Neera Tanden and Bedford ~ Turning Points

So, 1987 Bedford High School graduate Neera Tanden, as expected, has withdrawn from consideration as director of the Biden Administration’s Office of Management and Budget. The votes for confirmation weren’t going to materialize.

It’s just the latest chapter of Bedford’s long history of “close calls,” of turning points that didn’t work out.

Here are just a few that come to mind.

On April 19, 1775, British forces encountered Lexington Minute Men on what is now known as the Battle Green. After massacring several colonists, the British contingent continued its march to the colonial arms depot in Concord.

They went to the left, along what is now Mass. Ave., continuing into Lincoln en route to a rendezvous with destiny at the bridge in Concord.

How different history would have been if they had gone to the right, into Bedford.

There’s no argument that the route chosen was shorter, notwithstanding the hill near Hastings Park. But there were some obvious advantages in choosing the Bedford option.

For one thing, the element of surprise. Paul Revere and his associates, Dawes and Prescott, didn’t warn anyone living along Bedford Road or in our fledgling town about the Redcoats’ approach. (Historian A.E. Brown says Nathaniel Page, whose family owned the Bedford Flag, was informed by a messenger who took the back way, on what is now Grove Street.)

But the most significant advantage was breakfast, which everybody knows is really important to having a good day. We know Fitch Tavern was open early – the Bedford Minutemen assembled there for a meal before their own march to North Bridge. The British could have stopped for a quick bite – or even better, for the famous Fitch breakfast buffet, featuring same-day eggs from Chip-In and Belgian waffles with Bedford Farms vanilla.

Just think – there could have been an armed encounter right there between the British and the Bedford troops. And as a result, the town would have been immortalized – tourists from all over the world, a national park, picture postcards, maybe even a literary tradition with “Bedford Hymn” by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Or even more incredible, perhaps the two forces would have dined together, traded war stories, and the British would have headed back to Boston on a full stomach, happy to experience that Bedford warmth and energy.

But noooo…..  (OK, so the actual reason the British chose Lincoln is that all along Route 2A you see signs saying “Battle Road.”)

Let’s fast-forward to the early 19^th century. Whalers navigated up the Shawsheen River, but the ships couldn’t fit beneath the Page Road bridge. So they turned around, headed back to the Atlantic, and ended up founding New Bedford. (Later, pirate ships managed to get to the Great Road Shopping Center, but were grounded on some discarded shopping carts. That’s when they disembarked and launched the Bedford Buccaneers.)

After the Civil War, the Hayden Family literally put Bedford Springs on the map with a popular resort on and around man-made Fawn Lake. The big draw was the water and its alleged medicinal wonders.

People came from everywhere for the healing power in our town. The Hayden Family even got the state to build a railroad spur to Bedford Springs. They even bottled the water – the bottling plant is a condo complex today.

When I arrived in the town almost 50 years ago, I was told indignantly that someone in local government insulted the Hayden family, which then chose to build its wonderful community recreation complex, complete with a skating rink and an indoor pool, in Lexington, just for spite.

Oy, so close, but so far away. And all because someone in Town Hall probably told one of the Haydens to stand in line like everybody else to get a dog license.

But noooo…..  (Never mind that the story isn’t true – the two Hayden families weren’t even related. As a famous demagogue once said, however, “Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.”)

So now we are in the modern era. Back in the late ’70s, the Little family decided to sell the bucolic Bedford Country Club. The nine-hole course used to convert to a small ski area in snowy months. Simultaneously, Emerson College’s efforts to relocate to the Lexington golf course were rebuffed when the town decided to purchase the land.

So Emerson turned its attention to Bedford, and seriously began negotiations to close its Boston campus and build from scratch,  along Old Billerica Road.

Emerson is one of the premier institutions for communications and performing arts. Can you imagine how that would have transformed Bedford culture? Restaurants and clubs up and down The Great Road. Theaters, bookstores, concerts, indoor and outdoor performances, scholars in residence, classes for residents of all ages, all free.

Emerson has one of the most sophisticated and powerful college radio stations anywhere. What great potential for collaboration with Bedford TV.

Neighbors made it clear that they would fight the plan and prolong it with litigation. The college soon set its sights elsewhere, and ultimately remained in the Back Bay after the real estate market declined.

(Never mind that Emerson College’s students and applicants would take one look at the resources in Bedford and ask, “Huh? Where’s the transfer office?”)

Neera, we are sorry that you were denied by what amounted to a single vote. And we know you will land on your feet and bring more credit to your hometown and your alma mater. (Still, maybe it would have helped if the senators had known you won the Daughters of the American Revolution Good Citizen Award as a BHS senior.)

For the town, a blessing in disguise, maybe? Swarms of reporters and camera crews roaming the streets looking for ammunition for the 24-hour news cycle. And that sigh of relief is from the hundreds of residents who now don’t have to learn what the Office of Management and Budget actually does.

And, Neera, here’s an idea — the last Bedford resident considered for a Cabinet-level position was Admiral James Stavridis. Maybe you can collaborate and open a consulting firm – Two (or is it Too?) Good for Government, Ltd.

Mike Rosenberg can be reached at [email protected], or 781-983-1763

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