J. L. BELL is a Massachusetts writer who specializes in (among other things) the start of the American Revolution in and around Boston. He is particularly interested in the experiences of children in 1765-75. He has published scholarly papers and popular articles for both children and adults. He was consultant for an episode of History Detectives, and contributed to a display at Minute Man National Historic Park.

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Sunday, July 24, 2011

Are We There Yet?

In today’s Family Circus strip by Jeff and Bil Keane, the family visits the historic sites of greater Boston.

Sort of. My favorite detail is how the Freedom Trail is rendered as a walk through a pastoral landscape, like an English hiking trail.

6 comments:

E. Sebelius said...

haha, not to mention the site of the tea party is now landlocked and the Minuteman statue is not in Boston but Lexington! But still, 'tis cute.

Jennie said...

Also, that lighthouse looks suspiciously like this one, 75 miles away in Maine.

Charles Bahne said...

This is at least the third time that Bil Keane (and son) have printed this series on Boston. The panels must go back at least 20 years by now. They've also done similar family vacations in some other cities such as Philadelphia and Chicago.

The familycircus.com website you link to doesn't have this week's panels yet. But I found them on another site, [http://www.arcamax.com/thefunnies/familycircus/]

They flew into Boston last Monday (July 18); so far they've seen the Paul Revere statue, Old North Church, USS Constitution, the Freedom Trail, and Beacon Hill. I expect that they'll be here another week as well.

J. L. Bell said...

Obviously, I can’t tell a new Family Circus from one that’s twenty years old. But that’s part of the strip’s charm, I guess.

Maybe some year we’ll see the Freedom Trail as Billy would trace it out, with a dashed line squiggling all over central Boston.

Jeremy Greene said...

This isn't as bad as they made the Family Circus out to be in the movie Go:

Claire: What do you have against the Family Circus?
Todd: Okay, you sit down to read your paper, and you're enjoying your entire two-page comic spread, right? And then there's the Family f@#$ing Circus, bottom right hand corner, just waiting to suck. And it's the last thing you read, so it spoils everything you read before it.
Claire: You could just not read it.
Todd: I hate it, yet I'm uncontrollably drawn to it.

RFuller said...

The Minute Man Statue, by Daniel Chester French, from 1874, stands in Concord. The statue of Capt. John Parker, Lexington militia commander, by Henry H Kitson, 1900, is in Lexington.