Boston Bits ~ Insiders’ Tips -- our monthly journal of things Bostonian, to give Boston Your Way site visitors a sense of our city.

March 17 -- the biggest day of the year on Boston’s calendar
It is St. Patrick’s Day! No, it is Evacuation Day! Actually, it is both.

In Boston, everyone is Irish on March 17– the wearin’ o’ the green, the parade, and all that – so there is no need to explain St. Patrick’s Day. But Evacuation Day? What is that? It is a local holiday, marking the day in 1776 the patriots drove the British out of Boston. The story is exciting, but little known, even among Bostonians.

After the Battle of Lexington and Concord in April, 1775, the victorious militia chased the British troops backed to Boston and trapped them and their loyalists in the town. The Siege of Boston had begun. In early 1776, a young Boston bookseller, Henry Knox, had an idea for driving them out. With General George Washington’s approval, he led a team of men to Fort Ticonderoga, N.Y., and captured over 50 cannons.

They brought them hundreds of miles over brutal winter terrain to the outskirts of Boston, and under cover of darkness in early March, soldiers hauled the cannons up to the top of Dorchester Heights, the highest point outside the town, and hid them behind swiftly built fortifications.

Finally, one morning they uncovered the cannons, and the British awoke to find the battery facing down on them. They got the message – they could never beat the patriots. General Howe ordered the “redcoats” to evacuate. On March 17, General Washington and his victorious troops opened the gate to the town, and to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy, marched to the town center and officially and liberated Boston.

Insider’s Tip
David McCullough’s book, 1776, eloquently tells the story of the Siege of Boston, Henry Knox and the cannons on Dorchester Heights, and of, course, the Evacuation.

You can tell it is spring
The branches on the weeping willows around the lagoon in the Boston Public Garden are covered in their springtime golden coating. When the sun strikes them, they are stunning.

Potholes are opening up on local streets – another sign of spring.

A city of firsts
Boston had the first…

College – Harvard in 1636
Public Library – 1854
Park – the Common in 1634
Subway – Park Street in 1897
Bank – Provident Institute for Savings in 1687
Use of Anesthesia – at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1846
Christmas card – sent in 1867

There are many many firsts here in Boston. Those are just a few of my favorites.

Passing of Boston institutions…
The Atlantic Monthly
Boston has had to face the departure of another locally based nationally prestigious literary institution. The 147-year-old Atlantic Monthly has been moved by its out-of-town owners to Washington D.C. Created by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathanial Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes and other prominent Boston men of letters, it sought to articulate the emerging American outlook in literature and public affairs coming out of Boston at that time and which made the city “The Athens of America.” It is a painful loss for Boston. It follows the move to New York of Little, Brown and Co. Read more about the history of the magazine at http://www.theatlantic.com/about/atlhistf.htm

Confidential Chat
Less august but no less Bostonian was Confidential Chat. But it, too, has left us. The Boston Globe had published the feature for many years as a kind of hard-copy chat room for readers seeking to swap recipes, patterns and other “home ec” advice or sometimes help with sensitive personal issues, such as childrearing, the loss of a job, or living with an unemployed or retired husband.

Chat shrank as the Internet grew, and the Globe finally killed it off as part of its remake to appeal to a younger audience.

Your shoveled-out parking spot
Most Bostonian tradition of all – the shoveled-out parking space, claimed by its “owner” with wondrous personal affects: chairs, trashcans, pilfered traffic cones, old toilets – too, is disappearing. We’ve had an unwritten law in Boston that when New England dumps a foot or two of snow on your car, you get to reserve indefinitely the space you’ve shoveled out. Two years ago, Mayor Menino began to “suggest” residents be more neighborly and remove the barriers after a few days. Sure. This winter, he put his foot down, warning car owners they could hold their space for two days but “then you got to clear out your chairs, your boxes, your air conditioners, whatever. Or the City will remove them.” And after our last storm, that is just what it did.

Keeping it local – coffee
When you want a cup of coffee, we can understand that you may prefer the familiarity of a national chain. But why not make the most of your visit to Boston and try someplace local and special? Here are two of our favorites:

The Garden of Eden
571 Tremont Street, on the South End’s Restaurant Row. Owned by the Lionette family, it has been a welcome stop longer than the neighborhood has been hip. Great pastries and desserts. Also casual lunches and dinners. Sunday brunch. If you are lucky, you may get a sidewalk table and watch the ongoing parade of the aforementioned hip -- and their dogs.

Caffe Graffiti
In the North End, at 307 Hanover Street, that neighborhood’s Restaurant Row. Definitely on the tourist beat, but overlooked in favor of two places across the street, Caffe Graffiti is the place for locals. Very relaxed. Wonderful cappuccino. Yummy cannoli.

Insider’s Tip
Beware: Tremont Street is long and makes several right-angle turns as it snakes its way through the city. If you are at Tremont Street by the Common, you are not near the Garden of Eden. The South End section of Tremont Street is essentially a half-mile behind Copley Square. Walk away from Copley down Clarendon Street or Dartmouth Street until you get to the end. That’s Tremont. GOE is between the two.

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