for us.
(Unless we factor in the Kennedy clan – an introduction to the world that I am embarrassed came from this corner…)
Idaho Joe: yes, we do talk funny. And it’s one of the things bein’ a true New Englan-dah that I’m most proud of.
We get to say things like “Wicked Shawka” and get away with it.
Yup,
And say “Ain’t she cunnin’..” and have it be a compliment, or use “ugly as a stump fence…” to say the reverse
That “accent” is one of my favorite things about the This Old House TV program. Norm Abrahms and Roger Cook never met an “R” they couldn’t drop.
And I don’t think you can even park a car in Harvard Yard anymore.
‘Course, living out here in the West, I’ve been accused of sounding like the guy on TV who does the weather. No character at all.
Yeah, it’s like listening to the “blokes” in the UK from Birmingham or Manchester. Takes a while to zero in and mesh/get in sync with the pace and cadence of the patois. A delight to hear once accustomed.
We Yankees are just thrifty – we may drop an R from Hahvahd Yahd, but we pick it up on words like “verander”.
And Cuber!
There is really only one problem with the New England dialect, one that has been significantly corrected by you Southnahs. Try as we might, we do not have a worthy replacement for y’all. Yuze Guys really doesn’t work and while “You All” is the proper way to go, it just does not ring like the wicked pissah “y’all” does. But we do have wicked pissah (which is north and east of Kris)…
Surfcaster/
And you DEFINITELY don’t have a substitute for “All y’all.”
Or You’ins in NC.
Surfcaster: I well remember wicked pissah – I may now live in CT but I’m originally from MA. I grew up just outside of “Bahstahn”…
And you are right – y’all is better than anything else we could come up with up heyah.
The holiday is Patriots Day. Patriot Day is the name designated for 9/11, although most people don’t use it.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/2009_04_20_Battle_cries_echo_on_Patriots_Day/srvc=home&position=7
Thanks for remembering the day in the post. Nary a word about our common heritage from the Navy Diversity Comissariat.
Insiders’ views:
http://www.boston.com/video/viral_page/?/services/player/bcpid16977198001&bctid=20253583001
Being a native New Englander and all (I was born in a town between Boston and Providence) my accent, etc. was quite the curiosity when I moved to the Chicago suburbs just before my Junior year in H.S. Of course there’s 3 different dialects; Southern New England (much of Mass. plus Connecticut and R.I.), Boston (the city and environs and west a bit) and Down East (Maine and Northern Vermont and N.H.). But as a kid I was used to dropping my R’s and using expressions like “wicked” (“pissah” was forbidden to children in my family). And of course I am a member of that deadly cult known as Red Sox Nation.
Then I went to work for a company HQ’d in Little Rock, Arkansas. I was on a conference call with a group from down there. About halfway through I had to stop and ask a question:
“Will someone tell me the difference between ‘y’all’ and ‘all y’all’?” Hilarity ensued.
Ron F/
Unbeknown to most, New Orleans is known as “The Brooklyn of the South,” as it’s working class accents are almost indistinguishable from Brooklyneese. When I first came to LSU in 1962 (when southern accents were much thicker than today in this almost universal “val girl” speak world.) as a son of the Prairie State, coeds from Shreveport, B.R., etc., used
to say to me before I introduced myself: “I can tell by you’re accent you’re either a “damn Yankee” or you’re from New Orleans.”
LOL.
And yes, I remember getting April 19th off every year (it wasn’t celebrated on the Monday after the weekend until Nixon started screwing around with that kind of thing). I remember following the Marathon (not “The Boston Marathon” – those held in other cities or for the Olympics had the modifier added, but not the Marathon) and even watched the finish once when I was living at the fraternity house 2 blocks from the finish. Rodgers, the last American winner IIRC, once walked the 2 blocks from the finish line to Daisy Buchanan’s (a bar owned by Derek Sanderson of the Boston Bruins) and conducted his post-race interviews while downing his own personal favorite fluid and electrolyte replenishment solutions. The various editions of the paper (remember multiple editions of the daily paper?) would track the progress across the top. The only regularly scheduled morning start in Major League Baseball. And memorizing “Paul Revere’s Ride” and actually going to the Old North Church when I went to college in Cambridge, and the “shot heard ’round the world”.
Hey AW1Tim,
Me own 5th Great Grandfather was a minuteman up your way, in Pownalboro (a.k.a Woolwich) and was marching south west right after Lexington and Concord. Me bein’ 7th Gen Mainiac and all…
Too bad the dip$#!ts have taken over MY state. ME, NH and VT were the only states that voted against Roosevelt in 1940. Makes you wish for the really good old days.
Best,
Dustan Chaff
Hi Kris,
As more or less a native of Dedham, I know what you mean.
Ron, I remember him, and more importantly, mister Kelly, the star of the Marathon. Quite the class act. But I used to watch the Marathon with morning libations in front of the bar I worked, Fathers Too (now PJ Kilroys). Daisey Bukes was reserved for talent night…
The rest of you folks can slam the northeast all you want (in many cases deservedly so) but just remembah, Bahstin is Wicked Pissah. Go Sohhx