Saturday In The Park

Brick walk at Boston Common, June 15, 2013.

A lot has happened in the past few days; as pertains to the job front you could read about it here.

Today I needed some fresh headspace; the situation presented itself nicely when M needed a lift downtown for a business event. It was to be brief, so it gave me a chance to take my first walk through Boston Common.

The 50-acre Common was created in 1634. Let that sink in. It's the nation's oldest park and has been trod upon by Native Americans thousands of years ago and served as a cow pasture, a campground for British troops in colonial times, the site of public hangings, and host to noted speakers such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Pope John Paul II. More than 100,000 people assembled there to see Judy Garland perform, and to protest the Vietnam War. (Not on the same day.)

The Common has walkways, ballfields, tennis courts, a skating rink, statues and memorials, benches, food carts and restaurants, and greenspace for plenty of events (I saw several today as I walked the park). Wiki says it was the site of the first football game in 1862. So automatically I love it.

It also has homeless people, souvenir vendors, and a lot of trash. I also saw some graffiti on a giant statue commemorating fallen patriots from Boston. Kind of disappointing.

I saw Little Leaguers warming up for a game, cyclists, dog lovers with dogs, tourists, an older gentleman practicing fly-casting, a dude smoking a blunt, and a girl crying during a cell-phone conversation.

I wanted to tell the girl crying on the phone that things would be OK. But I didn't want her to think some random guy was trying to hit on her.

To the west is another part of the park, bisected by Charles Street South. I hope to check that out soon.