When I used to live in New York City (which I did in between Dallas and Minneapolis), they had standing room only tickets for $10 for most of the Broadway shows. For $10, I got a ticket with a designated place to stand. Although I had to stand, I was young and saw a lot of great shows that way. When Mom would come out to visit me, I would get some real tickets to a show or two where we could sit in seats. Later, when we would go to London, we would pick up some tickets at the Half Price Booth in Leicester Square. We often managed to get very good seats and saw many great performances by talented actors. Sometimes we would seek out a particular actor, like on our first trip to London when we went to see Roger Rees and Felicity Kendall in “The Real Thing”.
In 1999, Mom and I decided to take a tour that began in NYC and meandered its way down the East Coast to end in Orlando. We chose to arrive in NYC a couple days ahead of the start of the tour and see a couple of plays. I had long had a crush on Matthew Broderick, who was starring in a revival of the 1930s thriller “Night Must Fall” along with British actress Judy Parfitt. So I got us two tickets for that play for the second night. For the first night, I managed a couple tickets to the revival of “The Iceman Cometh” starring Kevin Spacey.
“The Iceman Cometh” was at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre and was a four hour long production. We were both mesmerized for the full four hours. In addition to Kevin Spacey, the cast included Tony Danza, Robert Sean Leonard, Michael Emerson, Paul Giamatti, and Tim Pigott-Smith. We were seated about 2/3 of the way back and over to the side. We could still see everyone’s faces pretty well and felt we were fortunate to get in at all. The play was a transfer from a successful and award-winning run in London and had opened only about a week before we got there. If I remember correctly, I think it was a special deal through American Express that allowed us to get the tickets.
The next day we explored the Intrepid aircraft carrier and the Edison destroyer. The Intrepid was my first aircraft carrier and was both enormous and fascinating. There were several planes on the deck to look at as well as climbing all over the aircraft carrier. Most of it was open to the public. So a lot to see.
Then we took the 3-hour Circle Line boat tour around all of Manhattan. It was a beautiful day. That night was “Night Must Fall” at the Helen Hayes Theatre. This was a much smaller theatre than the Brooks Atkinson and we had front row center seats. Not only could we see the actors’ faces clearly, but we could see every freckle or bead of sweat. Matthew Broderick was the bad guy in this one — a deranged serial killer, who seemed so charming.
The following day we visited Ellis Island and planned to do the Hop-On-Hop-Off Trolley tour after. Most of my ancestors arrived in the US prior to the existence of Ellis Island. But I do have a great-grandmother who would have come into the country through there with her brother and sister in the mid 1890s.
Once back on Manhattan Island, we barely made it onto the trolley when the rain came down in torrents. It was what we used to call in Texas a “gully washer”. It was raining so hard and had gotten so cold that we weren’t inspired to get off at any of the stops. We could barely see anything out of the windows. So we rode around through the entire route, shivering, until we got back to the hotel. Then we made a mad dash inside and holed up for the rest of the afternoon. This was the one and only time on any trip that either of us ever allowed the weather to dictate our plans. We met up with the rest of our group that evening and began the tour the following morning — well rested, dried out, and warm.
After leaving New York, we headed for Philadelphia. Mom had been there before when one of my cousins lived there for a couple years while attending school. It was my first trip. I was very excited about seeing it. The Liberty Bell was included in the guided portion of the tour. Then we were set loose to get lunch on our own and do whatever else we wanted while waiting for our specified time to enter Independence Hall. We had a couple of hours to kill, so we got some lunch and headed for the house that Thomas Jefferson rented while he was writing the Declaration of Independence. It was very much as it had been when he was living there, giving us a pretty good feel for life in 1776. Once we had thoroughly explored the house, we stopped off at a couple other sites on the way back to Independence Hall.
At the time on our ticket, we were herded into a large room with several busloads of schoolchildren. Before we could enter Independence Hall, we all received a long lecture regarding what took place there. Even I, who love history, found it boring. The children weren’t listening at all, but tussling and talking among themselves.
Next we were herded into the courtroom. The children were all given precedence with all of the adults made to stand in the back. Being only 5’3”, with some of the children taller than me, I couldn’t see a thing. So Mom and I left the room and crossed the hall to the room in which the Declaration of Independence was signed. We were told by the woman who barred our way that we were to stay with our group just before she slammed the door unceremoniously in our faces. Pretty soon the mob came across the hall, the door was opened and we were herded into the room I was really there to see. Once again, adults had to stay in the back, so I couldn’t see a thing.
Mom said she had not been treated so badly when she had been there before, but that there weren’t hoards of children at that time either. We inched our way to the back corner of the room so that, when everyone else swarmed back out, we could linger, get some photos, and hopefully soak some of it in before we got kicked out. As the others left the room, the same friendly lady as before barked at us again to stay with our group. But we moved very slowly, stopping to take photos and trying to absorb this very important and historic room internally. She kept yelling; we kept moving slowly. The next day we left for Washington, D.C.
Our first night in the nation’s capital, we had dinner at a nice restaurant in Union Station. It was a very pleasant location and atmosphere. Then we took a night tour, visiting the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. I was awestruck by the statues of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln — especially lit up as they were. Mom had been here before too when she traveled to DC for business.
The following day we started out with Arlington National Cemetery, the Korean War Memorial, and the Vietnam War Memorial. A neighbor of ours back in Dallas had been killed in the Vietnam War, so we looked for and found his name. We circled the White House, had some lunch, and then were dropped off at the Capital to do our own exploring for the rest of the day. Mom and I immediately got in line to tour the Capital.
After standing in line for nearly an hour (and getting quite sunburned — it was a warm and sunny April day) we were finally let in and discovered the same situation as back in Philadelphia. Busloads of school children who were ushered to the front while the adults were relegated to the rear. This taught me that, if I wanted to see anything historic in the US, I should go in early fall when school was just starting and no field trips were underway. A more recent trip to the Historic East that took place in the fall and returned me to both Philadelphia and Washington, DC allowed me to see everything I wanted to see easily. I could even hang out without being yelled at or herded.
We took a break after the Capital and got some ice cream (our favorite afternoon pick-me-up) before heading off to Ford’s Theatre. Unfortunately the theatre itself was closed due to a performance that evening. But we could see the museum down in the basement. They had both the pistol that Booth used to kill President Lincoln and the boot that was cut from Booth’s broken leg by the doctor who set it. Booth’s diary and several other items were there as well. So it was well worth seeing. That later trip gave me plenty of time to spend in the theatre.
From Ford’s Theatre, we ventured across the street to the Peterson House where Lincoln had been carried after he was shot and where he died. Mom and I were alone in the house and could spend all the time we wanted looking at everything. We could also talk with the person who worked there. He pointed out several things we might not have noticed on our own and told us little tidbits of information about the house, the theatre and the neighborhood back in the 1860s. It was a very informative visit that we both thoroughly enjoyed. What he told us about poor Mary Todd Lincoln was very poignant.
My mom was not the history buff that I am, but she had majored in sociology and psychology when she went to the university, so she has always been fascinated by the human behavior side of things. Of course, that’s what fascinates me about history. The fact that it is “his story” and “her story” and “their story” and “our story”. That’s also why I like genealogy. It is cool to me to get an idea of where my own ancestors might have been when different things happened — especially if they had possibly been involved.
If I visit a battlefield, I wonder if I have an ancestor who might have fought there? Did I have an ancestor who might have been injured there or died there or was taken prisoner there? If I visit a castle someplace near where an ancestor lived, what was my ancestor’s relationship with that castle? Did they just view it from outside? Did they ever enter? If they did enter, in what capacity was it? A servant? A noble? A knight (who was essentially a type of servant)? A tourist like me? Did they dine there? Were they imprisoned there? Or were they executed or murdered there? From what I have been able to find out so far from my research, the answers have sometimes involved many of the above.
Next time, the tour continues.
