Mico

Today, I went letterboxing with the boys again. We were searching for remcat's two new boxes located near the Mico Kaufman statues in Tewksbury.

In our 8 years here in Tewksbury, we have driven past these statues so many times. They are really part of the scenery for us. The boys take little notice of them and I thought it would be great for them to see the statues up close before we left. My plan is to take pictures of various sights around town for a scrapbook that the boys can take into school with them when the start in the new school. It's also a book we can look at as a family when we are feeling homesick. These statues play a big part in the book, so going for the boxes at them was a twofer in our mind.

The first statue we visited was of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan.

Annie Sullivan was born in Tewksbury to a poor Irish immigrant couple. When her mother died shortly after the birth of her younger brother, Annie's father felt forced to leave the children in the Tewksbury Alm's House. Annie and her brother both had an infection that killed the brother and left Annie blind. Due to her determination, Annie was able to go to school at Perkin's School of the blind, but being from a poor background, she would have to work once she graduated and where does a partially blind woman get work? Well, teaching Helen Keller of course. The statue depicts Annie teaching Helen her first word, water.

After collecting the box, we spent some time running around on the common and playing on the bandstand. The boys loved that.

Then it was on to S. Tewksbury to find the box at the fire station. We needed a good cover because there were guys surveying for the future move of what is affectionately known in that part of town as the pimp pole, a large obtrusive eyesore of a cell tower pole that was erected less than 30 feet from this statue. It was not easy taking this picture without the pole in the middle of it and I'm sure the angle I'm shooting is not the best angle for this shot. I also tried to get the boys to stand in such a way as to look like they were hanging off the hose, but they weren't listening very well.

Our efforts to find the box were derailed when a group of three hikers walked into the area. They ended up sitting right where I was sure the box was located. I suspect they were also boxers. But I didn't know the secret handshake at that point and asking if they were boxers would sort of give it away, wouldn't it? So we left promising to come back some other time.

After giving up on the muster box, we crossed the street to check out the statues at the Methodist church. This one is called Touching Souls. The children sit with the souls of their feet touching. Each child has the clear facial features of a different ethnic background. The boys are playing duck-duck-goose in this picture.


We had a great time and checked off the list one item we had wanted to complete all summer; get pictures of Tewksbury landmarks that we want to remember.