My daughter Devin and I are in Boston this morning. We drove Jack to school here, yesterday. We did some Christmas shopping and had dinner with my mother, sister and niece and we stayed overnight in a beautiful hotel room with this view of the Public Gardens:
Sorry, the window and rain make everything a bit blurry.
I told Devin that I remembered when they built this hotel. She asked if I thought, then, that I would ever stay here. I said that I never thought, then, that I’d be able to afford to eat here. But here we are!
I don’t know why there are still leaves on the trees here. Boston is farther north than where we are in Connecticut, but perhaps being so close to the water makes it a little warmer.
I always feel a little nostalgic when I visit Boston, but only a little because the city has changed so drastically since we lived here, now over 18 years ago. It’s so clean and polished now. I get all lost with the Southeast Expressway (do they even call it that now) being underground.
Well, It’s like New York. It’s cleaner and refreshed but has lost some of it’s original color that made it so great. It feels safer and less safe somehow. There’s no Combat Zone. Where did it go? But I will drag Dev around before we leave and say, “that’s where Daddy and I met. There’s our first apartment building. That used to be a comedy club. That used to be where prostitutes worked.” I’ll be thinking, there’s where I was young, and there, and there….
Hi Ann,
So glad you had a nice time in Boston and that was a nice blog entry and a nice piece in yesterday’s Boston Globe magazine about your husband’s book. There is a short article in that mag also called Too Many Charlies…I just learned my friend wrote the story…I actually had to drive all over Boston with her avoiding anything, place or memory with the name Charlie in it. Funny!
It must be such a sweet experience to take your daughter back to your old haunts and be able to re-live the past. Weird how fast time flies, isn’t it?
My first time to Boston was when we moved to Connecticut 3 years ago. So, I never saw it when it was gritty. I do love it, however. It’s got to be one of my favorite cities ever.
Ann:
What a nostalgic time you must be having in Boston, visiting the places where you and Denis met, lived, and whiled away the hours. And to be able to show them to your daughter! How much fun!! (I hope she’s making the proper appreciative noises!)
I’ve never been to Boston. However, as I’ve written before, New England is a section of the country which fascinates me, and Boston is one of the cities at the top of my “I wish I could visit….” list.
Thanks for your reply concerning my possible trip to Denis’s book signing in Chicago this Friday. I will heed your advice if I am able to get there.
I love reading your posts. I moved to Boston in 1987 straight from small town Oklahoma and talk about culture shock! Everyone there spoke so fast I only understood about half of what was said to me for quite a while. Everyone there also thought I was just on this side of stupid because I spoke so slowly and with such a heavy Oklahoma accent. There was a Combat Zone when I lived there and my husband (an Okie) just can’t comprehend my life there so many years ago. I hope to take my daughter there when she is a bit older than her nine years and show her where mom lived back when I was still considered “cool”. Enjoy your precious girl time with your daughter!
When I was younger, oh how familiar that feeling is. Stories I thought were charming, sweet, or romantic, are now just showing my age. Or perhaps its the glazed look that over comes the younger ones when I go on too long on a particular detail. Indeed it is bittersweet.
Another one of your entries that really strikes home, as I know you mentioned you once lived in Charlestown, the oldest neighborhood in Boston. I was born and raised by a Southie raised Mom and Dad in Boston and left to go to college and law school elsewhere, swearing I would never return. I took the long way home, but finally gave in and returned in 1979 to live in Charlestown, across from the Warren Tavern, back when the elevated train had just come down. When I caved in and moved to the Boston ‘burbs in 1997, a single Mom with my two babies, I left a transformed neighborhood behind. A wonderful place still, but not the Chucktown of old.
I have never been to Boston either, but look forward to going soon. My sister-in-law lives there, so I’m sure one day we will make it there.
I want to applaud you for the really great relationship you seem to have with your son and daughter. I hope they realize how lucky they are to have such a great mom. (and great dad I’m sure) My stepmom is more like my mom, since my birth mom has some serious issues and our relationship continues to go hot and cold. I keep trying to make it work with my birth mom, but it’s hard when it’s only me who wants it to work. I really love the love you convey on your blog about your kids.
Have a great time on the “tour” with your daughter.
Thank you for the lovely post on Boston. I took my younger son there two and a half years ago to see a Red Sox game and we had the most amazing time. It was the first trip to the city for both of us and I really hope to return to again. Having grown up outside San Francisco, I was delighted by how compact the city felt and how you travel through it on the T. In the West you just venture to one part of the city at a time.
Loved your latest book by the way!