Monthly Archive: June 2015

Self-Guided Tour

I stop by to pay a visit to the Thomas Cole National Historic Site. I’m early. Visiting hours don’t begin for another half hour. I sit on the porch and look at the view....

The Town Tomb

It’s a beauteous Dour Hour, calm and free, down at Pandora’s Tavern. The early June sun is sinking low in its tranquility. The windows of the tavern are thrown open wide. I sit near...

Called Back

Around back of Emily Dickinson’s Homestead. Lots of visitors but they are very quiet. All of them are on the phone, just listening. Apparently there’s a number you dial for an official recorded guided...

Visitation

Here is where Herman Melville wrote Moby Dick. And Pierre. And Israel Potter. And The Confidence Man. And Billy Budd. The docent at this historic home in the Berkshires is a college student. This...

Seeking Roots

An email in my box from one of those genealogy sites, with this subject heading: “John P., experience a whole new Ancestry”. Okay. I take the bait and open the message. It’s blank. Nada....