Plymouth Rock

[poliphilo]

So that's what Plymouth Rock looks like. 

I dunno, I 've been hearing about it all my life and had sort of imagined it as a geological feature of some size and presence.  You know, craggy, looming, extensive, grand- a promontory perhaps. 

Something along the lines of The Giant's Causeway.

And it's just a rock. A small rock. You could pick it up with a forklift. That is, if it wasn't cemented into place. 

We've got better looking rocks in our local, neighbourhood park.

Comments

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

When I saw it - back during the first Gulf War - it had a yellow ribbon tied round it, with a big bow.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Words fail.....

We've been told...

[jubal51394.livejournal.com]

We... that's us New Englanders that have grown up around there... we've been told that in 1629 it was indeed significantly larger but that people(damn those people!) have been taking home chunks of it as a souvenir for years.

Re: We've been told...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but it was never that big, was it? I mean, it was never anything more than a boulder.

Re: We've been told...

[jubal51394.livejournal.com]

I really have no clue beyond what I've been told but... how much do we think that people could chip away in 377 years?

Re: We've been told...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Quite a lot, I suppose.

I've been researching the rock's long and confusing history. It's been broken several times, glued together again and moved about from place to place. It has been calculated that the upper section- which was broken off in 1775 but is now reunited with its base- is about 1/3 of its original size.

[aint2nuts.livejournal.com]

People have been taking peices of it home for over 300 years, what do you expect?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ooh- a national monument; I'll have a piece of that!

better rock and on principle of 'build it and they will come"

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

well then you may perhaps expect some
people weary of old lands and ways and
looking for a future they can make themselves
to show up any day now.

Re: better rock and on principle of 'build it and they will come"

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

At the Giant's Causeway, you mean? Naah- the Causeway is in Northern Ireland and those guys hate immigrants even more than they hate one another.

Re: better rock and on principle of 'build it and they will come"

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Or our local park? Ha, it's already happened. Oldham has been an ethnic melting pot since the end of WWII. Poles, Ukranians, West Indians, Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis...

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

as someone who's grown up in eastern massachusetts and probably first saw plymouth rock at the age of 5, i think that's hilarious. it's always been just a rock in a pit for me.

and anyway, it's supposed to be important because of the circumstances of who stepped on it and when they stepped on it, not because of any particular characteristic of the rock itself.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

If, of course, anyone of importance ever did step on it. I read that no-one paid it any mind until- long after the event- some very old man came up with the information that his grand-daddy had told him that this was where the Pilgrims landed.

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

yeah, but what matters isn't the truth, but that people believe it, don't you think? i think that's true for a lot of things.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. I've always been entranced by Glastonbury with its Arthurian connections- even though I'm aware that the Glastonbury legend is almost certainly the invention of medieval monks cynically eager to attract pilgrims/tourists.

[happydog.livejournal.com]

Well, they were Pilgrims. They were used to making mountains out of molehills, which as I understand it is what made them persona non grata in two countries before they came over to ruin colonize the New World.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I thought of going into all that... but I'm lazy.

Yeah, I sort of subscribe to William Carlos Williams' view of the Pilgrims- that they were a pretty ghastly set of people and their influence has seriously warped the American psyche- that they were in fact a sort of 17th century Taliban.

[happydog.livejournal.com]

...a sort of 17th century Taliban.

indeed, as evidenced by the Salem "witch trials," they were. Not to mention 12 hour church services and hymns that are among the ugliest and most tuneless ever written - purposely!

OMG....

[suemars.livejournal.com]

that was so funny.

Re: OMG....

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Cheers! :)

[kaysho.livejournal.com]

I got a chuckle that the "little rock" for which Little Rock, Arkansas is named is quite a bit larger. :)