Springfield, MA
July 15, 2019
First visit. Here we go. From now until the rest of my life…
My first official National Parks visit! I’ve been to many National Park sites before, but this is the first one that kicks off my official quest. I want to visit all the National Park sites — all the monuments, parks, recreational areas, trails, etc. I also want to thru-hike all the National Scenic Trails. I’m 48 right now, and I can’t start doing this full-time until both my daughters are in college and all three of my cats have died, so I won’t be able to really get going for at least another four or five years. In the meantime, I’ll visit places that don’t take very long (a day or less) and continue my hobby of hiking all the trails in the White Mountains of NH.
I’m so excited for all the adventures that await. Not just the hiking through gorgeous wild land, but for the education each site, large or small, offers.
I’ve spent the last 16 years living and doing for my children — and I don’t regret a second of it, except for all the times I was too harsh and yelled (parents aren’t perfect) — and in four short years both my girls will be in or headed toward college. Then my own life returns to the focus of mainly me. It was mainly me all my adult life until my first daughter came around, and then it was almost always just me and her (my now-ex was rarely there) , and then it was me, her, and her sister.
My oldest began reading at the age of two, and I could not find a Kindergarten that would meet her where she was at academically. This led to me leaving my education/career and homeschooling my kids so both my girls could get what they academically needed…though by the middle school years both girls were taking courses with online accredited providers and in-person various classes, so the term “homeschooling” doesn’t really describe what they did. Now my oldest is a rising junior and will take college courses at the local university for dual credit, and then soon she will be gone to college and then her sister will follow…and it will be just me again. I have been with my kids and had so many wonderful outside adventures with them over the past 16 years…but soon, in four short years, it will be just me.
I can’t think of a better way to start the next chapter of my life than to embark on what will likely be a quest that will take me a couple of decades. I love adventure, I love the outdoors, and I love learning new things. I don’t want to wait until both the girls are gone before I start. I can work on this part-time while the girls are still here. So here we go.
Since I am not a fan of the NRA, it was kind of odd this was my first site. However, though I am no gun aficionado, I am interested in history and innovation, so I found this site fascinating. I chose it as a matter of convenience; it was on my way home back to New Hampshire after dropping off both my daughters at their JHU-CTY camps in Baltimore and Carlisle. It took only an hour and forty-five minutes to see all the exhibits and walk around the area. I did not rush, but read almost everything and watched all the videos. It was just me and the rangers in the museum for most of my visit, since it was first thing in the morning on a Monday. That suited me just fine. I don’t do well in crowds.
This is, as one might guess, the most important armory in our nation’s history. It was the first armory, and it continued manufacturing weapons (first by hand and then by machine, revolutionizing standardized production in general in the process) and testing experimental designs all the way through the 1960s. Women made up around 41% of the workers throughout the site’s history, primarily coming onto the scene during the World Wars.
There are two main parts to the exhibits — weaponry and industry. There’s also a computerized interactive interface on Shays’ Rebellion, which took place here. I took a lot of photos, but I’ll only include a few below. Go see everything for yourself! It’s a lovely museum and very informative and interesting, even for people like me who are definitely NOT gun enthusiasts. There’s a donation box in the museum, by the way. Give something when you go. There is no entrance fee, and you are getting a ton of great info and you are getting to see amazing relics of our nation’s history…so don’t be a wanker. Give back.
Especially kind and helpful ranger: Pearl Wesley. She was cheerful and kind and knowledgeable. A great first ranger encounter on my official life-long quest.
I wonder what the boys and young men of the earliest American wars would have thought about how the Second Amendment is being used to NOT curb gun control today. Would they look at school shootings and think it would be common sense to roll that amendment back, since the intentions of that amendment were surely NOT to make it easier for madmen to gun down schoolchildren on a regular basis? Or would they feel guns should be available to the general public, but with restrictions? Or would they be for no restrictions at all? Would they be for or against the NRA? We’ll never know. I certainly have my opinion, and I’ll bet you have yours too. Most likely, some would feel one way and some would feel other ways, since I doubt they were homogeneous in their opinions.
That’s it for my first entry. I have a doctor’s appointment in Cambridge, MA later this week, so I think I’ll plan a visit to a Park site nearby. Easy enough to do, as the area has a good handful.