[Magdalen] The 18th of April

[Lynn Ronkainen]

My mother knew Paul Revere, the Children’s Hour and The Blacksmith by heart from grammar school. I remember being fascinated as a young child. My grandfather also taught my mom to say the alphabet backwards quite rapidly, which she also retained. Thanks for the memories David.
Lynn

On Apr 17, 2018, at 2:48 PM, Charles Wohlers <chadwohl at satucket.com> wrote:

As a former resident of Concord I can remember being rudely awakened at 5AM by cannon fire on the 19th of April. This was done every Patriot's Day until someone got hurt -  more peace & quiet now. We'd also make it a point not to go anywhere that day as the traffic was impossible. This, of course, was back in the day when mere mortals could afford to live there.

Nowadays Patriot's Day is celebrated on the third Monday in April - i. e., yesterday - which is why the Marathon was held then.

As I hope you know, Old North Church was Anglican then, Episcopal now. Revere was a member.

Chad Wohlers
Woodbury, VT USA
chadwohl at satucket.com



-----Original Message----- From: cantor03--- via Magdalen
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2018 3:28 PM
To: magdalen at herberthouse.org
Cc: cantor03 at aol.com
Subject: [Magdalen] The 18th of April




This poem, "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" was one of
many my father (born: 1880) memorized when such was
common in USA grammar schools (His school in the
fields of Southwestern Minnesota).

He often coughed up this poem even when it was not
related to anything at hand, but he had a peculiar method
of delivery on the portion that goes,"On the 18th of April
in 75, Hardly a man is now alive...........(long pause, then
he continued)  WHO remembers that day. (as though asking
a question) and then pretty much as written by HW Longfellow.
There are apparently many historical inaccuracies in the
Longfellow version.

Revere was a silversmith, and a good one, too.  His parents
were of Huguenot origin just as my father's side, though DNA
analysis shows that after 16 generations since 1688, I only
have 1% French Huguenot genes.

"Listen my children and you shall hear......."




David S.