I am interested in old roads. I walked the pilgrimage road to Santiago and I walked from Boston to New York on the Lower Boston Post Road about which I wrote a whole series of articles on another website of mine called Walking the Post Road.1 This website does not work as well as it used to for technical reasons. Many of these entries are now available on this website-they all have the tag ‘walking the post road’. Any that are not here at present will eventually be transferred over if you can’t take the aggravation of the old web site!This series of articles will be about walking closer to home. Rambles about Boston in both senses of the word: rambling as in walking, and rambling as in going on at length about something. Two things I am pretty good at, only I hope that all my “rambles” have a purpose and are not so random as to be meaningless. I also plan to walk the Upper Boston Post Road at some point and those entries will appear here under the tag “Upper Boston Post Road.” Feel free to get in touch with comments, criticisms, or queries.
Hi! I’ve been reading your “Walking the Post Road” blog over the past few weeks and it’s fascinating. I’m growing interested in walking from Boston to NYC (likely next year) myself. I’m a 30-year old graduate student recently moved to Boston.
Best,
PermalinkPatrick
Hi Patrick,
PermalinkThanks for your interest in my humble project! Let me know if your interest in walking advances to the planning stage; maybe I can provide some assistance and/or advice. I hope you can wade through to the end of my Post Road entries; I admit they are a bit long but I too found the walk fascinating and tried to stuff as much as I could into the entries without just writing a history of the United States. Perhaps you will find some of the entries in this Boston Rambles project interesting as well, particularly if you are new to Boston. They have two or three different flavors so you can pick and choose which flavor interests you from the tags and categories on the left side of the page. Good luck! Gary
Hi, I just read a biography of Samuel Adams and it led me to look up info on colonial Boston to your site. Interesting stuff. The about me page here doesn’t have your name, occupation, years lived in Boston, etc. Things a reader would be interested in. Nor do the entries for the Post Road. What’s up?
PermalinkHi Charles,
Thanks for reading. Sam Adams, interesting as he is, doesn’t figure much in my entries, although he did spend his last years near the “six mile” stone on Centre Street, the Lower Boston Post Road to Dedham, Providence, and New York, on the other side of the Arnold Arboretum from my house, which I believe I mentioned in my walk through Jamaica Plain and Roslindale entitled Steeple Chase.
As to your question, I have tried to let the work speak for itself. I don’t have anything to hide, but I am also not particularly interested in gaining attention or in selling anything, nor do I want my readers to jump to any conclusions based on some profile they might form. So up until now I have limited my biographical details. As you are not the first person to ask me that question, I will provide some information to assuage the curious readers. I apologize in advance if you are disappointed that I am not a celebrity historian (is there such a thing anymore?) masquerading as a casual rambler.
My name is Gary Denton, I have lived in Boston since 1990 and in and around the city for 43 of the last 47 years, with brief forays to London and to Los Angeles. Before that I lived in Bermuda for most of my early childhood as my mother is Bermudian and my father was in the US Navy. I have an assortment of degrees in History and in Biology from various institutions, including Worcester Polytechnic Institute, UCLA, University of Massachusetts Boston, and Harvard. I have in the past had many “occupations.” I worked in warehouses, kitchens, coin rooms, clothing stores, and restaurants; I managed a book store; I was a park ranger for several years at Boston National Historical Park (Freedom Trail, Bunker Hill Monument, Charlestown Navy Yard, etc.); I was once a graduate student and subsequently a research scientist in Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry at Harvard Medical School; I taught High School Biology and Chemistry for some years; I was a private tutor for many years, mostly doing SAT prep. Perhaps I occupied myself with other remunerative endeavors but I have forgotten them at this point. I have been married for 35 years to a wonderful person. I now cook a lot and walk a lot and do a lot of birding when I am not working on my old house in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston. My ultimate goal is to walk around the world; at my current rate of travel I will accomplish that goal sometime in the next millennium.
I hope this précis gives you a glimpse of the author. Again, thanks for reading and for taking the time to send a note. All the best, Gary
PermalinkSounds like a pretty interesting life, Mr. Denton. I’m so glad you’re still doing this—and that you seem to be thriving.
PermalinkHi John,
Plus ça change … as they say. Hope you are enjoying Colorado and wherever else you might be visiting!
PermalinkDo you give lectures as well as write about your findings?
PermalinkGood Morning,
PermalinkThanks for the interest! I have not given any lectures yet but there have been previous inquiries. I would be certainly willing to speak about my experience and the results thus far in this project to any interested parties. Nothing concrete has materialized yet but I would most likely say yes if someone asked. I was a park ranger and a school teacher in previous lives so I have experience in public speaking.
Dear Mr. Denton,
PermalinkThe person to whom you responded here is our curator at the Wayland Museum & Historical Society. I’d be interested in talking to you about a possible presentation on May 15 at our Annual Meeting (7:00 pm) – of perhaps 45 minutes. I think we’d be interested in the route through Wayland Center – I think that is UBPR #5 (I live on the alternate route and our home is pictured (Reeves Tavern) – but I think that the #5 will a better fit for our town at the moment. Our Annual Meeting is held in our library but we generally also meet via Zoom which makes a big difference on those who can attend – so it would be hybrid. If you would let me know how I can get in touch to find out whether in fact you would like to pursue this and if in fact you are available and how much your fee would be, I would be most appreciative. I hope you have access to my name and email that I assume accompanies this email. The Museum & Historical Society # is 508-358-7959. A message could be left there telling me how I can get in touch with you or you are welcome to email me and I will follow your advice.
Many thanks, Gretchen
Dear Mr. Denton,
PermalinkI just read the part your observations while you walked the Old Boston Post Road from the Hutchinson River to the Manhattan side of the Kings Bridge ( aka Washington Bridge during 1776 ). Of course I am an Officer of the Kingsbridge Historical Society our 75th year. I am only 73. I have been researching the Bronx section for 60 years and walked, biked and lead numerous historical walks over the years. I enjoyed your observations from March 2011 and how much things have changed since my first walk in 1963. I would like to discuss St. Paul’s turn west to Bussing, the change of pavement at Mundy’s Lane & Bussing & Seton Ave. Did you notice the significance of Bussing Place, just before passing Baychester Ave ? The satellite view helps explain as well as at Barnes/Bussing/ Old White Plains Road ( where the Albany Post Road and Boston used to meet )
Thanks for the interest. I have sent you a separate email about our mutual interest.
PermalinkHi, I have had strong interest in Southern New England most of my life. Finding Your site is rekindling what was my waning passion. I am haunted by my past ! My Mom’s family has the deepest roots with a well documented Tree researched by My Grandmother Margery(b.1891) and mostly by her Sister Ruth (b.1886) a founding member of the Rhode Island Historical Society. They took passed down family history and added further records going back to first arrivals of ancestors at Plymouth, early Arabella arrivals at Salem and others in Boston. We have 7 known ancestors rightfully killed by Natives, most were Anne Hutchinson’s Family. Three signed the Rhode Island Compact at Portsmouth. And a few founded Providence. Three Women in my past died giving birth to a branch in Our tree. Again, I am haunted by my past ! I can be long winded, sorry….. Grandparent stories started my interest and then if found My Dad’s Father’s set of signed George Frances Marlow books. ‘The Old Bay Paths’ really got me going. I also own and read many of Mary Caroline Crawfords great books and all of Charles Clark Munns N.E. Stories. Oh hell I have 500 books over 100 years old, many inherited, a lot are N.E. history and I have read most.
PermalinkI want to thank You for Your huge historical collection, I may have contributions. Best Regards, Eric
Thank you for reading my humble scribbling and for reaching out. I am happy to have helped to rekindle your interest in your connection to New England but I don’t like the idea that you are haunted by it! The past, like the present, has elements of both dignity and of squalor. Marlowe’s The Old Bay Paths is sitting right in front of me on the bookshelf right above my desk as I type this reply! An oldie but a goodie!
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