Another Typical Weekend ahead

For some reason the weekends here seems to be busier than the weekdays. Beyond the usual chores of shopping laundry and general house cleaning, and of course the boy’s karate class, we seems to have any number of social/ cultural events to attend every weekend. This weekend is no exception with a pot luck picnic at the community garden up the hill above us, Roxbury Day Celebration at the park down the street from us and a pow wow at the Boston Indian center a couple miles away. Oh yes and there is a dentist appointment for at least one of us. I don’t see much time in there for chores and errands.

Did I mention that the Mrs. and I are starting karate this week? Due to popular demand, the dojo that is dedicated to teaching ‘Kid’s Karate’ is now offering a ‘parents’ karate for interested parents. I guess it was a natural that we take it. I am at a distinct disadvantage here, the boys mother has been taking to karate for the most part over the years, while I stay home and do chores, which means that she has a pretty good idea of all the move, while I have none. Additionally, I am 10 years older that her, but, and this is a small, but I am naturally much more flexible that either her or the boy. We shall see how this works out, but I am hoping that it is going to be fun and that the boy who is now a brown belt will not abuse us too much for our lack of ability.

The potluck begins in the middle afternoon today at the Cooper Community Center up the street. The gardens were laid in over 30 years ago on vacant lots during Roxbury’s dark days, and the community center grew up as part of that. It is now the neighborhood social center as well as the sight of many beautiful vegetable and flower gardens all maintained by neighbors. We share a plot with one of our neighbors and are frequent attendees at community meetings that take place at the center. I also have boxes full of supplies and food for the event in the basement, so there is no question that we are attending that.

The Roxbury Day celebration is taking place down at the end of the block at the Roxbury Heritage Park and the Dillaway Thomas house. It is a two-fold celebration; one for Roxbury’s role in the revolutionary war particularly during the siege of Boston in 1776, where forts at the top of the hill and what is now the Heritage Park we important in convincing the British to evacuate the city, giving Boston one more of it’s own holidays, Evacuation Day of course. The Dillaway-Thomas house built in 1745, served as the military headquarter during the siege. The second part of the celebrations is to celebrate Roxbury as the center of Boston’s African American community. Roxbury has always had a black population dating back to civil war times when it was a hotbed of abolitionist activity. Starting in the early 20th century it became a Mecca for black intellectuals and working class people. Redlining and racism beginning in the 1960’s and 70’s ghettoized the neighborhood and turned it into a slum of vacant lots and burned out buildings by the 1980s. It was with the help of a dedicated community that it has been able to bring itself back from the edge of oblivion. That is worthy of a celebration.

The Dillaway-Thomas taken in the 1940's

The pow wow which takes place both Saturday and Sunday is the annual gathering of the Native American Community in Boston This is a pretty disparate group comprised of mostly urban Indians from all over the country. Because if this and the small Native population in Boston, it is more like a family reunion that the bigger pow wows that take place in the more rural communities. We have not pow wowed much this year for a variety of reasons, so it is all the more important to attend this one.