I attended the first 1970 Earth Day celebration in Washington as a history major co-op student at Northeastern University working as a park ranger at Fort McHenry in Baltimore.
As a witness to history on it’s 50 year anniversary yesterday, I was happy to learn that two champions of the environmental movement — Governor Jay Inslee of Washington and former Vice President Al Gore — both endorsed Joe Biden for president yesterday.
Please share widely!
Christopher says
I didn’t know you had been a park ranger!
fredrichlariccia says
Yes, Christopher.
I was an Interior Department, National Park Services ranger also, at Minuteman National Historical Park in Concord and gave talks at the Old North Bridge — the site of ‘the shot heard ’round the world’.
It was the best job I ever had. 🙂
jconway says
One of the few bright spots during this time has been enjoying state parks like the Fells and Breakheart (which is almost in my backyard) I drove past for years without stepping foot in. They truly are a gem.
fredrichlariccia says
As a boy, my Dad would take me to the Fells where you could fill up gallon jugs for free pure spring water and we would swim at Breakheart’s lower lake.
It breaks my heart to witness the desecration of Mother Earth — land, water, air, and all our beautiful wildlife.
Christopher says
I should be working at the store at Minuteman NHP as we speak were it not for this darn virus. I did walk the Battle Road Trail on Monday as my way of marking Patriots Day.
fredrichlariccia says
When friends visit from outside New England they ask for my “grand private tour” which includes the Patriots Day re-enactment of the Revolutionary War battle on Lexington green, (where the first Americans were killed) and Concord ( where the first British soldiers fell).
I also take them on Boston’s Freedom Trail, the JFK Museum / Library ( where I’m a Founding Life member) and the beaches of southern Maine coast where I spent my early summer years.
SomervilleTom says
When I first moved to Boston after graduating from college, I had never heard of “Patriots Day” — but it was a day off at my first employer (Digital Equipment Corporation, in Maynard) and I lived in Acton. So I ended up at the Lexington Green re-enactment as much by accident as intent. I heard various people in the crowd talking about the Old North Bridge, and so I ended up there a few hours later. In later years, I walked at least parts of Battle Road on Patriots day. Heh — I think of the park as “new”. It was just a country road for much of the time I’ve lived here — the modern park is marvelous at all times of the year.
I’ve loved Patriot’s Day ever since. It is part of my annual celebration of the coming of Spring. I love the history. One of my annual rituals in those years was to walk to the cellar hole of the Abner Hosmer homestead in Acton on the morning of Patriots Day (I lived a short distance away) and simply stand there imagining what it must have been like to be so far away from everywhere (Acton and Concord are MUCH farther from Boston by foot or even horseback than by car) and to face down the strongest army in the world at that time.
I believe that standing in the fields by the Old North Bridge on Patriots Day, especially in the morning — just standing there, looking at the sky, feeling the breeze, and the heat or cold (as the case may be) — is a vital part of calling Massachusetts “home”.
SomervilleTom says
I misremembered the name of the cellar-hole where I so frequently stopped in those years.
It is, in fact, the site of the Robbins home. The stone was placed in 1895, and is located on Concord Road just past the Woodlawn cemetary.
jconway says
My nonna when she was with us, my ma, and my big sis would take my nephew (who I am nearly 11 months to the day older than) and me down Mass Ave from Arlington Heights and we’d park ourselves right on the corner in front of the Russell House and watch the parade. After nonna’s passing we’d go to Lexington in front of the Heritage Museum (I practically lived there as a kid) and watch there. One year I met Nancy Kerrigan and another year we met Scott Harshbarger. We stopped going after my sister and nephew moved to Marlborough, but it’s definitely a tradition I hope to revive with my own family.
This year we would’ve been en route to Chicago from Grand Rapids for the next one of our college friends to get married. Alas they are on hold like everyone else.