Boston’s Impromptu Serenade

Quick Tips:

Best Way To Get Around:

Your metro pass is also good for the ferry from Long Wharf to the Charlestown Navy Yard, where you can see "Old Ironsides" and museum on the same, but you can save that trip for a weekday and enjoy a relaxing weekend downtown.

Aside from the food, we chose this restaurant because there are tables outside, where we could enjoy the fresh air and see all that was going on at Long Wharf. Tour buses and ferries to the Charlestown Navy Yard are all stationed right across the street, and we, having just arrived in Boston, were content to watch them come and go. We were happy here observing the activity, but later we found the more secluded Rowe's Wharf, totally away from any noise from the street. Still, Legal Sea Food is a convenient and delicious stop before or after a bus tour or ferry ride.

Stay late. When the crowd begins to thin, maybe nine o’clock, something surprising may happen: it’s Saturday night downtown. Perhaps Jim will gather a crowd and delight you with a barrel of laughs in front of the main Market building, so saunter on over there. Families will linger, for the kids love this clean fun. And Jim loves them, regardless of the exasperation he designs for six-year-olds. It may take three of the bravest of them a half-hour to get themselves definitely volunteered and to get successful at throwing Jim his juggling pins, but you’ll not want them to catch on any faster, lest the show might end. An hour of belly-laughs is therapeutic, and Jim knows how to make it last, even with only three tricks. Working an audience with six-year-olds is his forte, and we adults do enjoy laughing at their expense. So, if you hear an entertainer commanding you to gather round and "move in," because "There’s going to be a big crowd," ignore the implausibility and plop yourself right down there on the cobblestone in front of him.

If you miss "The Jim Show," you can visit his website: www.smirk.com. How about that picture of him on his main page! Why, there he is at Quincy Market! Guess he frequents that spot in daylight, too. Perhaps he's found his favorite place in Boston.

In this Italian neighborhood in Boston’s North End, a one-year-old baby was having a birthday. According to some fellow onlookers, that was the purpose of the performance. I’m not sure. Paper mache figures on poles were held high in the middle of the street while the band stood still and played "America the Beautiful" and other favorites of patriots. The baby’s father stood in the doorway of his own business on the corner opposite the church, holding his little girl high on his shoulders while band members waved to her between selections. They played "Happy Birthday," and Dad called out over the crowd his "Thanks."

The paper figures were carried along, then, on up the street while the band dispersed. Mostly older men, perhaps they represented a local organization. All I know for certain is that they delighted a large group of tourists and local folks, too, on a Sunday afternoon, serenading us with their music and demonstrating for us their neighborhood spirit. At this point, I reflected that I had heard almost every kind of music possible in Boston--and more important, I had enjoyed a type of music I had never relished before, that of a marching band. There is more to see in the North End of Boston than Paul Revere's House and the Old North Church, more than art galleries and Italian delis and pastry shops: there's much local color and spirit. Look for it in the North End.

When you want to move on, take a delightful stroll among historic statuary, monuments, fountains, and antique grounds. If you are travelling with children, they must get wet in the Frog Pond, of course, while grownups enjoy a table alongside the Concession. While you muse about the historic figures who have been here before, don’t miss the photo ops. When you are ready to leave the Commons, find the Charles Street exit so that you can cross to the antique Boston Public Gardens, established 1837.