An Uncommon Day on the Commons
On beautiful days like today when the temperature is about 74 degrees and sunny I like to head on down to Ye Ol’ Boston Commons with a book, sit on my favorite hill and soak up some rays to make up for the vitamin D deficiency I gained over the winter. That is until this happens:
Yes, directly above where I normally lie there were three 105mm Howitzer guns ready to protect the Boston Commons from the advancing Redcoat forces. What I came to learn was that there were no Redcoat forces but rather a parade and ceremony being held in the Commons for “The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts.“ Even after reading the Wikipedia entry I still have no idea what it is. Of course it is only in Boston where you can go to the park on a random weekday and witness something like this. It was actually pretty cool despite the fact that I was in the direct line of fire when the Howitzers went off. I found myself suddenly having flashbacks of Bruce Lee’s son Brandon Lee dying on set when a live round was overlooked and loaded into a weapon and thus killed him. Luckily this was not the case with the artillery today and I live to tell the tale and Newberry Street is not in shambles. I also realized that it’s not the noise of the cannon but the concussion that makes you mess your shorts. Check the video:
If you watch it through to about 0:51 you’ll see the rightmost gun create a pretty cool smoke ring. I haven’t seen a ring like that since ‘92 when I was hanging with my buddy Doug and his magic pipe “Gandolf” at a Phish show. (Doug was notorious for taking a hit off of “Gandolf” and uttering, “You shall not pass!” before taking a second hit) Also, that never happened. I just needed a pot smoking anecdote to relate to the smoke ring, of which I have none.
After a short while and some pomp and circumstance, the meeting of the military minded ended and I was allowed to reclaim Flagstaff Hill without having to storm the peak and take the lives of six army dudes armed only with blank 105mm shells. As it turns out the parade on the Commons was a nice turn of events and now I have an anecdote if I ever run into anyone with a Howitzer at a party.
The 105mm guns atop Flag Staff Hill guard my sunbathing spot; Army man escapes my wrath.
i’m glad to see the port-a-potties faithfully recreated. next year you should plan ahead and buy an old howitzer bullet on ebay and run up to them and say “you assholes just shot my dog.”