Scenes from Lexington, Concord's 250th celebration: ‘This has been on my bucket list'

Boston Globe

19-04-2025

Clare and Christopher Hurley of Woburn, re-enacting civilians at Battle Green, also had a home-grown interest in the drama. Christopher portrayed Asahel Porter, an unarmed Woburn man who had been taken prisoner of the British during their march to Lexington and was shot dead 250 years ago as he tried to flee, Clare said.
Clare played Ruth Buckman, who owned nearby Buckman Tavern, which still stands adjacent to the Green. 'We had a very busy night last night, as the Minute Men were coming and going, trying to determine if the British were on the way,' Clare said, assuming Buckman's character in period costume, as she walked the Green before the reenactment began.
— Brian MacQuarrie
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'Fighting tyranny then & now'
CONCORD — Rena Hedeman was among those in the crowd here early Saturday. She brandished a sign. One side said: 'No king then, no king now.' The other: 'Fighting tyranny then & now.'
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'It's not against any particular party,' Hedeman said of the sign. 'It's against one person.'
Hedeman, a 60-year-old nutrition and health coach, has lived in Concord for 19 years. She usually comes to the Old North Bridge festivities to celebrate the freedoms that minutemen fought for 250 years ago.
Referencing President Trump without naming him, she said he is failing to uphold the Constitution.
'It's extraordinarily upsetting and worrying,' she said of the current political moment.
A cannon blast pierced the dawn as she spoke, and a man walking by asked to take a picture of her sign and thanked her for showing up. —
Danny McDonald
Meet a reenactor couple
Getting ready for the 250th anniversary of the bloody British retreat from Concord to Boston is serious business.
He arrived at the battlefield early, around 2 a.m., clad in in 18th-century gear — from linen shirts and breeches to bright scarlet coats. His wife, Valerie, was also there, dressed in a traditional gown and petticoats. Their ensembles are meticulously crafted by hand, stitch-by-stitch.
The Graves have amassed so much period clothing over the years that each has a room devoted entirely to the art of colonial dress. Dressing in late-1700s fashion is no quick task. Both Valerie and Michael spent upwards of 10 minutes layering multiple items of clothing — each serving a particular purpose.
In the 1700s, an officer and his wife would have had assistants to help them. But today, it's all on them
— Jenna Perlman
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'Do not fire until fired upon'
Tens of thousands of spectators gathered in the predawn chill around Lexington Green, some 30 deep, as clusters of reenactors portraying the Lexington militia gathered in small groups, awaiting the arrival of British troops up Massachusetts Avenue.
Bells tolled. Women and children dressed as family members of the militia. And the smell of gunpowder hung in the air as the Colonials discharged their muskets in preparation for a confrontation.
'Do not fire unless fired upon!' Stephen Cole, portraying militia Captain John Parker, barked at his men.
Then, with drums beating out a marching pace, the British troops appeared to loud boos at the east end of the Green. They quickly assembled in formation as dawn slowly brightened the cloudy skies.
'Lay down your arms!' a British officer yelled three times at the militia. And then, as the militia began to disperse, a shot rang out of unknown origin, and a fusillade of British fire, followed by bayonets, left eight Colonials dead.
Followed the fighting, after the 'dead' rose from the ground to loud applause, a reenactor portraying a Colonial minister addressed the survivors of Parker's militia.
'The lust of domination appears no longer in disguise,' the minister said. 'Will the world learn the lesson of this day,' he added, 'that tyranny will not be tolerated?'
-- Brian MacQuarrie