and taps which is always very moving in a setting like this. We were literally standing on the graves of the brave people who founded Medford and fought for our freedom. Mayor Stephanie Burke officiated and introduced the City Councilors and Rev. Wendy Miller Olapade of Sanctuary Congregational Church gave the benediction. To our great consternation Allah was named before Yahweh and Jehovah also mentioned but Jesus Christ was not. Did not our forbears come here for the most part bringing the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ yet he is forgotten here which denies his first Commandment which is to Have NO Other Gods Before Him.
No wonder the potholes and potheads are out of control in Medford!
Here is some very fascinating history of the Congregational Church which Rev. Wendy now leads.
https://apps.bostonglobe.com/graphics/2016/05/sanctuary/
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After the ceremony we all followed the band down Salem St. through the Square to the Gaffey Funeral Home which was once a tavern that Paul Revere rode by alerting the Minutemen that the British were coming.
At noon I raced back sans hubby to see Paul Revere. I boogied for downtown Medford which was closed off so I went up Forest over Hall and down Governors Ave where I found a parking spot. I saw a man coming up the hill from the Square with two little girls. I asked if I had missed Paul Revere and the sweet man, an immigrant, did not know what I was talking about but he did see a horse down the street. Darn, I wished I had time to fill them in on what all the falderlall was about. I hoofed it dawn the street and just then I saw the man on a chestnut horse resplendent in a green colonial jacket calling out something. I can only imagine it was something about the British coming. He was closely followed by a man on a dappled gray horse and a horse trailer where they probably had spare horses a bystander suggested.
Riding through present-day Somerville, Medford, and Arlington, Revere warned patriots along his route, many of whom set out on horseback to deliver warnings of their own. By the end of the night there were probably as many as 40 riders throughout Middlesex County carrying the news of the army's advance. Revere did not shout the phrase later attributed to him ("The British are coming!"): his mission depended on secrecy, the countryside was filled with British army patrols, and most of the Massachusetts colonists (who were predominantly English in ethnic origin)[44] still considered themselves British.[45][46] Revere's warning, according to eyewitness accounts of the ride and Revere's own descriptions, was "The Regulars are coming out."[47] Revere arrived in Lexington around midnight, with Dawes arriving about a half-hour later. They met with Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who were spending the night with Hancock's relatives (in what is now called the Hancock–Clarke House), and they spent a great deal of time discussing plans of action upon receiving the news. Wikipedia
I asked the man on the corner if Paul Revere had stayed or just went barreling through. Oh yes, Bob said, He stayed for a little while and just as he was about to charge off an emergency vehicle carrying the mayor pulled out in front because she wanted to lead Revere on his ride. I wish I had that on video. Fortunately the horse had more sense and did not spook but it was a near collision which is par for the course in Medford as the city navigates the twenty-first century.http://www.nationallancers.org/images/revere4thleg.jpg">
