Oh my gosh. Dorchester 2, jena 0.
I remember that I used to say to people "Boston is such a nice, manageable city" and really believed it. Now I realize how grossly I underestimated my city. I wanted so bad for it to be like Max, our new kitten that melts when you pat his belly and runs around without interfering in my life. It really is either like a desert cheetah that wants to rip to shreds any prey within 1000 feet, or it's an underfed alleycat with a venereal disease. I haven't decided. I remember it being less...cold...here. It's like REALLY COLD, like all the time. I try not to be daunted by it for the sake of my kids but...what do people do here during the winter? Our muscles are all atrophing sitting around here in the house and we're just bored. Where do people go? How do they stay in shape? How do they encourage their kids, be nice to their spouse...
I've had some support appointments this week that have gotten me to question everything. One of the biggest conundrums of today is, what the frig is the deal with the pear statue in the intersection of Mass Ave & Columbia Rd? I couldn't focus on my last appointment because it was like staring at me, burning holes in my back from its mystical pear eyeballs. I was trying to glean encouragement from it, like, "be fruitful" but that just made me think of having another baby.
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you made me laugh.
ReplyDeletethis is for you:
On Saturday, June 16, 2007, Mayor Thomas M. Menino dedicated the public art in Edward Everett Square, featuring a sculpture 11 1/2 feet high of the Clap Pear.
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EDWARD EVERETT'S REMARKS IN DORCHESTER JUNE 16, 2007 at 2 PM:
We called this intersection of rural Dorchester the Five Corners; you are kind enough to call it Edward Everett Square.
Today, I leave you with a Question: Can a city doing what we see done, today -- Can this Great & Shining City on a Hill imagine a Dorchester where gunshots in the night, or the day, in the early morning or in the late afternoon -- on any day of any week in any season of the year - Gunshots will never more be heard by man, woman or child of any age? It can be done. You can do this; it can be done. It is your Dorchester.
Thank you -
Everett's remarks extracted from an Address delivered to the citizens of Dorchester in 1855, from archives at the Massachusetts Historical Society & other sources.
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Edward Everett Square Remarks -- J. Charles Swift
Historian, First Parish Church in Dorchester
16 June 2007
We stand today at the historic crossroads of Edward Everett Square. Massachusetts Avenue begins here which is fitting given the role Dorchester has played in the founding of this Commonwealth and in American history. The English settlers of Dorchester arrived in 1630 and found that Native Americans had been using Dorchester for fishing and food cultivation for centuries, and without their help, the English would have faced much longer odds for survival. After a hard winter, the settlers built Dorchester's first church, the one I represent today, near this site in 1631. The Town of Dorchester created the first tax supported free public school in America in 1639, and in 1645 the town declared that the school "shall equally and impartially receive, and instruct such as shall be [sent to the school] whither their parents be poor or rich, not refusing any."
The road to American independence went through Edward Everett Square. In March of 1776 the cannons that convinced the British to evacuate Boston went up Boston Street to Dorchester Heights under the leadership of Henry Knox.
Dorchester people have long been at the forefront of civil rights, from the Dorchester Anti-Slavery Society in the 1840s to women's rights champion Lucy Stone to Jones Hill resident William Monroe Trotter, who advocated on behalf of African-Americans to First Parish in Dorchester, which conducted the first same sex marriages in Dorchester in 2004. Even animals and plants are represented in Dorchester's history—the founder of the Animal Rescue League, Anna Clapp Harris Smith lived at 65 Pleasant Street, and several of the most prominent 19th century members of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society developed important varieties of fruits and flowers in Dorchester.
Although Dorchester is often overshadowed by Boston, we have a long history here of which to be proud.
Most importantly however, is that this place is where Dorchester residents held the first recorded town meeting in American history, on October 8 1633. At that meeting the men of Dorchester agreed to elect representatives, abide by their decisions, and to work together for a common good. This town meeting form of representative democracy quickly spread from Dorchester throughout the Massachusetts Bay Colony and ultimately helped form the American republic.