The crows feet around Jon’s eyes got deeper and the smile lit up his whole face. “There’s a Ranger.” he said and headed towards her.
We finally got to the Saratoga Battlefield, something I’ve been pushing since our breakfast at the Bennington Battlefield a few weeks ago. After seeing how much Jon enjoyed reading about and seeing where the Revolutionary Battle took place I wanted to take him to the Saratoga Battlefield.
When I first moved Upstate over 20 years ago I took many walks in the Saratoga Battlefield with my dog Lestat. That walk went in and out of fields and forests, some covered in ferns, away from the driving tour of the Battlefield. And even though the path went past a rise with cannons on it, the battle never interested me much.
As I expected, the park was different than I remembered, but being there with Jon made it a whole new experience anyway.
There are ten stops on the driving tour of the battlefield. Just watching Jon read the signs and listen to the narrative on my iPhone about what was happening and when, was enough to make me happy to be there.
I have a hard time keeping track of all that informtion. I love history in the form of a story, my mind goes numb listening to facts about an army’s strategy. So I would wander off while Jon took it all in.
That’s when I found the beehive in the old tree and took the video above.
It was just before Jon saw the Ranger. He had one question after another for her, and I stood by watching them and thinking that I was probably feeling like Jon does when I talk about snails.
Although the enthusiasm passing between them was somewhat infectious. It’s interesting, but only to a point.
We drove thought the whole park but only stopped at some of the key places, saying we’d come back and see the rest another time.
We used to spend many of our Saturdays at the Independent movie theater in Williamstown MA. We can’t do that anymore since the Corona Virus, but now we have some new things to explore. There’s a lot of history in our neighborhood, and even if I’ve seen some of it, I haven’t experienced it with Jon.
And now with his “new” heart, we get to start over again.
How wonderful to rediscover something old together and see it with new eyes. I love to visit historic places and even cemeteries. So many stories, both real and imagined!
The Ranger did tell a wonderful story about a letter that was for sale on ebay from a soldier writing about Benedict Arnold which changed the way they saw his part in the battle. And that only happened in 2016. The story can always change!
I have been to the site of the Battle of Brandywine outside of Phily, and all I could think of was I was walking on hallowed ground. So many died there and I thanked them in my mind. These long ago battles seem so much more relevant now, I wake up in the morning and joke: do we still have the Republic.
I know what you mean Sharon.