Recently, I finished writing a three-volume project that tells the story of the experiences of the people in New England and surrounding areas to its north and south as they made their way west, out of the relatively infertile land of north America’s east coast toward the more fertile center of the continent. I’ve called this book project The Yankee Road . This last word, “road”, is intended to have two intertwined meanings; one literal – the paths out of New England to the west, and one hypothetical – the spread of a dominant culture, good points and bad, that these people took with them.
To narrow the story, already large at 3 volumes, I tried to keep the starting points of each chapter to a geographic strip that was within 50 miles from a particular highway, US20, which I chose because it crosses the northern part of the country, from downtown Boston to the much smaller Newport, Oregon. The third volume will be published this year.
Some pieces found on this blogsite are abstracted from these volumes while others are produced in reaction to current events. There is no consistent order to them and only limited connection to The Yankee Road. I hope they are interesting and, at times, fun. I look forward to sharing with you.
I think I’ll start off with something on baseball….
Jim McNiven, Halifax Nova Scotia.
Old Professor by the Sea 