Thursday, August 04, 2022

2022 PA DE MD: A Retrospective

 


Thanks for coming along with me (and The Ravishing Mrs. TB) on our vacation to Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland.  I hope you enjoyed it (virtually) as much as we did.

I have to confess that overall, my knowledge of the East Coast/New England is rather vague.  As some may have divined from my writings over the years, I am not from that part of the country and thus it is many ways remains terra incognito to me - for example, the concept that one can drive through multiple states in a scant series of hours is a novelty I cannot get over.  As such, this really represents the first time in my 50 + years that I have actually explored this region at all.

One thing that caught my attention was that this part of the country simply reeks of history.  All kinds of history.  In the course of five days we touched on colonial, Revolutionary, 1812, and the Civil War.  in some cases, you cannot help but stumbling over it.  I wonder if one understands what that means, except if one is from a region where that is not nearly as true.

History, for me at least, is always alive.  To walk the Brandywine battlefield or to see the paintings last touched by Andrew Wyeth or the forts defended by US Soldiers or even the gardens built by industrialists that enabled beauty to survive where only industrialism or development otherwise would have - ghosts walk there, ghosts of those I can hear.  History in these places - and by extension, the life that I now life - is real to me in a way that books can never make it, that movies with stars and special effects can never truly portray.  

The ground Washington and Von Steuben walked, I walked,  The scenery that Andrew Wyeth saw and painted, I saw.  Where the founding liberties of this country were codified and executed and defended, I saw and in some ephemeral way, participated in.  And where those liberties and rights were defended, I looked from their ramparts.

This, to me, is amazing.  And leaves me with nothing but gratitude to all who undertook such things so that we, now, could enjoy what we enjoy in every sphere of life - be it political or civil liberties or arts or simply the ability to take it all in.



14 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:46 AM

    I did enjoy the photos and description of where they were taken. I declined to post because you can only hear "Nice pictures" so many times. Doesn't add any information to your posts.

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    1. I am glad that you enjoyed the pictures - and yes, they are not always conducive to commentary.

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  2. I have often wondered what it is like living in a state that one regularly has to depart, perhaps for their job due to its diminutive size. Do they have the same association of home state that those of us further west do?

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    1. It is an interesting question Ed - having only actually had to travel to work via plane, I cannot imagine regularly transporting between two states for work (which, I suppose, is a relatively new phenomena historically).

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  3. Anonymous8:34 AM

    Follow on to Ed’s comments.
    It was an enlightening picture tour of the historic points of our USA. You conveyed your impressions and tweaked my interest in visiting these sites myself.

    Franknbean

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    1. Thank you FnB. That is what I really hoped to do, so to that extent I have succeeded.

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  4. Glad to hear you had a good time!!!!

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  5. Thanks for sharing your trip with us, TB. I'm glad you and Mrs. TB had a wonderful, safe trip.
    God bless.

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    1. You are welcome Linda. We did have a really good time. It was nice to be able to totally disconnect.

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  6. Replies
    1. You are welcome John. To be honest, part of the fun in going now is thinking of the posts when I get back.

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  7. I have to agree about the profound sense of history in that part of the country. There's interesting history everywhere, but it's unique in northeastern US, I suppose because it made the rest of it possible in terms of the outcome we have today.

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    1. Leigh, I think you may be on to something. Often times I can find history anywhere; I cannot always find history that is so impactful not just to me, but to the world.

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