So, yesterday was Easter, in case anyone missed it. Family tradition states that if I'm somewhere between DC and Boston, I go to my Grandmother’s house for Easter. She lives about 20 minutes south of Philadelphia, so we usually drive for about two hours and then sit around her living room and listen to my Aunt and Uncle and cousins gossip while drinking large quantities of tea. At some point everyone goes to Church, while my Dad and I stay behind and read the newspaper.
This year was blissfully unlike the others. Instead of going to Nowheresville, PA, we managed to convince my Grandmother to come into Philadelphia for Easter. So instead of reading the Sunday Styles section while others went to Church, my Dad and I got to take a tour.
Despite having been born in Philadelphia, I have never really been to Philadelphia. At least not that I remember; I moved to Brooklyn when I was one and a half, and since then I’ve only really come back to the area to drink tea. I’ve decided, though, after reading Confederates in the Attic, that my American History Self-Improvement Project should have a travel component. Tony Horwitz spent months sleeping in muddy Civil War battlefields, getting beaten up in back country bars, and visiting the last confederate widow in Opp, Alabama (among other things). I am not cool enough to do all that, and I don’t have a publisher willing to pay for gas, but I can try my best.
In any case, I spent my Easter Sunday at Independence Hall. For those of you watching the John Adams mini-series on HBO, you’ll be happy to know it looks exactly the same in person, though maybe not exactly the same as it did in 1776. The tour was actually good, too. At least, unlike HBO, the tour guide had the sense to mention Thomas Paine.
I also got to see the site of Ben Franklin's privy! History is thrilling, isn't it?
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