A Little More Culture Please…….

Submitted by Bedford Boy Scout Troop 194

The skies opened up, it poured and poured and poured. Then, just like clockwork, it stopped. The adventure was ready to begin, and so were the thirty travelers who had been anticipating this journey for many months.

Last December, the Bedford Cultural Council approved Troop 194’s grant request to receive funding for the “Fun Revolutionary Trivia Trolley Tour” or FRTTT. Special thanks for the support of Barbara Purchia, of the Bedford Cultural Council in encouraging T194 to seek the grant; we can always use more culture.

As the rains stopped, Boy Scouts and family members boarded the trolley on Sunday July 27th for the 2:30P adventure. We mounted the trolley in front of Buckman Tavern with a perfect view of Lexington Common, where Capt. Parker of the Colonial Minutemen commanded his troops not to fire “unless fired upon.” Later, we understood why the “shot heard round the world” actually took place in Concord, by the North Bridge.

Our professional tour guide, Arthur Conrad, a member of one of our Troop’s sponsors, American Legion Post 221, spun a remarkably detailed and witty account of the activities leading up to April 19th 1775 and beyond. We followed Battle Road, where Paul Revere rode, Fiske Hill, The Bluff, Meriam’s Corner, and the “Bloody Angle” where Bedford and Lincoln colonists gave the British Regulars their version of why freedom is worth fighting for.

Bedford’s Flag, as we all knew, was the first flag carried into battle in the Revolutionary War. What we might not have known, was the significance of a line in Concord’s Hymn, written by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The reference of “their flag” in the first stanza of the poem was that none other than the Bedford Flag. Troop 194 has quite a lineage with the Bedford Flag. One of our own, Mr. Coady, established the now nationally accredited and renowned historic Bedford Flag Trail. Have you earned that hiking patch or medal?

After increasing our adventurers’ historical IQs, we finished our trip by increasing our waistlines at (where else) Bedford Farms Ice Cream. Scouters in uniform were treated to an ice cream creation of their choice, a most suitable ending to a fabulous educational, cultural, and certainly fun day!

“This program is supported in part by a grant from the Bedford Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.”