By Rick Ryckeley
Fayette County Fire & Emergency Services

What better place to take a history teacher than to Boston and Cape Cod, Mass., an area rich in the history of our country's early days. Being it's our anniversary and The Wife's a history teacher, the trip seemed to be a great idea.

We landed in Boston, rented a car and drove to Cape Cod. Along the way we saw an ice cream parlor or donut shop on every street. For lunch we ate at a place called Friendly's and it was very. When the waitress realized we were from out of town she brought us you guessed it free ice cream.

We had been in Massachusetts for only two hours but found everyone to be friendly and skinny. The Wife thinks this is due to all of the ice cream and donut shops. "Ever seen anyone mad that was eating ice cream or donuts?" She now has a new diet to try when we get home; say so long to Atkins and hello the Boston ice cream and donut diet. Glad we have stock in Krispy Kreme! After lunch we continued out trip and would have made the Cape by the end of the day if it hadn't been for the rotaries.

Rotaries are where four streets intersect and merge into a circle. The cars go round and round just guessing which one has the right of way. The next morning about 9 a.m. we found our way out of the rotary and made it to Cape Cod. Once there, I found the history I learned in school was not exactly accurate. The following is but a couple of the misconceptions I had about our nation's first few years.

Just like Minneapolis, the city of Boston did not have one glass of sweet tea. But unlike Minneapolis, the very friendly people of Boston did have a good reason for not having it, but it's not the reason I'd learned in school. Come to find out the reason was not that, way back at the start of this country, the people in Boston had a big Fourth of July party and threw all of the tea in the harbor.

I also learned Plymouth was not the first landing of the ships in the new world after all. The first landing was made at Provincetown. There, we walked up the 285-foot tower which commemorates that landing. From the top we could see Boston Harbor and Plymouth, where the pilgrims eventually did land. But why did they leave Provincetown and sail onto Plymouth? It wasn't for the reason I thought.

The locals in Provincetown told me that I was wrong in my assumption as to why, after landing, Christopher Columbus and group decided to sail onto Plymouth. The pilgrims did not get off the ships at Provincetown after 67 days looking for a bathroom, and finding none, loaded back up the ships and sailed around to Plymouth.

It is also not true that the Nina, Pinto, and San Tina Marina sailed into Plymouth harbor where the Pinto hit a big rock and sank. At that time, Columbus did not say, "Boy, did you see the size of that rock the Pinto just hit? It was as big as a Plymouth," and so named the town.

After my revolutionary history lesson received in Provincetown, I decided to turn to the one person that I knew had all the answers about history the one person that could set the record straight and comfort me in my time of confusion. But The Wife was laughing too hard to answer any of my questions. The next day we decided to go to the small town of Sandwich, where I received another history lesson.

Sandwich is a small town just north of Hyannis on Cape Cod. There we visited the Pilgrim museum and I learned about Shakers. The Shakers are a religious sect that came to the new world in the late 1700s seeking relief from religious persecution back in England. Shakers believed in living a simple life hard work, abstinence, and not indulging in worldly pleasures like ice cream and donuts. Shaker furniture is still in great demand today, valued for its quality of workmanship and attention to detail. Many of the innovations in early furniture design are credited to the creativity of the Shakers.

Once a large sect, only five members live today residing in Maine. I believe they died out because of the abstinence; The wife believes it was due to denying themselves ice cream and donuts.

It was about lunch time so we had lunch in Sandwich and you guessed it; we had a sandwich. At lunch I learned that early settlers who came from England did indeed name the town after the Earl of Sandwich. We finished our sandwich, left Sandwich behind and went back to our hotel to rest up for our last day on the Cape. A rest I needed in the morning we were going to Plymouth.

In Plymouth we visited the sarcophagus that holds bones of the pilgrims that died that first winter, boarded the Mayflower II (a scale replica of the original ship), walked around a Pilgrim plantation and saw how they lived so long ago. But the best thing we saw in Plymouth was The Rock.

In the 1800s, Plymouth Rock was moved from the water up to a safer location on the edge of the shore. The good town folk of Plymouth told us that during the move The Rock was broken in two, but I know the real reason it was broken. "When the Pinto ran into it the rock was split." Upon hearing me say this, The Wife grabbed my arm and told me it was time for us to go.

On the plane back home The Wife asked if I had a good time and if I had learned anything new about history. I said, "Yes I learned a lot; I just wish we could have seen the Liberty Bell while we were in Plymouth." She just shook her head and laughed.

[Rick Ryckeley is employed by the Fayette County Department of Fire and Emergency Services. He can be reached at saferick@bellsouth.net.]

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