Watching John Adams makes me want to move to New England

[burythehatchet]

It is amazing to see how the individual characteristics of the modern day United States evolved from their respective positions in the Continental Congress.

[bicentennial_baby]

1. It's awesome here

Esp. Massachusetts, born and raised and still living amongst so much history. Sniffa and I walked the Freedom Trail last year at this time, it was wicked fun.

[burythehatchet]

4. I spent a year at BU but wasn't in a position to really appreciate the city

but the history is so compelling. For an immigrant at the age of 10, I now see that the true fantasy about America that I vaguely recognized at that age, is truly embedded in New England.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

10. I hope to do that some day

I've traced my family back to Massachusetts, and would really love going to North Andover, Chelmsford, and Plymouth to walk the streets of my ancestors. I understand why they lived there for 150 years before moving West. Sometimes I wonder why in the world they left.

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. New England is the greatest place in the continental country.

Hawaii and Alaska also have their own wondrous charm.

But New England - that's the best place!

[burythehatchet]

6. Here in Georgia, the things to appreciate are the mountains and rivers

in the north, and the typical gray beaches of the Atlantic ocean. There are other parts that people like but I don't care for, like the low country, swampy areas.

[Donnachaidh]

8. I think the term is New England - Finest Kind! Ayuh! n/t

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

13. I loved what I saw of it

Which was New Haven, Litchfield Co CT, and Berkshire Co MA. It was really something to see Long Island Sound and ponder at what my ancestors saw in the 1600s when they came this way. And in my mind's eye I could imagine my family moving west from the Berkshires into New York State. This gave me an added dimension to all that I saw--strange because I felt that I had seen it before--perhaps if there is a trace of family memory programmed in our DNA.

[eleny]

3. This isn't the new chapters, is it?

I hope those are tomorrow.

I'm loving this series, too. Did you happen to see the Charlie Rose interview with McC? It was so good that I set up the DVR to record it in the wee hours tonight when it airs again. I never knew he was so interesting.

[burythehatchet]

9. This is my 3rd viewing of Part 1 and 2

:)

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

29. lol! I'm just about to watch my 2nd viewing of both parts! :) It was just wonderful!.

[flowomo]

5. Born in Mass, lived long time in Maine, much family in NH....

don't get too starry-eyed. You find "America" in New England... all kinds. New Hampshire politics will make your brain bleed. Massachusetts can be that way also. Maine is best, but far from heaven.

[burythehatchet]

11. I know next to nothing about Maine. Wish I did though.

[flowomo]

12. visit Portland if you get a chance.....

a "rescued" small city -- nice blend of old and new. But much of Maine is yahooland. Or "we're rich and you're not"-land.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

15. I've read town histories

starting in the 1600s, and know that what you say is true--and apparently has been true ever since the Pilgrims and Strangers set foot on New England soil in 1620. The fights that the townspeople had sometimes raged on for years!

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. I loved Maine and very much want to go back again

I was there for a week about ten years ago. NO BILLBOARDS! Loved it!! Beautiful trees and plant life. And a lobster tail in nearly restaurant. (That was my favorite part.)

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. I love New England

I've only been there once, but I felt very much like I had "come home". I hope some day to return, and this time visit the graves of my ancestors.

[Mojambo]

14. "Do you love New England best? That might just make you prejudiced."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u96COiazRS8

[Davis_X_Machina]

16. Bring a snow shovel. n/t

[burythehatchet]

17. I spent a few years in upstate NY

and I remember well.

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. My favorite thing about New England

is the old buildings. My city was "born" in the mid 1850s so it is really interesting to see buildings that are 200 and 300 years old. And of course the history is incredibly fascinating.

[IDemo]

20. It's always been a dream of mine to visit New England

Particularly Boston, where my family has some historical connections.

[wordpix]

21. as a New Englander, allow me to say it's no bed of roses as the powers-that-be keep fucking us &

the environment. Development is rampant, roads are clogged and full of potholes, public transportation is dismal, there's corruption in every corner from local to regional to state, and state contractors grease the palms of government officials, who do anything to please them. New England MAY have been the land of steady virtues but today it's as messy, polluted and corrupt as anywhere else. Sorry to burst your bubble but that's the truth right now---sadly. :cry:

[NutmegYankee]

30. You must live in Conn.

Swamp Yankees Unite!

[1]

22. watching willy wonka makes me want to move to a chocolate factory...

ummmChocolateummm...

[burythehatchet]

23. ah yes, that would be Hershey, PA. And in honor of the season...

[1]

24. ha!

:rofl:

i spent 10 years of my life in boston, i even ran the marathon in 1985. i did it in two stints.* one just out of college and one later in life.

my experience was that boston was better when i was young.

not boston's fault. much was better when i was young...




* eta: i lived in boston two times. i ran the marathon just once. i love the written word and how what you meant to say can be so unclear immediately after you click the "post" button. ha!

[bean fidhleir]

25. Interesting that they did the series on the near-royalist John Adams

instead of, say, Jefferson. Or George Mason (now there was a complex character!).

Possibly the best thing that can be said about Adams was that he had a loving relationship with a very intelligent woman: Abigail.

Politically he was just short of being a Tory most of the time. He was the first "imperial president", and the cause of Jefferson's comment about "a reign of witches". Freedom of speech took a pounding during his administration, with several newspaper editors being jailed under the Sedition Act merely for saying unflattering things about him.

[burythehatchet]

27. the program has sparked an interest in me to learn more about these men

I was really taken by the persona of George Washington, as he was presented.

As an immigrant, I never had the chance to "feel" the history of the US when I was growing up.

[bean fidhleir]

28. Washington is another one who's been mythologized all to hell

He was a ditherer and a nearly incompetent general. It was widely acknowledged even at the time that had England sent any halfway decent general to oppose him, the revolution would now be called the "rebellion".

He was a slaveowner and land speculator who acknowledged openly (in a letter) that the treaties with the indians were just so much paper, a way to keep them quiet until their lands could be stolen.

Possibly the major reason he didn't choose to become King George the First was that he and Martha had no kids, so the crown would have gone back to England after his death. But he definitely had royal attitudes. He very consciously created the image of a "reluctant leader" while scheming madly behind the scenes. His style was to set up a situation where people would beg him to do what he wanted to do, so that he could seem modest and unassuming when in fact he was nothing of the kind.

His presidency was marked by reducing the liberties people had fought for during the revolution. E.g., he supported Hamilton in setting up a tax on whisky that favored wealthy distillers over poor farmers, and then led an army to crush the farmers when they refused to pay the unfair tax. Like Samuel Adams, he was highly in favor of liberty - when it was *his* liberty.

Quite a guy.

[annabanana]

26. Lived in Lexington to the age of 16.

I miss it.