October 3, 2024 • 59 mins
Join us as we dive deeper into different State histories starting with the New England and North Eastern States. We compare each State we have visited and what memories have been spurred from our various experiences while visiting each.
For more info visit: historycentricity.com
Music by: ashamaluevmusic
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
And welcome back to another episode of History
Centricity, where history iscentral and essential to how we
view our world.
For more information, you cancheck out HistoryCentricitycom,
and in this episode we arejoined as usual by my co-host,
darrell Humphrey.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Well, hello and ho, ho, ho, as our president said
early Well hello and ho ho ho,as our president said early.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Well, darrell is a historian and, if you have been
following along with us in thepodcast, he is a recently
retired teacher and adjunctprofessor, holding a bachelor's
in history and political scienceand a master's in education.
He's taught both math andhistory for over 40 years at the
high school, junior college anduniversity level.
We are both passionate aboutkeeping history alive.
(01:08):
And what are we talking aboutin this episode?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Well, first of all, I want to say one thing too,
about when you said holding abachelor's and all that.
I wish I could find what I'msupposed to be holding.
I think I've reached that agewhere I couldn't tell you where
my degrees are, so that juststruck me.
Well, at least they'resomewhere, right.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
They're somewhere in a house yes, well, at least
they're somewhere recorded tooat the university level.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, yeah, but they've got them, at least I can
prove it.
No, today, what stemmed fromthis?
As I went around to all thebookstores you know occasionally
I go to bookstores, you know,just occasionally.
Occasionally I have a housefull of books.
But I started seeing a lot ofthese books are on things like
(01:55):
taking trips through the 50states and places to visit in
the 50 states and I thought, hmm, that might be interesting,
since I've got like 13 that I'venot visited yet and I'm hoping
to live long enough to make sometrips to visit them, just for a
(02:15):
little while, just to see kindof what things are like around
the country.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yeah, um, and you've got a good start right, oh yeah
yeah, yeah, yeah, I've visited37 so far.
Wow, that's more than me.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I've even got a magnetic map of the US where I
put little magnets on the statesas I visit them.
Oh, that's awesome.
So that's what stemmed this.
And then I thought, okay, forevery one of those states
there's hidden history.
And since we're historycentricity and I thought, well,
(02:48):
that'd be cool to talk about ineach of the states, whether
either of us had visited thestate or have stories which are
history or, in my years ofteaching, where those states
have become a vital part of thestudy.
So that just kind of stemmed meup to that and I started
(03:10):
researching and thinking aboutwhere I'd been, where I'd not
been and some of the storiesthat are involved in that.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So in your experience , both teaching and places that
you have been, that's what kindof originated this whole idea of
the hidden history of thestates.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah, and I thought it's hidden pretty well, but we
can still talk about it, youknow.
Yeah, for people that haven'tbeen there, or people wanting to
go there, or people that evenhave been, Right have been and
it spurs a memory back.
That's what it did with me.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Thinking about the states.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah.
So what states do we want tostart off with?
Well, the first ones we startedoff with.
I've never visited.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
And I did it in regions.
Okay, so the New England regionwas the one that I have not
visited region was the one thatI have not visited.
The only state of the NewEngland area around there that
I've even been into is New York.
But I started thinking aboutokay, let's start at the top,
and the top would of course beMaine, Maine, yeah, and never
(04:20):
visited there Capital Augusta.
I thought that's neat because Ihave connections with Augusta,
Georgia.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
What connections do you have there?
I?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
have family and some relatives there in Augusta and
I've been to Augusta and I knowabout the Augusta big golf
tournament that's there, theMasters, the Masters is played
there and so forth.
So that's a connection, I guessyou say, with the capital.
But I thought that would beneat.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah to go yeah we'll uh we'll get to georgia, and
you visited maine yeah, I'vevisited, maine so tell us a
little bit about what youthought about, where and why you
were up there visiting maineyeah, so we uh took a trip with
my family up to Maine and kindof the New England states on a
(05:09):
New England cruise, cruising upthe coast into actually.
We went actually into Canada,oh okay, up into Nova Scotia,
but one of our stops along theway was into Bar Harbor, maine,
okay, and along the coast there,and we also visited Acadia
(05:33):
National Park.
Oh yeah, I can imagine Wow.
So Acadia is beautiful just bythe fact that it is located
right there on the coast, andall of these waves from the
Atlantic are washing up onto themassive boulders and rocky
formations of the park itself,which is all preserved, of
(05:55):
course.
But also another fun fact aboutAcadia is that it is the
smallest national park in thecountry, so it's a really cool
national park, one of the fewthat I have, you know, been to.
Of course, a lot of the morefamous ones are out west.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
That gives me a tingly feeling too, you talking
about the coast, because I'm abig lighthouse person.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
I collect lighthouse and nautical things.
When I was able to climblighthouses, I would go to the
lighthouses.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Well, you and I have climbed a lighthouse ourselves.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yes, that was back in the day when I hadn't had a
heart attack.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
From the height alone , you probably had a heart
attack.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Oh, the height alone was terrible.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
And the claustrophobia inside.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Yes, as you go up to the verticals.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
What do they call those staircases?
It's like a corkscrew.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I know what you're talking about.
It's like a corkscrewcylindrical.
Spiral, yeah, spiral.
That's it, yeah, spiralstaircase.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Yep when you feel like you're going to fall down
the stairs, every single step.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I wish I had gone when I was younger so I could,
you know, climb those.
But those days are gone.
Well, they're nice to reallysee from the outside too,
because of how much of acharacter they show in different
parts of the country, indifferent parts of the world.
(07:26):
Well, I just love thelighthouse and I love the
connotation that goes with theChristian aspect of the
lighthouse showing the way, andso Maine is one of those states
I would love to visit.
Yeah, I need to go on that newengland cruise, but all those
states up there, but, um, uh,one thing about maine that a lot
of people may not know and Idon't know if you know, tony, or
(07:47):
not, but maine as a colony wasused as a compromise in the 1920
1920 between slave and freestates.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
So this was before the Civil War.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
This was before the Civil War.
It was called the MissouriCompromise.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Why was it called Missouri if it was so far up?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
north.
Okay, well, here's the deal.
Up until that point.
I said 1920 earlier.
That should have been 1820.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yeah, 1820.
1820.
1860.
I'm going 100 years over, 1860being the.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Civil War.
Civil War, right.
But in 1819, you have a statethat comes into the Union, which
is Alabama, and they had comein as a slave state.
And so the next state that's tocome into the union, according
to the laws and things that theyhad established, would be a
(08:44):
free state, and it kepteverything equal.
So when it came time, Missouriwas the one that applied for it.
And of course, if you knowanything about the location of
the history, Missouri is kind ofin the middle of the nation but
(09:06):
heavily influenced with slavery.
So Missouri couldn't come in asa slave state because that
would give an advantage in thegovernment.
So Henry Clay my relative, bythe way, and who was Henry Clay?
He was a senator from Kentuckyand he will run for president
(09:30):
several times, he'll be Speakerof the House and very involved
in government, and he proposedthis compromise where, at the
same time, missouri comes in asa slave state, maine would come
in as a free state and so thebalance would be restored.
(09:54):
Restate and so the balancewould be restored.
And then at that point therewas going to be there had been a
conflict about and they saidokay, the nation needs no more
slavery past the Mason-Dixonline.
Well, if you look on ageographical map, missouri is
past the Meigs and Dixon line,and so by letting Missouri come
(10:19):
in as a slave state, that'sgoing to ruffle a lot of
feathers.
So they let Maine come in asthe free state to keep
everything, and then saidthere'd be no more slave states.
This is the beginning of theend of slavery in the nation,
because the only place slaverycould occur would be south of
(10:40):
that Mason-Dixon line.
Now Interesting.
And there's not much there thatgrows the element of cotton to
keep the slavery imported.
Yeah, south of the Mason-Dixonline, slavery imported south of
the Mason-Dixon line.
So you know, maine is a fairlyimportant state for our union in
(11:02):
this and the compromise ruffledfeathers, but it kept the Civil
War from happening for 40 moreyears.
Wow.
So it saved our country for 40years, in spite of people like
Andrew Jackson becoming it aspresident, in which Henry Clay
(11:22):
and Andrew Jackson are mortal,mortal enemies.
They hate each other.
A little interesting tidbit Iwas reading a book about Andrew
Jackson that talked about him asan orphan living with a EB
White up in North Carolina.
(11:44):
Eb EB White, I think, was thename I know.
White is the last name.
He was a former revolutionarysoldier.
He was a former revolutionarysoldier and, of course,
jackson's heavily involved inthe revolution as a young kid,
and so forth.
Well, what was interesting as Iread that was that I was a
(12:06):
member of the Sons of theAmerican Revolution through this
white person.
How so Somewhere in our familyline.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Really.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Okay, and so Andrew Jackson, as an orphan, lived
with him Interesting, and so hewas looked upon as Andrew
Jackson's step-in father.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Oh, he was older.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Yeah, so now it means I'm akin to Henry Clay and
Andrew Jackson, who hated eachother.
So there goes the family, theumphrey luck, as we call it.
The umphrey.
Luck has struck again.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Well, what else do you have?
On Maine.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Maine is just that country, the state, a lot of it
Maine.
It was originally controlled byMassachusetts Bay Colony there
in the New England area.
The Massachusetts Bay Colonycolony there in the new england
(13:14):
area, the massachusetts baycolony which is what we know
with pilgrims, puritans in thatera, all of those states, like
all of those new england statesyou name all the seven of them
that's up there whatever, at onepoint or another, was
controlled by massachusetts baycolony it was the colony that
(13:35):
was first established.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
That was the first established colony, the first
people here in America, thePilgrims, the Puritans Right.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
The first.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
That's what we're thinking about right and you
know we think about them.
You know the Pilgrims andPuritans but they're not a real
nice people.
So you've got Quakers in thearea and you've got Shakers in
the area, religious sects thatproceed to maybe get under the
(14:11):
skin of the pilgrims and thePuritans that are there, and
that's the reason you're goingto have all these breakoffs like
Vermont, new Hampshire, rhodeIsland, connecticut.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
So people just broke off and formed their own
colonies, which then eventuallybecame these new England States.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Yes, yes and most of it was because of religious
persecution.
Oh, persecution, oh yeah, bigtime religious persecution oh
yeah, big time religiouspersecution through the
Massachusetts Bay Colony, gotchaand all the history of the
different ones with AnnHutchison and the Providence,
(14:49):
rhode Island and some of thoseareas there.
But Maine's just an interestingstate.
British wanted it very much.
They were very interested in itbecause it controls if you look
at the map it controls the StLawrence Seaway coming down into
(15:09):
the country.
It's at the head of Maine thatarea.
So at one point British said wewant half of it, we'll give
America half.
So it's been a lot ofconsternation in Maine and
that's the reason I've alwayswanted to go up there and see
what it was like.
And then you got the Canadiansthat are involved in it too.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Yeah, Well, we did have Maine lobster too, while we
were there.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Oh my gosh, the whole kit and caboodle when it comes
to the Maine lobster.
I want the tail, I don't wantthe caboodle.
You want the caboodle, not thekit.
I want the tail, not thecaboodle.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
You want the caboose.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
No, I don't think I can do the whole Maine lobster.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Well, the funny thing is, my grandmother was along
with us on this cruise and theybrought that whole Maine lobster
out and set it down in front ofher on the table.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
What's this?
Speaker 1 (16:11):
And of course, everyone gets a lobster to
themselves.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
And this was in Maine .
This was not on the boat.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
That is wild.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
She convinced the server, the waiter or waitress
to crack, crack it and cut it,fix it, I would do good and be
in the good old southern bellthat she was.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
She was able to connive and convince oh, I can
see you, I can say you're doingthat yes, so yeah just being who
she was very definitely yeah,yeah so that's a good memory
from maine.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Um, plenty more I'm sure my parents know of um.
But yeah, moving along, what'sthe next state that we have the
next?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
next one is new hampshire.
New hampshire, uh, capitalbeing concord, yeah, uh, concord
, new hampshire.
Not not much on this, butthere's a.
There's an element of again aheavily influenced religion here
called the Shakers.
Yeah, you mentioned that before.
Yeah, the Shakers.
(17:19):
From what I understood aboutthe Shakers, they're kind of a
branch off the Quakers.
They have different types ofstrong, strong beliefs.
You know the Quakers are thethe endow and you know the real
prime.
(17:39):
They're very conservative intheir beliefs.
They only eat oatmeal and grits.
Interesting, interesting there,interesting there.
If you look at the oatmeal boxQuaker Oats it's really
interesting.
It's got a man.
Looks like William Penn, butthere's been consternation that
(18:02):
that's not him.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Well, we'll get to Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
But he's holding things in his hand and they are
qualities of oats and it's likediligence, faith, things like
that.
So the shakers were there kindof keep to themselves.
(18:29):
They're not really out there asmuch, but they're very
conservative in their beliefs,formed from ministers in the cop
(18:51):
bay colony there that woulddissatisfied with what was going
on as far as persecution, andso they fled to this area of new
hampshire and and establishedit.
Of course this is one of youroriginal 13 colonies do you know
where the name Hampshire?
Speaker 1 (19:11):
I guess Hampshire.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yeah, it comes from the British area.
Like Hampshire, I think thereis a section of England
Hampshire, but I'm not sure.
Okay, I'm not sure on that.
Like New England, yeah, I know,like New Jersey comes from the
island of Jersey.
Yeah, I know like New Jerseycomes from the island of Jersey.
(19:33):
So Hampshire, I think, is justa section of England.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Okay, gotcha, what else do you have on New
Hampshire?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I've never visited it , never heard much about it.
That's about it, okay.
I'd love to go up there becauseof just the foliage from the
fall.
I don't know if some of theparks are up there too.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
All of these states have phenomenal foliage come
fall and people don't evenrealize.
I mean, here in the South wehave great foliage, but it's
nothing compared to thedifferent variations, different
varietals of trees up there.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
That's what I've heard.
Yeah, yeah, so it's nothingcompared trees up there.
That's what I've heard.
Yeah.
Yeah, so it's nothing comparedto up there, beautiful New
Hampshire.
So I think it's up today.
I think it's probably a lot ofthe wealthy have their homes in
that area too, and it of courseextends up to the St Lawrence
(20:29):
and that area up in there.
So not much on New Hampshire.
That's one state I wanted tovisit.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
And then further inland, are we going to talk
about Vermont?
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Yeah, Vermont's next.
Okay, capital, montpelier.
That's just a name withinitself, right there, I love that
.
Can you say that again?
Montpelier, p-e-l-i-e-r, soit's a French, it's a.
French Montpelier, samuel deChamplain, explored this area,
(21:05):
so therefore you have LakeChamplain.
I've never visited the area.
I've heard Lake Champlain isone of the most beautiful sites
in our country.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Yeah, I've never been to Vermont.
Yeah, no.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Vermont.
You know what Vermont means,right.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Land of maple syrup, good try.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Nice, try, nice try, kid Sorry, nice try, kid Sorry.
Charlie, sorry Charlie.
That means Green Mountain,green Mountain, Vermont.
It's named from Verde Mountain,verde Mountain Well, that would
be Spanish.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Verde.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
That would be true.
That would be Spanish, verytrue.
But Ethan Allen and his GreenMountain Boys are from this area
and they're very important inthe Revolutionary War.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Ethan Allen controlled the area.
The settlers around there werevery loyal to him.
For a while.
It was a real problem with himbecause the military part of
that built up there in Vermontwas loyal to him, to the fact
that they were not loyal to thegovernment.
They're loyal to their generaland that's Ethan Allen.
(22:27):
So you had a coup.
So you better be on your toeswith it because if you do
something against what he thinksor what he stands for, you're
going to lose the military mightof Vermont in the Revolutionary
War.
And he was not an easy guy toget along with.
(22:47):
He was not an easy guy to getalong with From what I've read
and things I've read, veryirascible and angry all the time
at everybody, short-fused, youmean, yes, short-fused.
He had his way or no way and hecontrolled his boys that way,
boys that way, and luckilygeorge washington was able to
(23:19):
kind of bow to him and let himcontrol things in order to use
him because he's a bigrevolutionary hero of the area,
controlling the forts around thearea and defeating the british
around the area.
So hey, after the governmentset up, then you have a lot of
problems out of this areabecause there's opposition to
the government that results fromit and so you have a lot of
(23:42):
independent thinking about ourgovernment in this area and as
long as Ethan Allen was aroundhe could control his boys or
whatever.
When he died then there wasreal opposition to the
government and of course you'veheard of some of the rebellions.
When the government firstformed that, washington had to
(24:05):
go up there and put downrebellions around the area and
some of them were these ex-EthanAllen boys Interesting.
Okay, they got into it.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Huh, well, is that all you have on Vermont?
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Yeah, never been there.
Like I said, I would love to gothere and see if it's really
Green Mountain.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Is that a mountainous area like the Catskills?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Is that part of the?
Speaker 1 (24:31):
New York, catskills Mountains, I think so.
I'm not that familiar.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Or the Adirondacks.
Yeah, is that the areaAdirondacks?
Adirondacks, is it an area?
Speaker 1 (24:42):
I think Something like that.
But yeah, moving on, what otherstates do we have?
Rhode Island, rhode Island, thesmallest, small Moving on, what
other states.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
do we have Rhode Island?
Rhode Island the smallest statein the country.
Never visited here.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
And why?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
is it so small?
One of the reasons is thatRhode Island became a catch-all
for anybody that hadoppositional problems with
Massachusetts Bay Colony.
They would flee to this colonyand different sects, different
(25:24):
religions, different beliefstoward the British crown,
different beliefs about slavery,so it's not going to expand
very easily.
They're going to keep tothemselves.
Many of them, in fact therewere several judges that had
(25:56):
made decisions in theMassachusetts Bay Colony against
some of the pilgrims andPuritans of the area because of
persecution and they had to fleefor their lives and Rhode
Island would offer them a placeto stay.
There were many of them thatwent to Rhode Island and came
back to Boston to rescue some oftheir Quaker friends.
(26:18):
At one point I can't rememberthe lady's name I know Ann
Hutchison actually helped settlethe Rhode Island area, but this
other lady I can't rememberwhat her name was.
Now it escapes me but she endedup going back to Boston like
(26:38):
four times and every time shewent back to Boston she
approached the Boston governmentand said you're wrong for the
persecution.
So they were hanging people,they were hanging Quakers,
hanging some of her friends, andthey said at one point they
told her husband to take heraway back to the colony to
(27:01):
control her.
And so he took her back.
But she came back again andtried to rescue her friends and
they said if you come back intoour colony of Boston or whatever
, we will hang you.
So she fled.
She came back again A third time.
A third time, she came backfour different times and finally
(27:24):
, the last time she came back,they hung her.
She came back.
They hung her as apostate andblasphemous towards the pilgrims
and the Puritans.
What's going on with herthinking?
But that's a pretty strongelement in spite of her husband.
You know they said, husband,you can't control her.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
She was marrying somebody.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
I can't remember what her name was now.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
So her following was primarily in the Rhode Island
area.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Well, it was in the Boston Massachusetts Bay Colony
area, but she kept fleeing toRhode Island.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
And that's where she was living when she died.
So her following relocated toRhode Island.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Yeah, yeah, many of them followed her.
She was a follower of AnneHutch, so her following
relocated to Rhode Island.
Yeah, many of them followed her.
She was a follower of AnneHutchinson's too.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
And some of them.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
So why is Rhode Island named Rhode Island when
it is not an island?
Speaker 2 (28:24):
I do not know that.
That's an interesting question.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
I mean, is there an island that it's named after?
Speaker 2 (28:32):
No, I don't think so.
I don't think it's named afterthe island of Rhodes.
If that's what you're thinking,I think it may be called Rhode
Island, meaning an island ofsolace for those that they
welcome everybody.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Of solace.
Yeah, they welcome everybody inOf solace.
Yeah, they welcome everybody inOpen door policy.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Right and.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Well, how ironic to flee persecution from England
and then to then flee frompersecution from the pilgrims.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Get that now when you fled originally from.
Yeah what did the pilgrims do?
They fled because they werepersecuted in England.
And now, why are these peoplefleeing Massachusetts Bay Colony
?
Because the pilgrims have gone.
Nuts, too much turkey.
I guess so yeah, Too manyThanksgivings.
(29:26):
We can go to that all day too.
What's interesting today, RhodeIsland is places for summer
Mansions and houses along thecoast.
The wealthy have their summerhomes there.
Kind of interesting that, andyou would probably think this,
(29:50):
but nobody really thinks aboutit.
But the last state or colonybasically to give up slavery,
bringing slavery into theircolony, was Rhode Island.
But that's because the Britishinfluenced it so much.
But that's because the Britishinfluenced it so much and
(30:11):
because of the people that werethere.
It's interesting, but ironic inthe same instance.
They were so attuned to Britishthings and so forth.
It was a long time beforeBritish got rid of the act of
slavery.
They were one of the last toget rid of slavery in the world
(30:32):
too, the slave trade, and RhodeIsland is one of those last ones
too.
And so when the government isformed, you can expect what's
going to be one of the last onesto accept our Constitution.
Rhode Island Interesting Verymuch.
They went to, from what I hadread, in order to accept our
(30:55):
Constitution.
They put it in theirlegislature.
It failed.
They put it to a vote to thepeople.
It failed, Wow, To ratify it.
They were not going to ratifyit.
They were not going to ratifyit.
And the convention where theyfinally did ratify it, it was
(31:18):
interesting.
I had read about it and it wasthat they brought their people
in when they were told they weregoing to vote on ratification
of the Constitution.
They left, so there would notbe a majority, in order to do
their business in theirconvention, but the person that
(31:43):
was in charge of it went aheadand declared there is a majority
, went ahead and voted and by anarrow two votes or something
like that, it was ratified.
Wow, so a lot of shenanigansgoing on.
That's something that a lot ofpeople don't realize.
In the early, early years ofour government, people were not
(32:03):
happy with what you know, theArticles of Confederation.
We've talked about this before.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Oh yeah, go back in our other episodes on the
Constitution, the Declaration ofIndependence.
Yeah, the early ages and theearly thing of the Constitution.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
They're not happy yeah, they're not happy with how
the compromises worked out.
They're not happy with statepowers being taken away.
They're not happy withindividual rights, individual
powers, being taken away.
They're not happy withindividual rights, individual
powers being taken away, eventhough we have a Bill of Rights,
which is very ironic that wehave such a you know, looks like
(32:42):
a great government.
But there was a lot ofconsternation with the
ratification in that New Englandarea, especially With Rhode
Island being the last pillar tocome up and protect.
They're the last of our 13.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
So what's the next state we have?
So we've discussed Vermont, newHampshire, maine and Rhode
Island.
What's the next state that wehave in New England that we're
looking at?
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Yeah, since I've never visited the New England
area, but Connecticut is one.
We talked a little bit about ittoo, capital being Hartford.
Again, connecticut is one ofthose that Puritan founding from
(33:37):
Boston because of persecutionfrom our dear people, the
pilgrims.
As you can tell, I don'tparticularly like pilgrims, but
they're involved, the same assome of the others.
It was some of the judges inthe Massachusetts Bay Colony
that fled to Connecticut.
Also Ann Hutchison involved inthat too, with Connecticut.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
So everything seems intertwined.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Intertwined.
And then we got Massachusetts,which the capital is Boston I've
never visited.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
So nothing more on Connecticut, you have.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Wait, wait, wait.
I really don't have much moreon Connecticut.
I don't even know whatConnecticut would.
I know it's on the shorelineand there's probably a lot of
lighthouses and things like that.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Well, the US Coast Guard Academy is there.
Oh, that's right, I forgotabout that.
That's one of the militaryacademies.
I mean, I think most of themare in New York.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Yeah.
Other than of course the AirForce one, yeah, but yeah, I
don't have that much onConnecticut, except it's hard to
spell and that was always apain.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Oh yeah, Don't ask me to spell it which?
Speaker 2 (34:45):
I love to do with the kids because I like to get them
on spelling.
But they said I was terrible inspelling.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Well, let's move on to Massachusetts then.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Massachusetts.
Of course it has deep, deepAmerican independence presence
there, with Boston and thebirthplace of it, but again, the
persecution of Quakers thatwere rampant here by pilgrims
and Puritans.
But that's the central areathat controlled most of New
(35:18):
England and the wayMassachusetts went, New England
goes, and it's somewhat that waytoday.
If you look at the progressionof things with political
factions and so forth,Massachusetts is your leader of
that New England area.
(35:38):
They all kind of I don't wantto say vote as a bloc, but it's
pretty much the same way.
You visited Massachusetts,though you visited a holy city.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
What Fenway Park.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Yeah, Fenway.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Yes, I'm a big Boston Red Sox fan, After visiting
Fenway during an off-season andtaking the tour and then being
fortunate enough to be giftedtickets third row behind home
plate for our wedding by mybrother-in-law so really no
(36:19):
price can be put on thatexperience.
So a lot of credit goes to himand his generosity in giving
both me and my wife theopportunity to go out there and
go up there and experience thatin the oldest baseball stadium
in the country resemblance thatit gives every time how intimate
(36:43):
of a setting that is, how smalland how I mean it's, it's been
the same, um, it's.
It's been recognized as ahistorical landmark, which means
it can never be torn down, itcan never be, uh, added on to in
(37:08):
a certain, by certain standards.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
It's central to the history.
There we have historycentricity.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
So you can really step foot into that park, into
that.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Does it carry you back to the old?
You feel like you're back inthe old days with baseball.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Yeah, I mean, depending on what seat you sit
in.
I mean there's certain seatsthere that are made of the old
wrought iron and wood.
Oh, wow down seats that arepassed down the tickets, the
season tickets are passed downfrom generation to generation,
just like alabama football, juston a bigger scale, and they're
passed down from generation togeneration and you really feel
(37:49):
like you're elbow to elbow backin the old days With the green
monster and the kooky corners ofthe layout of the stadium and
the layout of the field.
It just really gives that.
And I mean they've alsotrademarked the color Fenway
(38:12):
Green, oh, so that you cannotuse that.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Use that color.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
Green color anywhere else.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Oh, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Other than in Fenway Park.
I mean, there's little thingslike that.
Everywhere you look, there'sone red seat out in center field
, which is, you know, in thehistory.
Telling the story is TedWilliams, who is the greatest
hitter of all time.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Played for the Red Sox, went off to war, world War
I or or two.
Came back from the war, I can'tremember which, but he served
his time.
Came back from the war still hit300, still hit 400, still hit
500, you know yeah that great ofa player, was that great of a
citizen and he spotted a guy outin center field that was
(39:06):
napping on a afternoon game and,with his straw hat down below
his eyes, and pointed him out,hit a home run, hit the guy
right in the head and to thisday they have a red seat out in
the center field bleachers thatshows where he was sitting that
(39:28):
shows where that guy was sittingand I don't know if people
still sit in that seat or not.
But apparently you know somegames they reserve that seat
where nobody sits in that seat.
So I mean little things likethat, little nuances that make
the whole park just extraspecial, yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
And Boston has such a fan base.
My gracious oh absolutely.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
I mean especially when they broke the curse, yeah.
And then they broke a lot morerecords again back with Fear the
Beard, where all of thesemisfits had beards, yeah.
It was just a great time in theearly 2010s and even before
then.
But yeah, just a great timebeing a fan for the Red Sox.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
I remember that I went to an Atlanta Braves game
where they played the Red Soxand I thought, oh, this will be
a nice game to go to.
It was like a home game forBoston Red Sox.
Yeah, there's a lot of them.
I mean, I've never seen so manyRed Sox fans.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Yeah, and there's a lot of fans in and around the
entire country.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Not just Boston, and I love Boston.
My wife and I were able we hadthe privilege to, you know walk
around downtown, walk around theFreedom Trail, walk around the
USS Constitution there that isin the Bay, go through that
museum.
Also, eat at some good localrestaurants like the.
(41:01):
It's not Acme, it's an oysterhouse there.
I can't really remember now,but it has a specific booth in
the restaurant on the secondfloor where John F Kennedy would
frequent.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
And that was his booth.
That's the JFK booth.
That was his booth.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Yeah, and you can sit in the JFK booth.
Oh, that's cool, yeah, sothat's really cool.
So, yeah, different stuff likethat that make Boston unique.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
It's just so heavily in the history I've never been.
I would love to go to that area.
All of New England, as you cansee, I've not visited.
This just makes me want to gothere badly.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
That also reminds me Oyster House was Union Oyster
House.
Union Oyster House, and youknow how big of a fan both my
wife and I are of oysters, ofwhich you are not.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
I have partook from them, but I am not a fan of raw
oysters, no.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
But anyways, I've fried.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
Now you fry them, I'm good.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
Yeah, it's right there in the Boston Public
Market, but great town, greatcity, it feels smaller than it
really is, so it's not like abig New York City.
I mean you ride publictransportation, you ride
throughout the city.
It's got a great park there butit's also divided by a great
(42:26):
river.
You know, there, you have MIT,you have Harvard, you have.
There, you have MIT, you haveHarvard, you have, you know,
boston College.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
I was going to say a lot of our intellectuals in our
nation comes from that area.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
Yeah, as far as education Early history all the
way through.
Yeah education and publicfigures.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
Yeah, yeah, very heavily influenced with
historical figures that are fromthe area, so it would be a
great visit, yeah.
Thank you for you being able tovisit and to give us a little
glimpse into it.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
Yeah, hopefully we can get you up there sometime.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Oh, that would be cool.
Of course, you might just haveto leave me Just like go away.
I'll just be here the rest ofthe days.
Just bury you in the dirtywater up there.
Bury me right next to the USSConstitution.
And then our last one is NewYork, and I've visited New York,
(43:25):
so I'm excited about this one.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
And where in New York have you been?
Speaker 2 (43:29):
Okay, well, well, first of all, the capital is
Albany.
I did not make it to Albany,but we did, as a family, go up
and stayed about three or fourdays in Niagara Falls is just,
(43:53):
it was just amazing.
The Maid of the Mist ridethat's up there.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
You didn't get married on that boat.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
No, I did not.
This was back in my teenagedays, I guess it was.
My family always took a trip inthe summer, and so this was one
of our trips.
My dad had gone up and been onTDY up in the New Jersey area,
and so he wanted to go to theNew York area.
So we actually drove to the NewYork area.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
And how old were you?
Speaker 2 (44:23):
I was probably 12, 11 or 12.
So this was very impactful onyour memory.
Oh my gosh.
Yes, I remember it so well.
My dad was pretty bad aboutseeing sites.
If you've seen it.
He didn't want to go to theGrand Canyon because he said
I've already seen a big ditch.
So we didn't go to the GrandCanyon.
(44:46):
So he had already seen awaterfall and so I said, well,
let's go anyway.
I wanted to go, so we plannedto stay the one night and so we
got our motel and got on a tourfor Niagara Falls and several of
the museums around the area andMaid of the Mist and all that
(45:09):
around their area and made ofthe mist and all that, and then
ended up going back and gettinganother night's stay at the
motel because we wanted to gofor another day to go in the
area.
It was so great.
Unfortunately didn't get toEllis Island, statue of Liberty
or any of those things.
I've not been in New York City.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
Yeah, you mean more the Atlantic coast, yeah yeah,
we were more on the lake LongIsland is what you're referring
to.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
Yeah, we were more on the Great Lakes area.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
New York is a bigger state than you think it is.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
It's a huge day and and a lot of people don't
realize that new york is a very,very important um state in the
fact that they're one of thelast four to ratify the
constitution.
There was a lot ofconsternation and a lot of
liberalism and conservatism inthat state.
(46:07):
They were not going to ratifythe Constitution.
They even said if we ratify itwe'll probably secede.
They're one of the first tomention secession.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
Really.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
They are one of the first of the states to mention
that if we don't like what'sgoing on, we're going to get out
of the government.
I don't know what they weregoing to do.
What are you going to do?
Join back with England afterthe defeat?
But they were going to secedeand that prevalent attitude kept
itself all the way up throughCivil War.
(46:42):
It's a hotbed for the Civil War.
There was talk that New Yorkwould join the Confederacy.
Speaker 1 (46:51):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
And secede from the Union, and if it did, just the
fact of the physical,geographical area that it was,
it would probably take all theNew England area with it.
Of course, yeah.
And so a lot of people thinkthat you know the Civil War was
(47:13):
all south.
But it's not.
Speaker 1 (47:15):
South of the Mason-Dixon.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
Yeah, south of the Mason-Dixon.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
Right Versus the north.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
And it's not.
This is a hotbed.
I mean, there were supposedly.
This is probably where JohnWilkes Booth met up with some
people and so forth, withJefferson Davis, about the
assassination.
Yeah, and I wanted to mentionone last thing.
Here too, there is aninscription down on the Statue
(47:44):
of Liberty.
Do you know the author of thelittle inscription?
On the bottom, on the bottom ofthe base of the little
inscription On the bottom, onthe bottom of the base of the
Statue of Liberty.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
Of the Statue of Liberty.
No, I have not been on theisland or inside the Statue of
Liberty.
I've only seen it from a boat.
Speaker 2 (48:04):
Okay, well, a lady by the name of Emma Lazarus wrote
a poem and it has been down onthe base of the Statue of
Liberty and it kind ofillustrates this and we
interpret it.
I'm sure you've heard.
Give me your huddled massesyearning to be free and so forth
(48:26):
, standing for the statue.
I want to read you the poem.
It's not very long.
But she was a socialist, shewas an anti-government person,
she was for the people, all thepeople in the world, in
different categories and soforth.
But this is her poem.
(48:47):
It's called the New Colossus,so forth, but this is her poem.
It's called the New Colossus.
Not like the brazen giant ofGreek fame with conquering limbs
astride from land to land.
Here at our sea-washed sunsetgates shall stand a mighty woman
with a torch whose flame is theimprisoned lightning In her
(49:07):
name, mother of exiles, from herbeacon hand glows worldwide
welcome.
Her mild eyes command theair-bridged harbor that twin
cities frame.
Keep you, ancient lands, yourstoried pomp, cries she with
silent lips.
Give me your tired, your poor,your huddled masses yearning to
(49:29):
breathe free, the wretchedrefuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless,tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside thegolden door and that's the poem
that's on the Statue of Libertyand we're always told give me
your tired, your poor, and soforth.
(49:50):
It was a real positive typething.
But if you listen to the poem,it wasn't.
It talks about that oldcolossus over in the old world
which stood on a Greek islandand all the pomp and
circumstance about it.
So it's an anti-European poemwhich I found really interesting
(50:12):
.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
So why is that?
Even on?
Let's see.
So let's back up.
The statue came from overseas,as a gift, as a gift from France
.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Yeah.
So it's interesting and ironicthat you've got an anti-European
poem on the base of the statue.
So did?
Speaker 1 (50:32):
we build the base and then the statue was put on it.
Speaker 2 (50:35):
I think we built the base.
Speaker 1 (50:36):
Yes, Therefore, we decided what was to go on the
base?
Speaker 2 (50:40):
Yeah, and why is?
Speaker 1 (50:41):
her poem versus other poems.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
She was just one of the leading socialists of the
time, of that time period, andthis is a completely
socialist-type thing of talkingabout against the European
masses and so forth, that you'venot done anything for your
people, that we, the mother ofexiles, are going to take care
(51:07):
of everything.
So I just found it a veryinteresting poem.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
That is that triggers a lot of interesting.
Speaker 2 (51:17):
I think she's Jewish too.
Speaker 1 (51:19):
Oh wow, that triggers a lot of things then I think
she's Jewish background too.
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
So I just thought that was neat.
I always wanted to go and seethat poem.
But of course we don't get thewhole poem.
All we get is that one littleline or phrase give me your
tired your poor yeah.
So I looked it up and foundwhat the whole poem was about.
Speaker 1 (51:41):
In the romanticizing of our country.
That's all we get.
Is what you're saying, right,yeah?
Speaker 2 (51:47):
yeah Well, I mean, you know they probably wanted to
destroy some of those things,because it's not good to say
keep your ancient lands, yourpump and all this.
That's not good to delve intocriticizing our ancient
histories, but she did and Ijust thought it was really neat.
Speaker 1 (52:11):
Well, anything else you have on New York.
Speaker 2 (52:13):
No, new York City, I mean, I've been there several
times yeah.
Yeah, you tell me some thingsand then I can get up and do a
little song and dance New York,new York.
Speaker 1 (52:22):
Break out your Frank Sinatra.
Frank Sinatra Did it my way?
Yeah, Not true.
Did it my way?
Yeah.
So first time I've been to NewYork was when I actually played
in Carnegie Hall with my highschool symphonic band.
So I played trombone, was partof the same band as your son.
Speaker 2 (52:46):
And daughter.
Speaker 1 (52:47):
And daughter Yep.
Speaker 2 (52:48):
You're correct.
Speaker 1 (52:50):
We both went on that trip.
Speaker 2 (52:52):
I remind them quite often that they have played in
Carnegie Hall.
Speaker 1 (52:55):
Yep, and that was actually recorded.
Yeah, both audio and I thinksomebody caught it on video.
But yeah, that was back in 2006, I think, yeah.
Speaker 2 (53:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:09):
I bet it was 2005,.
2006?
.
Speaker 2 (53:12):
Yeah, 5 or 6, I can't remember.
Speaker 1 (53:16):
We're so good.
We got kicked out of a festivalin Panama City Beach because we
won it every year and submittedour tapes to New York City and
out of every band that theycould choose from.
One of the bands they chose wasfrom Podunk Alabama.
Yeah, and invited us up thereand we even went to a Broadway
(53:39):
show Phantom of the Opera.
Speaker 2 (53:41):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:42):
So we saw a show on Broadway and went to Times whole
.
You know song and dance in NewYork.
I did not care for.
You know all of the again pomp.
All of the you know, ironicallyspeaking, pomp and circumstance
of the whole New York City.
(54:04):
Fast life, you know, fast lifefast lane, you know everything
that is involved with being avisitor and being a resident of
New York City.
And of course I mean I guessI'm biased because I don't
really care for the Yankees.
Oh dear.
Speaker 2 (54:24):
I'm not saying a word .
I'm not going either way therebecause we'll get responses.
I'm not saying a word.
Speaker 1 (54:29):
I'm not going either way there, because we'll get
responses.
I mean, why tear down ahistorical monument and build a
brand new stadium right nextdoor?
Speaker 2 (54:39):
There's our thoughts History centricity, leave it
alone.
Leave it alone.
Speaker 1 (54:44):
Yeah, we can take that many different directions.
That's right On that note, wewill finish out this podcast.
We as a family me and my familyhave been back to uh New York
city several times, but um, justuh, ever since nine 11, I think
it became a uh much moremeaningful place, uh, to honor
(55:11):
those that both are deceased,fallen out of that tragedy, and
also those who served and arefallen out of that tragedy.
So honoring those who gavetheir lives running into a
building instead of running away, that was on fire, that was
(55:31):
falling down, that was dustgoing everywhere, reliving that
event which we just passed herein this month of September 23
years ago, 23 years ago.
(55:54):
How powerful that message stillstands and how often we should
be reminded, and reminded tonever forget.
So that's really what kind ofrectifies New York City to me
and points it in a new direction, especially with the erection
of the monument, the 9-11Memorial, which is very sobering
.
So anyways, neither here northere Just wanted to pay homage
(56:17):
to that in our topic of New YorkCity and the state of New York.
Like I said, our song and danceNew York, new York, yeah there
you go, but yeah, for moreinformation you can always visit
historycentricitycom.
You can follow us there andsubmit any questions that you
may have.
Always great having you on thepodcast, Daryl.
(56:38):
Any last thoughts or comments?
Speaker 2 (56:40):
No, just enjoyed it.
It was great.
Speaker 1 (56:42):
Yeah, we'll continue this for sure.
Continue this series.
And you've been listening tohistory centricity.
Thank you for listening.
Our goal is to reigniteinterest in history instead of
(57:04):
feeding the fire to dismantle it.
The opinions and ideasexpressed are ones aimed simply
at encouraging furtherdiscussion.
You can find us on ApplePodcasts, spotify, amazon Music,
iheartradio, stitcher, tuneinor anywhere you get your
podcasts.
I'm your host, tony Craig, andthank you for listening to
History Centricity.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
And welcome back to another episode of History
Centricity, where history iscentral and essential to how we
view our world.
For more information, you cancheck out HistoryCentricitycom,
and in this episode we arejoined as usual by my co-host,
darrell Humphrey.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Well, hello and ho, ho, ho, as our president said
early Well hello and ho ho ho,as our president said early.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Well, darrell is a historian and, if you have been
following along with us in thepodcast, he is a recently
retired teacher and adjunctprofessor, holding a bachelor's
in history and political scienceand a master's in education.
He's taught both math andhistory for over 40 years at the
high school, junior college anduniversity level.
We are both passionate aboutkeeping history alive.
(01:08):
And what are we talking aboutin this episode?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Well, first of all, I want to say one thing too,
about when you said holding abachelor's and all that.
I wish I could find what I'msupposed to be holding.
I think I've reached that agewhere I couldn't tell you where
my degrees are, so that juststruck me.
Well, at least they'resomewhere, right.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
They're somewhere in a house yes, well, at least
they're somewhere recorded tooat the university level.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, yeah, but they've got them, at least I can
prove it.
No, today, what stemmed fromthis?
As I went around to all thebookstores you know occasionally
I go to bookstores, you know,just occasionally.
Occasionally I have a housefull of books.
But I started seeing a lot ofthese books are on things like
(01:55):
taking trips through the 50states and places to visit in
the 50 states and I thought, hmm, that might be interesting,
since I've got like 13 that I'venot visited yet and I'm hoping
to live long enough to make sometrips to visit them, just for a
(02:15):
little while, just to see kindof what things are like around
the country.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yeah, um, and you've got a good start right, oh yeah
yeah, yeah, yeah, I've visited37 so far.
Wow, that's more than me.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I've even got a magnetic map of the US where I
put little magnets on the statesas I visit them.
Oh, that's awesome.
So that's what stemmed this.
And then I thought, okay, forevery one of those states
there's hidden history.
And since we're historycentricity and I thought, well,
(02:48):
that'd be cool to talk about ineach of the states, whether
either of us had visited thestate or have stories which are
history or, in my years ofteaching, where those states
have become a vital part of thestudy.
So that just kind of stemmed meup to that and I started
(03:10):
researching and thinking aboutwhere I'd been, where I'd not
been and some of the storiesthat are involved in that.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So in your experience , both teaching and places that
you have been, that's what kindof originated this whole idea of
the hidden history of thestates.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah, and I thought it's hidden pretty well, but we
can still talk about it, youknow.
Yeah, for people that haven'tbeen there, or people wanting to
go there, or people that evenhave been, Right have been and
it spurs a memory back.
That's what it did with me.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Thinking about the states.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah.
So what states do we want tostart off with?
Well, the first ones we startedoff with.
I've never visited.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
And I did it in regions.
Okay, so the New England regionwas the one that I have not
visited region was the one thatI have not visited.
The only state of the NewEngland area around there that
I've even been into is New York.
But I started thinking aboutokay, let's start at the top,
and the top would of course beMaine, Maine, yeah, and never
(04:20):
visited there Capital Augusta.
I thought that's neat because Ihave connections with Augusta,
Georgia.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
What connections do you have there?
I?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
have family and some relatives there in Augusta and
I've been to Augusta and I knowabout the Augusta big golf
tournament that's there, theMasters, the Masters is played
there and so forth.
So that's a connection, I guessyou say, with the capital.
But I thought that would beneat.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah to go yeah we'll uh we'll get to georgia, and
you visited maine yeah, I'vevisited, maine so tell us a
little bit about what youthought about, where and why you
were up there visiting maineyeah, so we uh took a trip with
my family up to Maine and kindof the New England states on a
(05:09):
New England cruise, cruising upthe coast into actually.
We went actually into Canada,oh okay, up into Nova Scotia,
but one of our stops along theway was into Bar Harbor, maine,
okay, and along the coast there,and we also visited Acadia
(05:33):
National Park.
Oh yeah, I can imagine Wow.
So Acadia is beautiful just bythe fact that it is located
right there on the coast, andall of these waves from the
Atlantic are washing up onto themassive boulders and rocky
formations of the park itself,which is all preserved, of
(05:55):
course.
But also another fun fact aboutAcadia is that it is the
smallest national park in thecountry, so it's a really cool
national park, one of the fewthat I have, you know, been to.
Of course, a lot of the morefamous ones are out west.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
That gives me a tingly feeling too, you talking
about the coast, because I'm abig lighthouse person.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
I collect lighthouse and nautical things.
When I was able to climblighthouses, I would go to the
lighthouses.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Well, you and I have climbed a lighthouse ourselves.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yes, that was back in the day when I hadn't had a
heart attack.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
From the height alone , you probably had a heart
attack.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Oh, the height alone was terrible.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
And the claustrophobia inside.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Yes, as you go up to the verticals.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
What do they call those staircases?
It's like a corkscrew.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I know what you're talking about.
It's like a corkscrewcylindrical.
Spiral, yeah, spiral.
That's it, yeah, spiralstaircase.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Yep when you feel like you're going to fall down
the stairs, every single step.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I wish I had gone when I was younger so I could,
you know, climb those.
But those days are gone.
Well, they're nice to reallysee from the outside too,
because of how much of acharacter they show in different
parts of the country, indifferent parts of the world.
(07:26):
Well, I just love thelighthouse and I love the
connotation that goes with theChristian aspect of the
lighthouse showing the way, andso Maine is one of those states
I would love to visit.
Yeah, I need to go on that newengland cruise, but all those
states up there, but, um, uh,one thing about maine that a lot
of people may not know and Idon't know if you know, tony, or
(07:47):
not, but maine as a colony wasused as a compromise in the 1920
1920 between slave and freestates.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
So this was before the Civil War.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
This was before the Civil War.
It was called the MissouriCompromise.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Why was it called Missouri if it was so far up?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
north.
Okay, well, here's the deal.
Up until that point.
I said 1920 earlier.
That should have been 1820.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yeah, 1820.
1820.
1860.
I'm going 100 years over, 1860being the.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Civil War.
Civil War, right.
But in 1819, you have a statethat comes into the Union, which
is Alabama, and they had comein as a slave state.
And so the next state that's tocome into the union, according
to the laws and things that theyhad established, would be a
(08:44):
free state, and it kepteverything equal.
So when it came time, Missouriwas the one that applied for it.
And of course, if you knowanything about the location of
the history, Missouri is kind ofin the middle of the nation but
(09:06):
heavily influenced with slavery.
So Missouri couldn't come in asa slave state because that
would give an advantage in thegovernment.
So Henry Clay my relative, bythe way, and who was Henry Clay?
He was a senator from Kentuckyand he will run for president
(09:30):
several times, he'll be Speakerof the House and very involved
in government, and he proposedthis compromise where, at the
same time, missouri comes in asa slave state, maine would come
in as a free state and so thebalance would be restored.
(09:54):
Restate and so the balancewould be restored.
And then at that point therewas going to be there had been a
conflict about and they saidokay, the nation needs no more
slavery past the Mason-Dixonline.
Well, if you look on ageographical map, missouri is
past the Meigs and Dixon line,and so by letting Missouri come
(10:19):
in as a slave state, that'sgoing to ruffle a lot of
feathers.
So they let Maine come in asthe free state to keep
everything, and then saidthere'd be no more slave states.
This is the beginning of theend of slavery in the nation,
because the only place slaverycould occur would be south of
(10:40):
that Mason-Dixon line.
Now Interesting.
And there's not much there thatgrows the element of cotton to
keep the slavery imported.
Yeah, south of the Mason-Dixonline, slavery imported south of
the Mason-Dixon line.
So you know, maine is a fairlyimportant state for our union in
(11:02):
this and the compromise ruffledfeathers, but it kept the Civil
War from happening for 40 moreyears.
Wow.
So it saved our country for 40years, in spite of people like
Andrew Jackson becoming it aspresident, in which Henry Clay
(11:22):
and Andrew Jackson are mortal,mortal enemies.
They hate each other.
A little interesting tidbit Iwas reading a book about Andrew
Jackson that talked about him asan orphan living with a EB
White up in North Carolina.
(11:44):
Eb EB White, I think, was thename I know.
White is the last name.
He was a former revolutionarysoldier.
He was a former revolutionarysoldier and, of course,
jackson's heavily involved inthe revolution as a young kid,
and so forth.
Well, what was interesting as Iread that was that I was a
(12:06):
member of the Sons of theAmerican Revolution through this
white person.
How so Somewhere in our familyline.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Really.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Okay, and so Andrew Jackson, as an orphan, lived
with him Interesting, and so hewas looked upon as Andrew
Jackson's step-in father.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Oh, he was older.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Yeah, so now it means I'm akin to Henry Clay and
Andrew Jackson, who hated eachother.
So there goes the family, theumphrey luck, as we call it.
The umphrey.
Luck has struck again.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Well, what else do you have?
On Maine.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Maine is just that country, the state, a lot of it
Maine.
It was originally controlled byMassachusetts Bay Colony there
in the New England area.
The Massachusetts Bay Colonycolony there in the new england
(13:14):
area, the massachusetts baycolony which is what we know
with pilgrims, puritans in thatera, all of those states, like
all of those new england statesyou name all the seven of them
that's up there whatever, at onepoint or another, was
controlled by massachusetts baycolony it was the colony that
(13:35):
was first established.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
That was the first established colony, the first
people here in America, thePilgrims, the Puritans Right.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
The first.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
That's what we're thinking about right and you
know we think about them.
You know the Pilgrims andPuritans but they're not a real
nice people.
So you've got Quakers in thearea and you've got Shakers in
the area, religious sects thatproceed to maybe get under the
(14:11):
skin of the pilgrims and thePuritans that are there, and
that's the reason you're goingto have all these breakoffs like
Vermont, new Hampshire, rhodeIsland, connecticut.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
So people just broke off and formed their own
colonies, which then eventuallybecame these new England States.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Yes, yes and most of it was because of religious
persecution.
Oh, persecution, oh yeah, bigtime religious persecution oh
yeah, big time religiouspersecution through the
Massachusetts Bay Colony, gotchaand all the history of the
different ones with AnnHutchison and the Providence,
(14:49):
rhode Island and some of thoseareas there.
But Maine's just an interestingstate.
British wanted it very much.
They were very interested in itbecause it controls if you look
at the map it controls the StLawrence Seaway coming down into
(15:09):
the country.
It's at the head of Maine thatarea.
So at one point British said wewant half of it, we'll give
America half.
So it's been a lot ofconsternation in Maine and
that's the reason I've alwayswanted to go up there and see
what it was like.
And then you got the Canadiansthat are involved in it too.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Yeah, Well, we did have Maine lobster too, while we
were there.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Oh my gosh, the whole kit and caboodle when it comes
to the Maine lobster.
I want the tail, I don't wantthe caboodle.
You want the caboodle, not thekit.
I want the tail, not thecaboodle.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
You want the caboose.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
No, I don't think I can do the whole Maine lobster.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Well, the funny thing is, my grandmother was along
with us on this cruise and theybrought that whole Maine lobster
out and set it down in front ofher on the table.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
What's this?
Speaker 1 (16:11):
And of course, everyone gets a lobster to
themselves.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
And this was in Maine .
This was not on the boat.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
That is wild.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
She convinced the server, the waiter or waitress
to crack, crack it and cut it,fix it, I would do good and be
in the good old southern bellthat she was.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
She was able to connive and convince oh, I can
see you, I can say you're doingthat yes, so yeah just being who
she was very definitely yeah,yeah so that's a good memory
from maine.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Um, plenty more I'm sure my parents know of um.
But yeah, moving along, what'sthe next state that we have the
next?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
next one is new hampshire.
New hampshire, uh, capitalbeing concord, yeah, uh, concord
, new hampshire.
Not not much on this, butthere's a.
There's an element of again aheavily influenced religion here
called the Shakers.
Yeah, you mentioned that before.
Yeah, the Shakers.
(17:19):
From what I understood aboutthe Shakers, they're kind of a
branch off the Quakers.
They have different types ofstrong, strong beliefs.
You know the Quakers are thethe endow and you know the real
prime.
(17:39):
They're very conservative intheir beliefs.
They only eat oatmeal and grits.
Interesting, interesting there,interesting there.
If you look at the oatmeal boxQuaker Oats it's really
interesting.
It's got a man.
Looks like William Penn, butthere's been consternation that
(18:02):
that's not him.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Well, we'll get to Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
But he's holding things in his hand and they are
qualities of oats and it's likediligence, faith, things like
that.
So the shakers were there kindof keep to themselves.
(18:29):
They're not really out there asmuch, but they're very
conservative in their beliefs,formed from ministers in the cop
(18:51):
bay colony there that woulddissatisfied with what was going
on as far as persecution, andso they fled to this area of new
hampshire and and establishedit.
Of course this is one of youroriginal 13 colonies do you know
where the name Hampshire?
Speaker 1 (19:11):
I guess Hampshire.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yeah, it comes from the British area.
Like Hampshire, I think thereis a section of England
Hampshire, but I'm not sure.
Okay, I'm not sure on that.
Like New England, yeah, I know,like New Jersey comes from the
island of Jersey.
Yeah, I know like New Jerseycomes from the island of Jersey.
(19:33):
So Hampshire, I think, is justa section of England.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Okay, gotcha, what else do you have on New
Hampshire?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I've never visited it , never heard much about it.
That's about it, okay.
I'd love to go up there becauseof just the foliage from the
fall.
I don't know if some of theparks are up there too.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
All of these states have phenomenal foliage come
fall and people don't evenrealize.
I mean, here in the South wehave great foliage, but it's
nothing compared to thedifferent variations, different
varietals of trees up there.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
That's what I've heard.
Yeah, yeah, so it's nothingcompared trees up there.
That's what I've heard.
Yeah.
Yeah, so it's nothing comparedto up there, beautiful New
Hampshire.
So I think it's up today.
I think it's probably a lot ofthe wealthy have their homes in
that area too, and it of courseextends up to the St Lawrence
(20:29):
and that area up in there.
So not much on New Hampshire.
That's one state I wanted tovisit.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
And then further inland, are we going to talk
about Vermont?
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Yeah, Vermont's next.
Okay, capital, montpelier.
That's just a name withinitself, right there, I love that
.
Can you say that again?
Montpelier, p-e-l-i-e-r, soit's a French, it's a.
French Montpelier, samuel deChamplain, explored this area,
(21:05):
so therefore you have LakeChamplain.
I've never visited the area.
I've heard Lake Champlain isone of the most beautiful sites
in our country.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Yeah, I've never been to Vermont.
Yeah, no.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Vermont.
You know what Vermont means,right.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Land of maple syrup, good try.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Nice, try, nice try, kid Sorry, nice try, kid Sorry.
Charlie, sorry Charlie.
That means Green Mountain,green Mountain, Vermont.
It's named from Verde Mountain,verde Mountain Well, that would
be Spanish.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Verde.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
That would be true.
That would be Spanish, verytrue.
But Ethan Allen and his GreenMountain Boys are from this area
and they're very important inthe Revolutionary War.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Ethan Allen controlled the area.
The settlers around there werevery loyal to him.
For a while.
It was a real problem with himbecause the military part of
that built up there in Vermontwas loyal to him, to the fact
that they were not loyal to thegovernment.
They're loyal to their generaland that's Ethan Allen.
(22:27):
So you had a coup.
So you better be on your toeswith it because if you do
something against what he thinksor what he stands for, you're
going to lose the military mightof Vermont in the Revolutionary
War.
And he was not an easy guy toget along with.
(22:47):
He was not an easy guy to getalong with From what I've read
and things I've read, veryirascible and angry all the time
at everybody, short-fused, youmean, yes, short-fused.
He had his way or no way and hecontrolled his boys that way,
boys that way, and luckilygeorge washington was able to
(23:19):
kind of bow to him and let himcontrol things in order to use
him because he's a bigrevolutionary hero of the area,
controlling the forts around thearea and defeating the british
around the area.
So hey, after the governmentset up, then you have a lot of
problems out of this areabecause there's opposition to
the government that results fromit and so you have a lot of
(23:42):
independent thinking about ourgovernment in this area and as
long as Ethan Allen was aroundhe could control his boys or
whatever.
When he died then there wasreal opposition to the
government and of course you'veheard of some of the rebellions.
When the government firstformed that, washington had to
(24:05):
go up there and put downrebellions around the area and
some of them were these ex-EthanAllen boys Interesting.
Okay, they got into it.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Huh, well, is that all you have on Vermont?
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Yeah, never been there.
Like I said, I would love to gothere and see if it's really
Green Mountain.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Is that a mountainous area like the Catskills?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Is that part of the?
Speaker 1 (24:31):
New York, catskills Mountains, I think so.
I'm not that familiar.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Or the Adirondacks.
Yeah, is that the areaAdirondacks?
Adirondacks, is it an area?
Speaker 1 (24:42):
I think Something like that.
But yeah, moving on, what otherstates do we have?
Rhode Island, rhode Island, thesmallest, small Moving on, what
other states.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
do we have Rhode Island?
Rhode Island the smallest statein the country.
Never visited here.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
And why?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
is it so small?
One of the reasons is thatRhode Island became a catch-all
for anybody that hadoppositional problems with
Massachusetts Bay Colony.
They would flee to this colonyand different sects, different
(25:24):
religions, different beliefstoward the British crown,
different beliefs about slavery,so it's not going to expand
very easily.
They're going to keep tothemselves.
Many of them, in fact therewere several judges that had
(25:56):
made decisions in theMassachusetts Bay Colony against
some of the pilgrims andPuritans of the area because of
persecution and they had to fleefor their lives and Rhode
Island would offer them a placeto stay.
There were many of them thatwent to Rhode Island and came
back to Boston to rescue some oftheir Quaker friends.
(26:18):
At one point I can't rememberthe lady's name I know Ann
Hutchison actually helped settlethe Rhode Island area, but this
other lady I can't rememberwhat her name was.
Now it escapes me but she endedup going back to Boston like
(26:38):
four times and every time shewent back to Boston she
approached the Boston governmentand said you're wrong for the
persecution.
So they were hanging people,they were hanging Quakers,
hanging some of her friends, andthey said at one point they
told her husband to take heraway back to the colony to
(27:01):
control her.
And so he took her back.
But she came back again andtried to rescue her friends and
they said if you come back intoour colony of Boston or whatever
, we will hang you.
So she fled.
She came back again A third time.
A third time, she came backfour different times and finally
(27:24):
, the last time she came back,they hung her.
She came back.
They hung her as apostate andblasphemous towards the pilgrims
and the Puritans.
What's going on with herthinking?
But that's a pretty strongelement in spite of her husband.
You know they said, husband,you can't control her.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
She was marrying somebody.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
I can't remember what her name was now.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
So her following was primarily in the Rhode Island
area.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Well, it was in the Boston Massachusetts Bay Colony
area, but she kept fleeing toRhode Island.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
And that's where she was living when she died.
So her following relocated toRhode Island.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Yeah, yeah, many of them followed her.
She was a follower of AnneHutch, so her following
relocated to Rhode Island.
Yeah, many of them followed her.
She was a follower of AnneHutchinson's too.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
And some of them.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
So why is Rhode Island named Rhode Island when
it is not an island?
Speaker 2 (28:24):
I do not know that.
That's an interesting question.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
I mean, is there an island that it's named after?
Speaker 2 (28:32):
No, I don't think so.
I don't think it's named afterthe island of Rhodes.
If that's what you're thinking,I think it may be called Rhode
Island, meaning an island ofsolace for those that they
welcome everybody.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Of solace.
Yeah, they welcome everybody inOf solace.
Yeah, they welcome everybody inOpen door policy.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Right and.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Well, how ironic to flee persecution from England
and then to then flee frompersecution from the pilgrims.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Get that now when you fled originally from.
Yeah what did the pilgrims do?
They fled because they werepersecuted in England.
And now, why are these peoplefleeing Massachusetts Bay Colony
?
Because the pilgrims have gone.
Nuts, too much turkey.
I guess so yeah, Too manyThanksgivings.
(29:26):
We can go to that all day too.
What's interesting today, RhodeIsland is places for summer
Mansions and houses along thecoast.
The wealthy have their summerhomes there.
Kind of interesting that, andyou would probably think this,
(29:50):
but nobody really thinks aboutit.
But the last state or colonybasically to give up slavery,
bringing slavery into theircolony, was Rhode Island.
But that's because the Britishinfluenced it so much.
But that's because the Britishinfluenced it so much and
(30:11):
because of the people that werethere.
It's interesting, but ironic inthe same instance.
They were so attuned to Britishthings and so forth.
It was a long time beforeBritish got rid of the act of
slavery.
They were one of the last toget rid of slavery in the world
(30:32):
too, the slave trade, and RhodeIsland is one of those last ones
too.
And so when the government isformed, you can expect what's
going to be one of the last onesto accept our Constitution.
Rhode Island Interesting Verymuch.
They went to, from what I hadread, in order to accept our
(30:55):
Constitution.
They put it in theirlegislature.
It failed.
They put it to a vote to thepeople.
It failed, Wow, To ratify it.
They were not going to ratifyit.
They were not going to ratifyit.
And the convention where theyfinally did ratify it, it was
(31:18):
interesting.
I had read about it and it wasthat they brought their people
in when they were told they weregoing to vote on ratification
of the Constitution.
They left, so there would notbe a majority, in order to do
their business in theirconvention, but the person that
(31:43):
was in charge of it went aheadand declared there is a majority
, went ahead and voted and by anarrow two votes or something
like that, it was ratified.
Wow, so a lot of shenanigansgoing on.
That's something that a lot ofpeople don't realize.
In the early, early years ofour government, people were not
(32:03):
happy with what you know, theArticles of Confederation.
We've talked about this before.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Oh yeah, go back in our other episodes on the
Constitution, the Declaration ofIndependence.
Yeah, the early ages and theearly thing of the Constitution.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
They're not happy yeah, they're not happy with how
the compromises worked out.
They're not happy with statepowers being taken away.
They're not happy withindividual rights, individual
powers, being taken away.
They're not happy withindividual rights, individual
powers being taken away, eventhough we have a Bill of Rights,
which is very ironic that wehave such a you know, looks like
(32:42):
a great government.
But there was a lot ofconsternation with the
ratification in that New Englandarea, especially With Rhode
Island being the last pillar tocome up and protect.
They're the last of our 13.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
So what's the next state we have?
So we've discussed Vermont, newHampshire, maine and Rhode
Island.
What's the next state that wehave in New England that we're
looking at?
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Yeah, since I've never visited the New England
area, but Connecticut is one.
We talked a little bit about ittoo, capital being Hartford.
Again, connecticut is one ofthose that Puritan founding from
(33:37):
Boston because of persecutionfrom our dear people, the
pilgrims.
As you can tell, I don'tparticularly like pilgrims, but
they're involved, the same assome of the others.
It was some of the judges inthe Massachusetts Bay Colony
that fled to Connecticut.
Also Ann Hutchison involved inthat too, with Connecticut.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
So everything seems intertwined.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Intertwined.
And then we got Massachusetts,which the capital is Boston I've
never visited.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
So nothing more on Connecticut, you have.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Wait, wait, wait.
I really don't have much moreon Connecticut.
I don't even know whatConnecticut would.
I know it's on the shorelineand there's probably a lot of
lighthouses and things like that.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Well, the US Coast Guard Academy is there.
Oh, that's right, I forgotabout that.
That's one of the militaryacademies.
I mean, I think most of themare in New York.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Yeah.
Other than of course the AirForce one, yeah, but yeah, I
don't have that much onConnecticut, except it's hard to
spell and that was always apain.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Oh yeah, Don't ask me to spell it which?
Speaker 2 (34:45):
I love to do with the kids because I like to get them
on spelling.
But they said I was terrible inspelling.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Well, let's move on to Massachusetts then.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Massachusetts.
Of course it has deep, deepAmerican independence presence
there, with Boston and thebirthplace of it, but again, the
persecution of Quakers thatwere rampant here by pilgrims
and Puritans.
But that's the central areathat controlled most of New
(35:18):
England and the wayMassachusetts went, New England
goes, and it's somewhat that waytoday.
If you look at the progressionof things with political
factions and so forth,Massachusetts is your leader of
that New England area.
(35:38):
They all kind of I don't wantto say vote as a bloc, but it's
pretty much the same way.
You visited Massachusetts,though you visited a holy city.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
What Fenway Park.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Yeah, Fenway.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Yes, I'm a big Boston Red Sox fan, After visiting
Fenway during an off-season andtaking the tour and then being
fortunate enough to be giftedtickets third row behind home
plate for our wedding by mybrother-in-law so really no
(36:19):
price can be put on thatexperience.
So a lot of credit goes to himand his generosity in giving
both me and my wife theopportunity to go out there and
go up there and experience thatin the oldest baseball stadium
in the country resemblance thatit gives every time how intimate
(36:43):
of a setting that is, how smalland how I mean it's, it's been
the same, um, it's.
It's been recognized as ahistorical landmark, which means
it can never be torn down, itcan never be, uh, added on to in
(37:08):
a certain, by certain standards.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
It's central to the history.
There we have historycentricity.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
So you can really step foot into that park, into
that.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Does it carry you back to the old?
You feel like you're back inthe old days with baseball.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Yeah, I mean, depending on what seat you sit
in.
I mean there's certain seatsthere that are made of the old
wrought iron and wood.
Oh, wow down seats that arepassed down the tickets, the
season tickets are passed downfrom generation to generation,
just like alabama football, juston a bigger scale, and they're
passed down from generation togeneration and you really feel
(37:49):
like you're elbow to elbow backin the old days With the green
monster and the kooky corners ofthe layout of the stadium and
the layout of the field.
It just really gives that.
And I mean they've alsotrademarked the color Fenway
(38:12):
Green, oh, so that you cannotuse that.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Use that color.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
Green color anywhere else.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Oh, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Other than in Fenway Park.
I mean, there's little thingslike that.
Everywhere you look, there'sone red seat out in center field
, which is, you know, in thehistory.
Telling the story is TedWilliams, who is the greatest
hitter of all time.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Played for the Red Sox, went off to war, world War
I or or two.
Came back from the war, I can'tremember which, but he served
his time.
Came back from the war still hit300, still hit 400, still hit
500, you know yeah that great ofa player, was that great of a
citizen and he spotted a guy outin center field that was
(39:06):
napping on a afternoon game and,with his straw hat down below
his eyes, and pointed him out,hit a home run, hit the guy
right in the head and to thisday they have a red seat out in
the center field bleachers thatshows where he was sitting that
(39:28):
shows where that guy was sittingand I don't know if people
still sit in that seat or not.
But apparently you know somegames they reserve that seat
where nobody sits in that seat.
So I mean little things likethat, little nuances that make
the whole park just extraspecial, yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
And Boston has such a fan base.
My gracious oh absolutely.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
I mean especially when they broke the curse, yeah.
And then they broke a lot morerecords again back with Fear the
Beard, where all of thesemisfits had beards, yeah.
It was just a great time in theearly 2010s and even before
then.
But yeah, just a great timebeing a fan for the Red Sox.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
I remember that I went to an Atlanta Braves game
where they played the Red Soxand I thought, oh, this will be
a nice game to go to.
It was like a home game forBoston Red Sox.
Yeah, there's a lot of them.
I mean, I've never seen so manyRed Sox fans.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Yeah, and there's a lot of fans in and around the
entire country.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Not just Boston, and I love Boston.
My wife and I were able we hadthe privilege to, you know walk
around downtown, walk around theFreedom Trail, walk around the
USS Constitution there that isin the Bay, go through that
museum.
Also, eat at some good localrestaurants like the.
(41:01):
It's not Acme, it's an oysterhouse there.
I can't really remember now,but it has a specific booth in
the restaurant on the secondfloor where John F Kennedy would
frequent.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
And that was his booth.
That's the JFK booth.
That was his booth.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Yeah, and you can sit in the JFK booth.
Oh, that's cool, yeah, sothat's really cool.
So, yeah, different stuff likethat that make Boston unique.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
It's just so heavily in the history I've never been.
I would love to go to that area.
All of New England, as you cansee, I've not visited.
This just makes me want to gothere badly.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
That also reminds me Oyster House was Union Oyster
House.
Union Oyster House, and youknow how big of a fan both my
wife and I are of oysters, ofwhich you are not.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
I have partook from them, but I am not a fan of raw
oysters, no.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
But anyways, I've fried.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
Now you fry them, I'm good.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
Yeah, it's right there in the Boston Public
Market, but great town, greatcity, it feels smaller than it
really is, so it's not like abig New York City.
I mean you ride publictransportation, you ride
throughout the city.
It's got a great park there butit's also divided by a great
(42:26):
river.
You know, there, you have MIT,you have Harvard, you have.
There, you have MIT, you haveHarvard, you have, you know,
boston College.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
I was going to say a lot of our intellectuals in our
nation comes from that area.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
Yeah, as far as education Early history all the
way through.
Yeah education and publicfigures.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
Yeah, yeah, very heavily influenced with
historical figures that are fromthe area, so it would be a
great visit, yeah.
Thank you for you being able tovisit and to give us a little
glimpse into it.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
Yeah, hopefully we can get you up there sometime.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Oh, that would be cool.
Of course, you might just haveto leave me Just like go away.
I'll just be here the rest ofthe days.
Just bury you in the dirtywater up there.
Bury me right next to the USSConstitution.
And then our last one is NewYork, and I've visited New York,
(43:25):
so I'm excited about this one.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
And where in New York have you been?
Speaker 2 (43:29):
Okay, well, well, first of all, the capital is
Albany.
I did not make it to Albany,but we did, as a family, go up
and stayed about three or fourdays in Niagara Falls is just,
(43:53):
it was just amazing.
The Maid of the Mist ridethat's up there.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
You didn't get married on that boat.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
No, I did not.
This was back in my teenagedays, I guess it was.
My family always took a trip inthe summer, and so this was one
of our trips.
My dad had gone up and been onTDY up in the New Jersey area,
and so he wanted to go to theNew York area.
So we actually drove to the NewYork area.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
And how old were you?
Speaker 2 (44:23):
I was probably 12, 11 or 12.
So this was very impactful onyour memory.
Oh my gosh.
Yes, I remember it so well.
My dad was pretty bad aboutseeing sites.
If you've seen it.
He didn't want to go to theGrand Canyon because he said
I've already seen a big ditch.
So we didn't go to the GrandCanyon.
(44:46):
So he had already seen awaterfall and so I said, well,
let's go anyway.
I wanted to go, so we plannedto stay the one night and so we
got our motel and got on a tourfor Niagara Falls and several of
the museums around the area andMaid of the Mist and all that
(45:09):
around their area and made ofthe mist and all that, and then
ended up going back and gettinganother night's stay at the
motel because we wanted to gofor another day to go in the
area.
It was so great.
Unfortunately didn't get toEllis Island, statue of Liberty
or any of those things.
I've not been in New York City.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
Yeah, you mean more the Atlantic coast, yeah yeah,
we were more on the lake LongIsland is what you're referring
to.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
Yeah, we were more on the Great Lakes area.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
New York is a bigger state than you think it is.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
It's a huge day and and a lot of people don't
realize that new york is a very,very important um state in the
fact that they're one of thelast four to ratify the
constitution.
There was a lot ofconsternation and a lot of
liberalism and conservatism inthat state.
(46:07):
They were not going to ratifythe Constitution.
They even said if we ratify itwe'll probably secede.
They're one of the first tomention secession.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
Really.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
They are one of the first of the states to mention
that if we don't like what'sgoing on, we're going to get out
of the government.
I don't know what they weregoing to do.
What are you going to do?
Join back with England afterthe defeat?
But they were going to secedeand that prevalent attitude kept
itself all the way up throughCivil War.
(46:42):
It's a hotbed for the Civil War.
There was talk that New Yorkwould join the Confederacy.
Speaker 1 (46:51):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
And secede from the Union, and if it did, just the
fact of the physical,geographical area that it was,
it would probably take all theNew England area with it.
Of course, yeah.
And so a lot of people thinkthat you know the Civil War was
(47:13):
all south.
But it's not.
Speaker 1 (47:15):
South of the Mason-Dixon.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
Yeah, south of the Mason-Dixon.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
Right Versus the north.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
And it's not.
This is a hotbed.
I mean, there were supposedly.
This is probably where JohnWilkes Booth met up with some
people and so forth, withJefferson Davis, about the
assassination.
Yeah, and I wanted to mentionone last thing.
Here too, there is aninscription down on the Statue
(47:44):
of Liberty.
Do you know the author of thelittle inscription?
On the bottom, on the bottom ofthe base of the little
inscription On the bottom, onthe bottom of the base of the
Statue of Liberty.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
Of the Statue of Liberty.
No, I have not been on theisland or inside the Statue of
Liberty.
I've only seen it from a boat.
Speaker 2 (48:04):
Okay, well, a lady by the name of Emma Lazarus wrote
a poem and it has been down onthe base of the Statue of
Liberty and it kind ofillustrates this and we
interpret it.
I'm sure you've heard.
Give me your huddled massesyearning to be free and so forth
(48:26):
, standing for the statue.
I want to read you the poem.
It's not very long.
But she was a socialist, shewas an anti-government person,
she was for the people, all thepeople in the world, in
different categories and soforth.
But this is her poem.
(48:47):
It's called the New Colossus,so forth, but this is her poem.
It's called the New Colossus.
Not like the brazen giant ofGreek fame with conquering limbs
astride from land to land.
Here at our sea-washed sunsetgates shall stand a mighty woman
with a torch whose flame is theimprisoned lightning In her
(49:07):
name, mother of exiles, from herbeacon hand glows worldwide
welcome.
Her mild eyes command theair-bridged harbor that twin
cities frame.
Keep you, ancient lands, yourstoried pomp, cries she with
silent lips.
Give me your tired, your poor,your huddled masses yearning to
(49:29):
breathe free, the wretchedrefuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless,tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside thegolden door and that's the poem
that's on the Statue of Libertyand we're always told give me
your tired, your poor, and soforth.
(49:50):
It was a real positive typething.
But if you listen to the poem,it wasn't.
It talks about that oldcolossus over in the old world
which stood on a Greek islandand all the pomp and
circumstance about it.
So it's an anti-European poemwhich I found really interesting
(50:12):
.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
So why is that?
Even on?
Let's see.
So let's back up.
The statue came from overseas,as a gift, as a gift from France
.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Yeah.
So it's interesting and ironicthat you've got an anti-European
poem on the base of the statue.
So did?
Speaker 1 (50:32):
we build the base and then the statue was put on it.
Speaker 2 (50:35):
I think we built the base.
Speaker 1 (50:36):
Yes, Therefore, we decided what was to go on the
base?
Speaker 2 (50:40):
Yeah, and why is?
Speaker 1 (50:41):
her poem versus other poems.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
She was just one of the leading socialists of the
time, of that time period, andthis is a completely
socialist-type thing of talkingabout against the European
masses and so forth, that you'venot done anything for your
people, that we, the mother ofexiles, are going to take care
(51:07):
of everything.
So I just found it a veryinteresting poem.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
That is that triggers a lot of interesting.
Speaker 2 (51:17):
I think she's Jewish too.
Speaker 1 (51:19):
Oh wow, that triggers a lot of things then I think
she's Jewish background too.
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
So I just thought that was neat.
I always wanted to go and seethat poem.
But of course we don't get thewhole poem.
All we get is that one littleline or phrase give me your
tired your poor yeah.
So I looked it up and foundwhat the whole poem was about.
Speaker 1 (51:41):
In the romanticizing of our country.
That's all we get.
Is what you're saying, right,yeah?
Speaker 2 (51:47):
yeah Well, I mean, you know they probably wanted to
destroy some of those things,because it's not good to say
keep your ancient lands, yourpump and all this.
That's not good to delve intocriticizing our ancient
histories, but she did and Ijust thought it was really neat.
Speaker 1 (52:11):
Well, anything else you have on New York.
Speaker 2 (52:13):
No, new York City, I mean, I've been there several
times yeah.
Yeah, you tell me some thingsand then I can get up and do a
little song and dance New York,new York.
Speaker 1 (52:22):
Break out your Frank Sinatra.
Frank Sinatra Did it my way?
Yeah, Not true.
Did it my way?
Yeah.
So first time I've been to NewYork was when I actually played
in Carnegie Hall with my highschool symphonic band.
So I played trombone, was partof the same band as your son.
Speaker 2 (52:46):
And daughter.
Speaker 1 (52:47):
And daughter Yep.
Speaker 2 (52:48):
You're correct.
Speaker 1 (52:50):
We both went on that trip.
Speaker 2 (52:52):
I remind them quite often that they have played in
Carnegie Hall.
Speaker 1 (52:55):
Yep, and that was actually recorded.
Yeah, both audio and I thinksomebody caught it on video.
But yeah, that was back in 2006, I think, yeah.
Speaker 2 (53:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:09):
I bet it was 2005,.
2006?
.
Speaker 2 (53:12):
Yeah, 5 or 6, I can't remember.
Speaker 1 (53:16):
We're so good.
We got kicked out of a festivalin Panama City Beach because we
won it every year and submittedour tapes to New York City and
out of every band that theycould choose from.
One of the bands they chose wasfrom Podunk Alabama.
Yeah, and invited us up thereand we even went to a Broadway
(53:39):
show Phantom of the Opera.
Speaker 2 (53:41):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:42):
So we saw a show on Broadway and went to Times whole
.
You know song and dance in NewYork.
I did not care for.
You know all of the again pomp.
All of the you know, ironicallyspeaking, pomp and circumstance
of the whole New York City.
(54:04):
Fast life, you know, fast lifefast lane, you know everything
that is involved with being avisitor and being a resident of
New York City.
And of course I mean I guessI'm biased because I don't
really care for the Yankees.
Oh dear.
Speaker 2 (54:24):
I'm not saying a word .
I'm not going either way therebecause we'll get responses.
I'm not saying a word.
Speaker 1 (54:29):
I'm not going either way there, because we'll get
responses.
I mean, why tear down ahistorical monument and build a
brand new stadium right nextdoor?
Speaker 2 (54:39):
There's our thoughts History centricity, leave it
alone.
Leave it alone.
Speaker 1 (54:44):
Yeah, we can take that many different directions.
That's right On that note, wewill finish out this podcast.
We as a family me and my familyhave been back to uh New York
city several times, but um, justuh, ever since nine 11, I think
it became a uh much moremeaningful place, uh, to honor
(55:11):
those that both are deceased,fallen out of that tragedy, and
also those who served and arefallen out of that tragedy.
So honoring those who gavetheir lives running into a
building instead of running away, that was on fire, that was
(55:31):
falling down, that was dustgoing everywhere, reliving that
event which we just passed herein this month of September 23
years ago, 23 years ago.
(55:54):
How powerful that message stillstands and how often we should
be reminded, and reminded tonever forget.
So that's really what kind ofrectifies New York City to me
and points it in a new direction, especially with the erection
of the monument, the 9-11Memorial, which is very sobering
.
So anyways, neither here northere Just wanted to pay homage
(56:17):
to that in our topic of New YorkCity and the state of New York.
Like I said, our song and danceNew York, new York, yeah there
you go, but yeah, for moreinformation you can always visit
historycentricitycom.
You can follow us there andsubmit any questions that you
may have.
Always great having you on thepodcast, Daryl.
(56:38):
Any last thoughts or comments?
Speaker 2 (56:40):
No, just enjoyed it.
It was great.
Speaker 1 (56:42):
Yeah, we'll continue this for sure.
Continue this series.
And you've been listening tohistory centricity.
Thank you for listening.
Our goal is to reigniteinterest in history instead of
(57:04):
feeding the fire to dismantle it.
The opinions and ideasexpressed are ones aimed simply
at encouraging furtherdiscussion.
You can find us on ApplePodcasts, spotify, amazon Music,
iheartradio, stitcher, tuneinor anywhere you get your
podcasts.
I'm your host, tony Craig, andthank you for listening to
History Centricity.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!