Posted by
Mike on Monday, December 11, 2006 9:15:41 PM
Over a decade ago, I had the good fortune to study for a year at a
small college and seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut about halfway
between Hartford and New Haven. Cromwell was formerly known as
the Commons, and there is a grassy area in the town that I believe to
be still common ground. I had been out that way the previous
summer with my parents. We stayed in a hotel in Boston and I
happened to be walking past Boston Commons at the same time Senator
Kennedy was finishing a particular oration there. I walked past
Senator Kerry and then greeted Senator Kennedy near where he had given
the speech.
The college in Cromwell is unique in several
respects. A large mansion once stood atop a hill and was a
residence for seminarians before it burned down. Now, there is a
brick dormitory where it once stood so majestically. The
octagonal shaped refectory was once an asylum several storeys
high. Across the street from the refectory are several New
England style houses, including one in which the actor Spencer Tracy
used to come to dry out, I understand, when he was not out sailing with
Katherine Hepburn. There is also a story that he had been rescued
in an old abandoned barn. I did not know it at the time, but his
paternal grandmother's family had settled in the same Midwestern
predominantly Irish farming community as my father's ancestors.
While
in attendance there, I once wrote an essay about someone who got
stranded in a boat on the way to China. Little did I know then
that I would actually be on a boat adrift off the Pacific coast several
years later. I used to go into town once in a while and noticed a
pretty red haired young lady on several occasions outside one of the
bank offices. I can imagine what they were like in colonial times
given the colonial architecture of the town. I declined to go on
a trip to New York City to view the Twin Towers, but did go on a trip
in the Fall through the Berkshires where I understand the actress
Gwyneth Paltrow spent some of her early years, and on through New
Hampshire. On another occasion in the Spring, some of us traveled
to Stockbridge, Massachusetts where the painter Norman Rockwell lived,
and where there is a beautiful Polish style monastery which every year
celebrates the Feast of Divine Mercy.
I had some personal
business of which to take care and occasionally drove across
Massachusetts to Boston. I like the old churches in Boston,
especially one on the North Side. Some of my mother's ancestors
of the Murphy clan had settled in the Boston and Fall River areas, the
first recorded being a wedding in 1836 I believe. Most of them
settled in the Midwest including one female descendant, whose mother is thought to have been a distant
cousin of Ireland's Daniel O'Connell, who
married an Indiana judge. Their son became a JAG officer and was
married to a Washington D.C. socialite by Bishop Sheen before he became
a bishop. The officer had argued at least one case before the
U.S. Supreme Court after the marriage.
On one occasion during the winter I drove south to New Haven and then to the picturesque
seaport of Mystic where
I stopped to have lunch. On the way back I could not help
thinking of G.K. Chesterton's visits to Connecticut. I got caught
in somewhat of a snowstorm but arrived back safely.
I had
planned to stay over the Christmas break. However, most of my
friends went home to family so I arranged for a flight back to Los
Angeles. I wanted to fly out of Hartford, but the tickets were
for Logan Airport in Boston. I spent some time with family.
When I arrived back, I could not start my car in the parking lot at
Logan. I got the battery recharged, but on the way back, it again
stalled in Salem, Massachusetts, the site of the Salem witch trials
where I got a new battery.
That winter, I also assisted in
teaching religious education to a second grade class across the bridge
in Glastonbury, Connecticut. The director of the program was
known to be strict, sort of like a school mistress.
The seminary
is mostly for "second career" vocations. They tend to be a bit
older than most students but really great guys, and there are some great
sisters too.