“History isn’t about dates and places and wars. It’s about the people who fill the spaces between them.”
Thinking I was smart, I went shopping early. Everyone else did the same thing. I was lucky a car pulled out before I went around the lot any more times as I was getting dizzy. I had my list and made several sweeps of the store. Standing at the cash register I noticed I hadn’t bought ice cream, the center piece of my dessert. I ran and got what I needed then waited while 6 bags were filled. It took 3 trips into the house. I thought my legs would give way on the second trip with a bag filled with bottles. Sweat running down your face is not a pretty sight. After everything was put away, I sat down, reached for the phone and tried to make a call. No dial tone. I checked, and I suspect it is my phone as the TV and internet are working just fine. At least I know I won’t be interrupted by phone calls.
The world has come to Cape Cod for the weekend. The line to get off the Dennis exit stretched as far as I could see. Luckily I was traveling against the traffic. I will probably have to go out later to get a new phone but until then I’ll prep for tomorrow’s gala dinner and 4th of July celebration.
I don’t remember how old I was when I realized the importance of July 4th. I guess it might have been around the fifth grade when I first had American history. I remember feeling quite proud that I lived near Lexington and Concord. I even got to go there on one Sunday family excursion. I remember standing on the Old North Bridge where the fighting started, the “shot heard ’round the world,” and imagining the smoke from the rifles. On Lexington Green all I kept thinking was here I am standing where some Minuteman stood.
All of my traveling imaginings started with that thought. Everywhere I’ve gone I’ve thought about who came before me. At Versailles I imagined Marie Antoinette walking through the halls, her dress swishing as she walked. I thought of Incas looking out the same windows I was looking out at Machu Pichu. The Tsar and his family walked through the Winter Palace and so did I. At the Old Fleet Street Tavern( which I think is really The Old Bell Tavern on Fleet Street. I seemed to have combined what and where). I wondered if Christopher Wren had stopped in for a nosh just as I had. Everywhere old I have gone, I’ve wondered.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: cars and more cars, gala celebration, history, July 4th fun, Lexington and Concord, no parking spaces, Old North Bridge, prep work for dinner, Shopping, Versailles
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
July 3, 2015 at 1:05 pm
Ok Kat, you have me flummoxed, not that difficult really. I don’t know the Old Fleet Street Tavern and am wondering if it is Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on Fleet Street ? That pub was rebuilt after the Great Fire and remains a popular destination
July 3, 2015 at 1:24 pm
MDH,
I think I have misremembered. I know it is near Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. It may have been the one with Bells in the name though now I am flummoxed. Sorry!
July 3, 2015 at 1:24 pm
Old Bell Tavern I suspect!
July 3, 2015 at 1:54 pm
I do like my London Pubs when I visit, especially the ones serving Fullers London Pride on draft.
The LSE is at the other end of Fleet Street, and my first job was at the Bank of England in the now demolished New Change right behind St Paul’s,
July 3, 2015 at 6:05 pm
MDH,
I didn’t realize your banking career began in England.
July 3, 2015 at 2:58 pm
I won’t do a thing until this heat goes away, on Monday they say. Thre’s even a risk we might get a tropical night here, by that they mean the temperature won’t fall below 68F during the night. I truly hope they are wrong! Still I love that we finally got some summer.
I need to bring a cooler if I want to buy ice cream, the stores are so far away that it would melt even on a chilly day before I came home. Both good and bad actually, I would eat way too much ice cream if I just could go out and buy it 🙂
Very few were out when I came to Falköping after work today, it was market day but so hot that very few were outside, those who were most likely drove to the nearest lake.
I di think that very same thing when I was at Versailles 🙂 I would love to go to London some day, I’ve never been there and I have only been in England three times in my entire life. The first time I was one year old and followed my father on one of the ships he was working at, can’t remember a thing from that trip 🙂 The other two time I’ve landed on Gatwick and Heathrow, not much for a trip to England 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
July 3, 2015 at 6:38 pm
Christer,
We have lovely days and cool nights-perfect weather, but it will be a bit chilly tomorrow night, the first movie night but we’ll survive.
I have ice cream for dessert with three kinds os sauces and red, white and blue sprinkles, all to make sundaes-the perfect July 4th dessert.
I love London. It is my second favorite city, Boston being first. I love to wander the streets and eat at pubs. Lots of theater to see every night and so much history!
Have a wonderful evening!
July 3, 2015 at 8:58 pm
Music festival day 2, today I traveled the world without leaving town. Fake-Russian folk-ska-punk fun, South American-African-Reggae-everything mix, funky Jazz, singer-songwriter, German Bluegrass and more. Döner Kebab and beer. Tired now.
July 3, 2015 at 9:34 pm
Saucraut?
July 3, 2015 at 9:42 pm
Hedley, no Sauerkraut but Kreml Krauts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvaHWQnCQo0
July 3, 2015 at 10:21 pm
Birgit,
It sounds like a festival I’d love. They didn’t leave a whole lot out. I am not a beer drinker so it wouldn’t be part of my day.
July 3, 2015 at 9:21 pm
Like you I always enjoyed the historical significance of the places I’ve visited. I always try to imagine what it would be like to be in those places when the historical event took place and how did those people feel.
Next Saturday I’m off to Sao Paulo Brazil for a week. It’s my least favorite place. There’s nothing to do there and I would never leave the hotel alone because it’s not a very safe city. I stay at the Marriott Hotel at the Airport and we have a shuttle bus to take the clients to and from the training center which is not far from the airport. The Hotel and our training center are both surrounded by barb wire fences. Sao Paulo is probably the size of Houston with 21 million people that they know about. One of our managers who was there told me you get to ride ten hours on an airplane to get to Detroit. 🙂 The big thrill is to have one of our instructors take me to one of those Brazilian barbecue restaurants called a churrascaria. There is a chain of them across the US owned by a guy from Sao Paulo called Fogo de Chao. The food is about the same and you don’t have to fly for 10 hours. 🙂
It’s been another cloudy hot and humid day here in North Texas.
July 3, 2015 at 10:19 pm
Bob,
We have a Brazilian Grill in Hyannis. The food is excellent. My neighbors, who are Brazilian, eat there and use them to cater events so I figure the food is authentic. I enjoy going there.
As I told you, I didn’t find Sao Paulo all that interesting but it had where near the population it has now when I was there. South American wasn’t a popular spot for Americans in the 70’s, the way it is now.
Perfect day here today.
July 3, 2015 at 11:25 pm
We are involved in a joint venture with Embraer who builds airplanes near São Paulo. Their smallest corporate airplane is called a Phenom and we have a flight simulator down there in our training center in addition to airliner simulators used by the Brazilian airline TAM. Embraer builds regional airliners which are very popular. We have two Phenom simulators here in Dallas. I’m going there to train new instructors. Otherwise, I doubt I would visit São Paulo. I have been to Santiago Chile which is very nice and very European. Rio might be fun but the rest of South America doesn’t interest me at all.
July 4, 2015 at 12:22 am
Bob,
I found South America fascinating. The Andes are extraordinary, the salt mine in Bolivia, the train rides, the boat across Titicaca, the INca ruins, seeing Last Paz at night and so much more. You are seeing so minuscule an amount of an amazing place.