The Boston Underground (maybe)
It's nearly Halloween again - a time of year that is interesting to me. Do I believe in "ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night"? No, but I do have respect for the traditions of the observance and for the thoughts and fears of those who have gone before. And what, after all, is Halloween all about? As Reb Tevye, the milkman, would say, in one word: "TRADITION"!
On my recent travels through Kansas, preparing for a tour of parts of the western United States, I wandered into a bookstore in Manhattan, Kansas. A new book by Matthew Pearl, The Dante Club, caught my eye. I don't normally favor murder mysteries, but I thumbed through the book and was immediately taken by the story being based in Boston, right after the American Civil War. Then I glimpsed the names of Longfellow, Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, J. T. Fields and George Washington Greene - four of my favorite authors and the most prominent publisher in Boston in the 1860 era. The name of Dante Alighieri immediately moved me further because he is are high among my favorite authors and, like the Americans noted here, he produced works which will persevere through the ages to come. Now when thoughts of these worthies combined in my mind with Boston, the town where I was born and raised, well, the book was absolutely irresistible. I bought it and commenced reading.
A good portion of the plot is based on the existence of extensive catacombs and tunnels dug under the streets of Boston for use by The Underground Railroad and also used for entombment of church members. I spent a good portion of my formative years in Boston and during that time I spent many days and evenings walking about those glorious streets. Never did I hear of underground tunnels. As you can well imagine, my interest was piqued and my curiosity was aroused beyond my ability to resist traveling home.
I am writing this from Boston. I cannot find any evidence of underground excavations, except for this news item about a discovery in a churchyard cemetery: http://tinyurl.com/yu3zab
This hardly fits the bill for me. However, the idea of mysterious burial catacombs under the streets of Boston is truly in keeping with the "spirit" of the next few days. Thinking of the darker parts of the history of Boston - of Massachusetts, for that matter - reminds me of what modern society might say about the post medieval mindset of some of the early settlers of this area; truly of all of New England. How far away were these people from ghosts and daemons and ghosts and spirits and the "undead"? Not far at all.
So what do I intend to do for the next few days? I'm going to catch up visiting with my mother and my father and Fez. I'm also going to spend much of the next two nights silently pacing through many area church yards. Will there be catacombs there? Maybe not. Will I feel the presence of early Bostonians? Yes I will.
Regards,
M. Benetti
On my recent travels through Kansas, preparing for a tour of parts of the western United States, I wandered into a bookstore in Manhattan, Kansas. A new book by Matthew Pearl, The Dante Club, caught my eye. I don't normally favor murder mysteries, but I thumbed through the book and was immediately taken by the story being based in Boston, right after the American Civil War. Then I glimpsed the names of Longfellow, Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, J. T. Fields and George Washington Greene - four of my favorite authors and the most prominent publisher in Boston in the 1860 era. The name of Dante Alighieri immediately moved me further because he is are high among my favorite authors and, like the Americans noted here, he produced works which will persevere through the ages to come. Now when thoughts of these worthies combined in my mind with Boston, the town where I was born and raised, well, the book was absolutely irresistible. I bought it and commenced reading.
A good portion of the plot is based on the existence of extensive catacombs and tunnels dug under the streets of Boston for use by The Underground Railroad and also used for entombment of church members. I spent a good portion of my formative years in Boston and during that time I spent many days and evenings walking about those glorious streets. Never did I hear of underground tunnels. As you can well imagine, my interest was piqued and my curiosity was aroused beyond my ability to resist traveling home.
I am writing this from Boston. I cannot find any evidence of underground excavations, except for this news item about a discovery in a churchyard cemetery: http://tinyurl.com/yu3zab
This hardly fits the bill for me. However, the idea of mysterious burial catacombs under the streets of Boston is truly in keeping with the "spirit" of the next few days. Thinking of the darker parts of the history of Boston - of Massachusetts, for that matter - reminds me of what modern society might say about the post medieval mindset of some of the early settlers of this area; truly of all of New England. How far away were these people from ghosts and daemons and ghosts and spirits and the "undead"? Not far at all.
So what do I intend to do for the next few days? I'm going to catch up visiting with my mother and my father and Fez. I'm also going to spend much of the next two nights silently pacing through many area church yards. Will there be catacombs there? Maybe not. Will I feel the presence of early Bostonians? Yes I will.
Regards,
M. Benetti
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