New England Trip, Day 1This was a bonanza trip for the Frizbo Fifty -- New England for the fall colors and biking in six states. Mona and I landed early in the morning in Boston and drove to Arlington, MA to rent bicycles from Quad Bicycles (recommended) for ten days. Always a concern, would the bikes fit in the rental car? They did -- barely. From there it was a quick drive to Danehy Park and then a quick ride to the Charles River.
Once at the river, we noticed racing sculls rowing up and down the river. On the shore, construction crews were assembling various viewing stands. Innumerable porta-potties lined the sidewalks and parking lots. It was, we later learned, preparation for the "Head of the Charles Regatta" -- the largest two-day boat race in the world. Boston apparently loves boat races.
The '85 Bears ParadeLike Chicago, Boston is a great sports town. The Bruins, Celtics, Red Sox and Patriots are beloved by the locals. Boston broke "The Curse of the Bambino" in 2004 and Chicago broke "The Billy Goat Curse" in 2016. But back in 1986, Boston and Chicago were long suffering for a football championship when the Patriots and Bears met in Super Bowl XX. It was hard to say which city was more excited about their team, Chicago with the unstoppable 15-1 Bears or Boston and the Cinderella wildcard Patriots.
We watched the Super Bowl at Ronny O'Connor's house, aka The 706 Club. The watch party was a ruckus blur as the Bears dominated 46-10. One of my few clear memories was loading Anna into her boyfriend's car through the window as she was unwilling to leave the party of her own accord.
With two day's notice, city hall hastily announced a parade down La Salle Street and a noon celebration at Daley Plaza for January 28, 1986. Later, during the Bull's glory years, the city would learn to host these events in Grant Park where there is more room, but championships were new to this administration and Daley Plaza seemed like a good plan -- what could go wrong? "Let's meet at the corner of Clark and Washington at 11:45am to watch the parade," I suggested to Mona on the phone. We both worked downtown at the time. Mona walked from her office near Union Station. I strolled a couple blocks from the IBM Building. At the plaza, we were able to easily find each other in the large crowd of orange and blue Bear fans. Despite the frigid temperature, the crowd continued to grow until we were hemmed in on all sides with people flooding the plaza and surrounding streets. "How will they get the parade through here?" I thought as I watched the first team bus round the corner on La Salle Street. The large coach buses inched their way toward the plaza with some of the players sitting atop the buses waving to the fans. The buses were led by a phalanx of police on horseback arranged in an wedge formation to break though the crowd much like an Arctic icebreaker. As the wedge pushed the people aside, the crowd compacted and soon Mona and I were smashed like old Milk Duds. We were entirely at the mercy of the crowd.
Our plight evoked the image of the hallway at the Who concert in Cincinnati where eleven people were crushed to death. In the photo of the aftermath, the deadly hallway was littered with shoes. Injuries from crowds are often the result of the victim's feet being stepped on and entrapped. When the crowd surges, the victim is then pushed to the ground and trampled. "Keep your feet off the ground," I called to Mona. She looked confused (with good reason). We could barely communicate even though we only a few feet from each other. The wake of the horses and buses pushed us back, then left, then forward and then right. We traced a 50-foot circle around the corner street light completely driven by the ocean of people.
Strangely, I noticed various musical instruments being handed overhead through the crowd. A trombone floated by followed by a saxophone. Next, I noticed a high school kid in a band uniform with her face literally pressed against my chest pleading "I'm going to be sick!" I used a swim maneuver to squeeze her by me. Thankfully, she moved on to the next person with a similar plea and disappeared from sight. Poor kid, I hope she found her trombone. At this point, the players had reached the stage and the crowd stopped surging. We could see the stage but couldn't hear much. Unable to move, we waited patiently for the ceremonies to conclude. When the stage cleared, the crowd thinned and we escaped. "We were just standing there and then suddenly we were trapped. It happened so quickly," Mona recalled. "Then it ended just as suddenly and we left. It was very scary." My daughter described her escape from a similarly crowded concert. "The only way to leave early was to crowd surf our way to the front of the audience where a bouncer was grabbing people, ripping them out of the crowd and directing them into an open isle where we were ushered outside the venue." A tip for next time. I walked Mona back to her office and then cut through Daley Plaza on the way back to work. Most of the crowd had left. It felt surreal walking unimpeded through a spot where minutes earlier I was completely trapped. Sadly, I am reminded of this parade every year when I'm crushed by the Bears' fortunes yet again. ---
In Cambridge, we rode through both the Harvard and MIT campuses. The number of tourists taking selfies at both campuses was kind of annoying. The worst was the queue to take a John Harvard Founder Statue selfie given that John Harvard didn't found the school and the statue isn't actually of John Harvard.
After the ride, our niece, Clare, a Harvard researcher and the smartest person I know, graciously met us for dinner at the Grafton Street Pub. She regaled us with stories of Boston life and caring for lab mice. As much as we enjoyed hanging out with Clare, we couldn't stay late as we had to be in Bristol, RI that night.
Next stop Rhode Island! |
| State: | Massachusetts |
| Date: | 2019-10-16 |
| Route: | Danehy Park to Charles River Dam (stops at Harvard and MIT) |
| Distance: | 13 miles |
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