Rich commended us on our efficient loading of the bells in the morning. At our first CVS stop, Julia Beckmann led the way to the vacant section of the parking lot with a frisbee in hand, where we 'passed' the time until heading to our next mall stop. I was not expecting a few hours in the Natick mall to be a memorable experience given yesterday's venture in Buckland Hills, but our foray into the territory was immediately rewarding. There was a store entirely dedicated to the new Tesla cars built in California; high-performance vehicles that run completely on electricity and can be recharged at solar-powered stations throughout the country. Some other features: doorhandles that retreat into the body of the car until touched, the largest LCD screen I have seen in a car (which makes you feel like Captain Kirk when you adjust the all-glass retractable roof), and storage space in the trunk and under the hood. Such features of course are somewhat gimmicky (save for the extra trunk space) and are not exclusive to electronic cars, but if you sign the dotted line quick enough, the $70,000 might feel justified. It was a fun diversion, and Ryan McCann looked quite at home in the driver's seat.
Our performance at Wellesley Hills Congregational Church was for our smallest audience so far, but we were also competing with the Boston Handbell Festival. Kathy was very pleased with the look and acoustics of the sanctuary, created by the woodwork and high ceiling. Wellesly is a town with a rich history; many Nobel Prize winners resided in the area, which made the immediate standing ovation at the end of our program particularly special. Kathy's inclusion of America the Beautiful in the program must have been a fortuitous moment of clairvoyance, for she admitted she was not aware that we would be ringing at the very church that Katherine Lee Bates attended.
Bates, whose small yellow home lies adjacent to the church, published the poem 'America the Beautiful' in an issue of The Congregationalist in 1895 with revisions until 1911. The original tune paired with the text was Auld Lang Syne, and later Samuel Ward's Materna became the official tune, even after a contest was held in 1929 for new music. In the selecting of a national anthem in 1931, America the Beautiful was in second place.
One of the hymnals was published by the denomination and allowed congregations to add their own selections at the beginning. It also contained informative anecdotes about each hymn; under America the Beautiful it was printed: "Bates, who headed the English department at Wellesley, wrote this hymn on viewing the sunrise from the summit of Pikes Peak. The 'alabaster cities' is the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago." A quick google search taught me that Chicago is also known the "White city" (I have never seen it) and that the event Bates attended was a huge carnival celebrating the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus (yes, it was a year late).
The sprinkling of patriotism on our program maintains its relevancy: the next day we boarded "the T" at Riverside Station and were jostled about for just under an hour before reaching Park Street in the center of Boston's Freedom Trail and other important landmarks in our nation's history. We took a group photo by the waterless fountain in the commons (inaccessibly stored on my camera) before a group ventured off past the Frog Pond towards the public gardens. The sun was out, as were the ducks, and the flowers (tulips?) were well maintained. Childhood memories of riding the swan boats were mixed with my newfound curiosity about the presence of so many willow trees in the middle of a city. On the way to Faneuil Hall I walked through the site of the Boston Massacre; no snowball fights have occurred there since. The carillon from Park Street chimed familiar hymn tunes.
Having grown up and attended college within a reasonable driving distance of the city, I may be unsuccessful in separating my nostalgic relationship with Boston from an objective analysis of my subsequent experiences. I appreciate walkability in a city, and the historic section near the gardens certainly has that quality, given that it was not designed with cars in mind. I don't remember ever walking from the gardens to the north end in prior visits; in my mind they were much further apart, but in less than 30 minutes we were seated at an open-windowed Italian restaurant eating fried-tomato caprese salads drizzled with pesto. The subway system is a little rickety and wobbly, and while I am tempted to write with fond remembrance of its unique character, the public transportation in Paris makes 'the T' feel like the King Kong ride at Universal Studios. The streets were busy and full of pedestrians, but not chaotically so. On the train ride back it was clear the sun had taken its toll on us, but everyone seemed to have had a nice time.
The concert at the United Church of Christ of Medfield was particularly memorable in my mind due to Willis Reifsnyder's tender but firm reading of E. Brine's poem "Glory On Their Wings," which served as the inspiration for Julie Stitt's gently flowing composition.
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