What a Difference a Day Makes

In my Friday post I saw almost all the people in downtown Boston as ugly. Yesterday evening, Saturday, on a whim, we took the subway into town to catch the Middlesex County Fife and Drum Corps concert. The venue was in front of the "Old City Hall" in a leafy courtyard. The stone building, old, but not ancient has pleasing proportions and is just around the corner from the Freedom Trail. After a cold drippy spring and a hotter-than-blazes summer, the weather gave us its glorious best for the long 4th of July weekend. A lovely New England evening. Because this is Boston, a multi-ethnic crowd. Atop the building, Old Glory snapping in a breeze off the harbor. The concert started with a solitary bagpiper, then the fifes and drums came marching in. What a great performance! They capped it off with Yankee Doodle Dandy like I've never heard it performed. And we were literally sitting in the cradle of liberty.

Afterward, we walked yesterday's route past the new City Hall and down into the Fanieul Hall Market. Big crowds. In the spirit of the weekend, which started at Thursday's employee appreciation day, I ordered a jumbo hotdot with chili for dinner at the food court.

A big seismic shift since yesterday. No white shoes. Nobody eating pizza. Pleasant looking, even attractive people. Everyone. Significant Other remarked on it before I could say anything. Now I have to admit that Friday I had a very bad experience which may have colored the rest of the day, but could it have made the whole world ugly? Did I feel that alienated? Who knows?

After dinner, we did some serious people watching. I realized we had shared tables in the food court with Hispanics, Asians and Portugese. WASPS, we were a minority. I am o.k. with this, because I have always felt like an outsider and so nothing has really changed. Belonging is a state of mind. Besides, if you don't belong anywhere, you belong everywhere. Or that is how I feel.

So everyone was having a good time in the city last night. We watched some black kids break-dancing before a crowd right in front of Fanieul Hall. They were pretty cool. I had never actually seen break dancing "live."

Ccelebrate the 4th. See a parade. Hear a concert. Watch the fireworks. If you're not too old for it, do a little break dancing.

Aloha,

Grapeshot