I went for a walk the other day. I left without a clear destination in mind, except for the package that needed dropping off at the local FedEx store, my afternoon was fairly unencumbered. I wandered along side streets filled with multi-colored clapboard houses, a brick house thrown into the mix here and there for variety. It surprised me a little, when we first arrived to Cambridge, the different colors people use on their houses here. I guess growing up the pictures you see of New England and the houses you imagine are white clapboard with black shutters. There are quite a few of those, but I see more yellow, green, pink, blue, and even purple houses than white sometimes.
Cambridge is so full of students and transplants like ourselves, and I often find myself wondering about all the people I see, the houses around me and the cars I impatiently drive around. How many people are from this area and what made them stay? What are they studying and why? Are they professors? Do they actually own that house? It may seem a funny question, but prices out here for real estate are so ridiculous, especially in Cambridge, that I think I might be genuinely surprised to find out who really owns their house/apartment and isn't merely renting.
Anyway, eventually I found my way to the Longfellow Memorial Park and Tory Row where many loyalists had mansions at the time of the Revolutionary War. It incredible the history and stories that float around with you wherever you go. Out here, the names of famous political and cultural figures whip through the air like leaves in Autumn. One of the more notable houses on Tory Row is the house pictures above where George Washington kept headquarters during the American Revolution and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the famous american poet lived and died. I decided it was a great afternoon for a tour of the house and happened to be a few minutes early for the final 4 o'clock tour. While I was waiting, I walked around the small garden where you could see a few flowers still holding on to the last warm breath of summer. It struck me there, and stayed with me the rest of the tour and the rest of the day that if I stood in that space 238 years ago, I might be privy to a conversation with General Washington and his advisors, or perhaps 172 years ago I might see Longfellow chasing his children around the yard.
One thing I loved about the tour was the authenticity of it. All the pieces in the house were original to the Longfellow family. Displayed were the actual dinner plates, and chairs and rugs and tables and books and paintings that the Longfellow's used and loved. Our guide said they had over 600 drawings done by the Longfellow children. The family literally kept everything. Henry Longfellow also kept a bust of George Washington on the step landing that you could see when you first walked into the house. He wanted people to remember the history of the grounds and the important people that walked before him. He had busts and pictures of famous philosophers and writers scattered throughout his house. History living in cohesive unity with the present. I wonder if we take such consideration for the stories of those that walked be fore us as Longfellow did. I don't think the majority of people do. A goal I have now is to be more cognizant of the lives that came before me and how they affect me, and also to be mindful of how my story may affect someone a hundred years down the road. Where have you walked lately? And who walked there before you?
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