"...And be the Battle Queen of Yore, Maryland, my Maryland" (Baltimore Part 2)

Two things to be said before I continue with my Baltimore Adventures: One, I hope all my readers had a wonderful Easter full of friends and family. Two, I should not make promises I cannot keep…such as, “I promise to write more tomorrow”. However, I wanted to write yesterday, but my computer had a virus, thus making it impossible. Today, I figured out how to remove the virus all by myself. I was most proud to knock technology back down to where it belongs, but I digress. Other good news: today, I booked another show! I’m very, very excited for this one because it is really not too terribly far off and it’s public…so come see me LIVE! June 25^th at the Sayreville Public Library at 2:00. Please tell all your teacher friends so they will book me for their classes next year!

So when we left off, we had just checked in with New Jersey Smith who has a lovely apartment and not so lovely cats. The four of us took a drive around (literally around) Johns Hopkins University which was very pretty this time of year. I’m not a big fan of college campuses as a rule, but Hopkins was quite nice…probably because it is a closed in campus and, therefore, there are no major roadways going through it. That’s one of the things I deplore about Rutgers and even in some regard Gettysburg College, where I attended freshman year. New Jersey Smith is very happy there, so I am happy for her. I always have a super great time when I hang out with NJ Smith. Not to go off on a tangent here, but NJ Smith is like a genius as far as I’m concerned. Sometimes, when she starts off on her Akkadian talks, I have to check out and focus on something like shapes in clouds for a while before I can continue to function. More importantly though, NJ Smith says fun stuff like, “Yes, he (a mummy) is only from about 700 B.C., which is fairly new…” It’s awesome because if 700 B.C. is fairly new, then the Civil War ended at lunch time. To all my history buffs out there, go make friends with someone interested in the Iron Age…those comments about you always being obsessed with things that happened “sooooo long ago!” will just roll off your back.

We went to dinner at the Hon Café which was set in the like quintessential 1960’s, beehive hair, Elvis-loving era. It was very Hairspray. I did, in fact, ask NJ Smith if she started every morning like this:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1chTQ58a1Q    which I would undoubtedly do. Disappointingly, she does not. After dinner we bought some Berger Cookies (http://www.bergercookies.com/history.htm) and checked out the vintage clothing shops. Faith found a fantastic 1950’s dress which was absolutely stunning. She WILL be sharing photos from her prom which she’s wearing it to. We headed back to the apartment and fell asleep watching Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

The next day, NJ Smith actually had her Akkadian class pretty much for the whole morning. The kids decided they wanted to take an undergrad tour, which I was not about to suffer through. While they considered Hopkins for their higher education, I found the student Barnes and Noble, Tina Fey’s autobiography, and coffee. I found a good chair started a nice texting conversation with my better half…and about ten minutes later got a phone call: “The tour is really boring…can you come get us?”  Fortunately, they had the good sense to go check out the archeology museum on campus while I finished breakfast. I was happy to oblige in the long run because our next destination was Fort McHenry and I. WAS. STOKED.

Getting to the Fort was pretty easy. It had been a drizzly sort of day and we had been lucky that the rain hit while we drove and not while we were out and about. Fort McHenry is a National Park Site and for those of you down on your history, most famous for being the site that inspired Francis Scott Key to write a little ditty called “The Star Spangled Banner” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ETrr-XHBjE) in 1814. First and foremost, I have to say that I love National Park Sites. Last Fall, to celebrate our anniversary, Teddy and I toured Civil War battlefields in Maryland and Virginia. We were recognized by a National Park Ranger by the end of the trip. Also, Faith and I discovered that we were actually in Baltimore for the sesquicentennial of the riots that led to the lyrics of “Maryland, my Maryland.” This revelation was more than anything I could have hoped for as I did not plan this intentionally.

On April 19, 1861, United States troops had been sent to Baltimore which didn’t sit so well with many Southern sympathizers. Altercations occurred and a few people died. Later, it inspired the lyrics. I always found it very interesting that Maryland’s state song is actually anti-Union. The first line is “Thy despot’s heel is on thy shore.” Despot, of course is referring to the United States government. Again, I digress.

As it turns out, last week was National Park Week so there was no entrance fee to the Visitor’s Center. I made up for that expense in the gift shop. Fort McHenry was amazing though. The coolest part, by far, was seeing the honest to goodness, real, 197-year-old, original copy of “The Star Spangled Banner” hand written by Francis Scott Key. Oh. My. Heavens. It was suspended in like bullet-proof, four inch thick glass, in a darkened room with laser alarm beams and whatnot. Absolutely incredible. The one thing that took away from the moment was not having Teddy with me. What definitely added to the moment was having Faith and Duke with me though. It is awesome to be super excited about history. It is even more awesome to share that history with someone else as excited as you. It is the most awesome thing on the planet to witness someone else get excited about something you are excited in.

I really mean awesome in its full definition. There is a sense of awe to watching someone reach that same level of excitement that you can’t put into words. I have known Faith and Duke since they were 11 and have really watched them grow, both as people and as history aficionados. I won’t lie, I have a maternal streak towards both of them and going on a tour of a National Historic Site was amazing.

Fort McHenry was used for many, many years and a lot of great stuff to see and offer. They have a dramatic-reenactment film in the visitor’s center that has a FANTASTIC ending. I won’t say what it is here because it’s such a cool site I want you to be inspired to see it for yourself. This blog is running pretty long, so I’ll just add some photos down here:

Fort McHenry from the Visitor's Center



Duke learning Mary's number one lesson of a Historic

     Site: "Don't skip signs next to cannons!"

Duke and Faith checking out the bomb shelter




Low ceiling, but I made it!

 After, Fort McHenry, NJ Smith was out of class and we headed to lunch. We hit somemore of the small town shops and bought some Berger Cookies to take back home to Jersey. Although NJ Smith will be home in June for a short while, it won't be soon enough until we see her again! All in all, Baltimore was a really nice city...as far as the parts we were in. We had some great history and somehow...Duke and Faith convinced me to do a weekend in Gettysburg this summer...but only if Teddy comes too.

Coming up in Mary's Modern Mishaps, Will the Commercial Ever be Made? What about the Press Release? This weekend there will be a small hiatus as Mary, Teddy, and Faith kick off the Sesquicentennial at Neshaminy State Park in Bensalem, PA with the first reeanctment of 2011...and Faith's first ever...and Teddy's one year anniversary! And Mary's...7th consecutive year participating in Neshaminy! Plenty of Pictures Early next week. Faith doesn't know it yet, but she might be doing a guest blog. Stay tuned!