2026 Life Logs, Day 117: Walking (and riding) the Freedom Trail
Date: Monday, April 27, 2026
Weather: Gorgeous, Sunny Day; High Temp 58, Low 41 degrees F (Boston)
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
What a gorgeous spring day. I spent my day in Boston where the temperature neared 60 degrees F, but back home here in Falmouth it was 62 degrees. Tomorrow looks like more of the same, so enjoy the warmth and sunshine while you can.
I went with the Newcomers and Encore field trip group to Boston today to walk the downtown portion of the Freedom Trail. We had a terrific guide posing as the Irish wife of Richard Copley, Mary Singleton, whom Richard Copley brought to this country in the 1730’s. He died in 1738, and Mary remarried a Boston artist named Henry Pelham who was a Boston painter, engraver, civil engineer, and cartographer. Her son from the first marriage to Richard Copley, John Singleton Copley, became an artist like his step-father. But John Singleton Copley became a renowned American portrait painter. Copley Square in Boston is named for him.
So, we had a gorgeous, warm day and a fantastic guide. All of us were very familiar with the places we visited along the Freedom Trail, but our guide brought history to life for us. When we got to the Old City Hall behind King’s Church, our guide positioned herself beside a bronze statue of an adorable donkey. She didn’t talk about the donkey, but I became fascinated with the statue and looked up its history. The donkey was bought in Florence. Italy, in the 1990’s by a man from Boston named Roger Webb. He saw it when browsing in a Florence art store filled with statues for anyone hoping to take a piece of Italy home with them. He thought the donkey was so cute and lovable that it belonged somewhere special in Boston. He thought of the Freedom Trail because he thought it would be a fun distraction for children accompanying their parents on the walking tour. He wanted it placed in front of the Old City Hall using the excuse that the donkey represented the Democratic Party—the party of affiliation of many Boston mayors. At first this was rejected, but he finally got his way. Children do love it, and today I decided I loved it enough that I climbed up on its back just as many children do. That was definitely the highlight of the tour for me, bearing out the fact that I am still just a kid at heart.
