Yesterday was an entertainment industry award show. It was the Tony Awards for outstanding performances on Broadway. At least I think it was. Like many Americans, I don’t watch awards shows.
In 1974, when the US population was 213 million, about 10% of them watched the Tony Awards. It was actually 20.03M, or 9.4%. I’m told that in television numbers, that is a big deal.
The year’s Tony Awards were watched by 6.3M people. Down a lot from 45 years ago. The numbers look even worse when you consider that the US population today is 327M. That means that in 45 years the veiwers dropped from 9.4% to 1.9%. There are lots of reasons why. We have more ways to get the news. We don’t have to watch the show to know who wins, for example.
This trend is not unique to the Tony’s. All awards shows, and television in general have lost viewers.
Donald Trump’s popularity currently stands at 41.7%, according to poll tracking site, fivethirtyeight.com. That’s really close to where Ronald Reagan and Barrack Obama were at this point in their presidencies. Actually, that’s not saying much. Because Reagan and Obama both took over failing economies, a year and a half in, neither had seen their policies start to turn the economy around. Trump on the other hand inherited a strong economy.
But, that’s not the point of this post. The point is that more than 40% of the American public approve of Donald Trump’s job as president. We all know he’s never been above 50%, not even on election night when he only garnered 46%, losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton who also didn’t garner 50% of the popular vote, but beat Trump by earning 48%.
But, that’s also not the point of this post.
The point is that 134,700,000 Americans give the president a thumbs up on his job performance.
It’s typically not a good idea to criticize your employer. “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you,” comes to mind. I enjoy my job and I receive the accolades that my company offers those who do a good job. But, I have no doubt that were I to bad mouth them, or worse, if I were to insult our clients and customers, the people who pay us, I would be quickly given the opportunity to go be successful SOMEWHERE ELSE.
Robert De Niro spoke at the Tony Awards on Sunday night. In fact, the only reason I know the Tony Awards were on is the news coverage that Mr De Niro caused. I don’t know if he was hosting or just a presenter. Like I said, I, along with the vast majority of the public, don’t watch the awards shows.
De Niro departed from whatever prepared remarks he may have had to go on an expletive-laced tirade against the president. The show was broadcast live and the censors had a time keeping up with where to insert the *bleeps*.
A friend suggested that De Niro was brave for using his influence. She’s a good friend, but I think she’s wrong. No one watching the Tonys came away thinking, “I was okay with Trump until I heard that Bob De Niro didn’t like him. I’m out.”
And De Niro has made no secret of his desire to “punch the president in the face.” Okay, we get it. You don’t like him.
Here’s my issue with De Niro. If you are in an industry that relies on the public to pay you, why would you essentially alienate 40% of your audience? No one is going to quit watching the Tonys because of what De Niro said. In fact, he got a standing ovation from the glitterati in attendance. Sure, he was playing to his crowd.
But, you certainly are not going to build audience that way. De Niro is primarily known as a movie actor. The YTD domestic box office receipts for movies in 2018 are about $5.2B. It’s about on par with previous years. But, take out the three super hero movies (Black Panther, Infinity War and Deadpool 2) and that numbers drops to $3.6B. It’s not been a particularly good year when you consider the depth of the field. A few stars and a lot of less popular fare.
Whether you are part of the 40% that thinks President Trump is doing a good job, or the nearly 60% that thinks he isn’t, if you business depends on earning $5,000,000,000 by selling tickets at $9 each, you should be interested in attracting, or at least not driving away your audience.
So, to Mr De Niro, or Meryl Streep, or Hollywood’s talking-head du jour, we are your employer.
Shut up and sing already.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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Two bucket list items in one week!
Huh?
Visiting Route 66. It’s on my bucket list.
You have a bucket list? How did I not know this?
If I was having that conversation with a coworker, it might understandable. Even a friend, I think I might be forgiven for not knowing. Unfortunately this conversation was during the drive back from Wilson Arizona to the Grand Canyon and the person telling me was my lovely wife.
It’s not like we are newlyweds, just getting to know one another. Nope. My lovely wife has put up with me for over 30 years. In all that time I didn’t realize she has a bucket list.
Are there other things on your bucket list?
Oh sure, lots.
It was like meeting a total stranger. We’ve lived less than 500 miles from the Grand Canyon for years and it was on my lovely wife’s list of the things she wanted to see before she died? I didn’t know whether to be grateful she’d finally got to see it, or appalled that me, her husband not only did make it happen, but didn’t know.
What else don’t I know? I’m pretty sure we have 13 kids. I know all their names and everything.
Six grandbabies still, right? I didn’t miss one?
She’s actually happy in our house, right? Is blue even her favorite color?
What about you?
What do you mean?
Do you have a bucket list?
Ah. . .yeah. . .I guess. . .
So, what’s on it?
Well. . .visit all 30 baseball stadiums
That’s it?
. . .So, pretty cool driving down Route 66, don’t you think?
She knows me much better than I know her.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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Vacations are great. I took one over the weekend to the Grand Canyon. (I’m still not ready to write about it. It was beyond my ability to describe. But, I’m working on it.)
I got back on Wednesday. I’d arrange for backups to cover while I was out. Sure enough we have two outages that my backups had to cover.
170/218
That was the number of unread and total messages I had waiting in my inbox. It wasn’t too bad, actually. But, most of them required some amount of attention.
Rodney, we are still waiting on the list of network hardware for your client sites. Please send it as quickly as possible.
– Signed Client
It was almost the first thing my boss asked me after “Welcome back.”
Are you going to get that report to them? It’s been almost three weeks.
Yeah, but we had a meeting on Thursday right before I left. I had all our network architects on it. We answered all their questions.
Apparently not all of them.
Yeah, I’ll get it done.
There’s an old joke about a guy who went to the afterlife and was offered his choice of which level of hell he wanted. Room #1 was sweltering hot and the people there had to work constantly shoveling coal into a huge blast furnace that kept hell heated. It was brutal work with massive shovels.
Room 2 was a full of people pushing huge heavy turnstiles that were connected to fans that spread the heat around. The people had worn grooves in the stone floor they were walking so long.
Room 3 was a massive cesspool. The people here were standing wastedeep in raw sewage.
“I guess I’ll take this one,” the newest sinner offered.
“Are you absolutely sure? You cannot later change.”
“Yes, I’ll accept this as my eternal punishment. It’s smelly, but otherwise doesn’t seem too bad.”
He waded in and joined the other victims. Just then a voice range out, “Okay, break’s over. Everyone back on your heads”
Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy my job. I didn’t actually miss it while I was gone. I was out of cell phone range and there was little I could have done about it anyway. But, the thing about coming back from vacation is that stuff builds up. You have a massive pile waiting for.
Fortunately, I only have 90 more messages until I’ve drained the room.
Okay, maybe less metaphors tomorrow.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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I took a trip last week. . .It was . . .picturesque.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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As I turned my phone on, it gave a familiar ping letting me know that I had missed a call. Not surprising after four days. I’m generally not without my phone for four hours, let alone that many days. If it hadn’t been for a short side trip to Wilson, AZ, it would be another day before I realized I’d missed that call.
I’ve taken my phone camping countless times. I’ve hiked with it to the top of Mt Timpanogos, at about 12,000 feet. I’ve anxiously played hide and seek with cell phone coverage as I’ve driven through Southern Utah on my way to Zions National Park, or Gobblin Valley. My team is used to being able to contact me on a moment’s notice, 24 hours per day, seven days a week. In fact, my availability is such an integral and expected part of our business processes, that unless I’ve made other arrangements, there is literally no other option. They just keep calling me until I pick up the phone.
But, for the past four days, it’s been off. Not dead. It has a full charge. But, it’s been turned off in my bag. And I haven’t missed it a bit. My lovely wife is a little worried about me.
Are you anxious with being out of touch without your phone?
Not really.
Considering I had just snapped at one of the kids for punching his brother, she wasn’t entirely convinced.
But, it was true. For the last four days, my family has been on a vaction to the South rim of the Grand Canyon. We live in Pleasant Grove, UT a short 6 hour drive from the North rim and an 8 hour drive from the South rim. But, in the many years we’ve lived in Utah, we’ve never visited this natural wonder, until now.
As regular readers know, I go camping a lot. Like 11 months out of the year. We take the scouts out into Utah’s great wilderness locations. We’ve been doing it for years and every year we go to the same places at the same time. January is the Klondike Derby in American Fork Canyon (no cell service.) May, for example, is a 12 mile overnight backpacking trip in the mountains above our little town (spotty cell service, but possible.) April was Maple Canyon in Central Utah (great cell service except when hiking the slot canyon.)
Most times I set the following expectation with my team and with a designated backup,
Try calling me first. If I don’t pick up, call the backup.
But, there are times where I simply say, “I’m not available.” Sometimes, it’s even when there is cell service. I just don’t want to try to juggle potential system outages with whatever it is I’m doing. For example, during my daughter’s wedding or my uncle’s funeral. No, don’t call me, I won’t pick up the phone.
This trip was one of those times. I didn’t know if there would be cell service or not. Turns out not. There are a couple of locations in the park where certain carriers got a couple of bars. But, most of Grand Canyon National Park including Mather campground where we are staying, is a cell phone free zone.
We all wonder how we would behave in a stressful situation. If there were a fire would I be one of those who would panic in a scramble for the exit? Would I be one of the selfless ones to stay calm and make sure others are safe first? If I part of a group attacked by a bear in the wilderness, would I be like the person putting on his running shoes?
What are you doing that for? You can’t out run a bear.
I don’t have to out run the bear. I just have to out run you
Or would I act to attempt to save others?
I think we all are the hero of the stories we tell ourselves. We, of course, would be the brave one, the selfless one. We would sacrifice our own food so the widows and orphans could eat.
But, until we’ve been in a situation, we really cannot say. I use my phone a lot. I have an external battery because it’s not uncommon for me to run through two full charges in a day. I have four different headsets for my phone, two Bluetooth and two wired.
And yet, it’s a work requirement. How would I react if I had to give it up for a day? A week? Would I suffer wildrawls? Once I got reception again, would I scramble to catch up on days of missed calls and Facebook status?
No. No, I wouldn’t.
We get back home tomorrow. I’ll need to remember to check on that missed call.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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Slowly he (I assumed it was a he) climbed over the dirt ridge. At the top, almost he fell backwards. At the last moment a puff of wind sent him fluttering down the far side. It was obvious he couldn’t fly anymore, but valiently he struggled on. Intent on some goal that I could only imagine.
Yesterday morning I found myself sitting at a concrete picnic table staring at the ground. For nearly an hour I simply sat and observed. After about ten minutes I was able to pick out the raven tracks from the jumble of impressions in the tan colored dirt that covered our campsite.
Years of camping had trained my children well. The ravens had come while we slept to scour the area for anything edible, or shiny. Our campsite, in the early morning was a collection of campchairs and not much else. Maybe I should move to a camp chair. . .No, the table is fine.
I heard the buzzing of a bee fly past on its way to wherever bees needed to be in the morning. I didn’t need to be anywhere.
The sun was casting oversized shadows across the ridges and valleys that were the leftover footprints of my nine children that had come with us on this family vacation. The tiny footprints were from my grandchildren.
The traveller I’d noted earlier once again set off across a the distinctive criss cross pattern that was from my daughter’s flip flops. He beat his wings, casting a shadow three times his size as the sun continued casting spotlights through the branches of the juniper and pondarosa pines.
I considered where he might be trying to get to. Was he injured, or just old? Was he suffering?
I thought about that last question for a long time. If he was injured, and that was the reason he wasn’t flying, should I help him? Could I help him? I didn’t even know where he was going. How could I help him get there? Should I put him out of his misery?
In Disney films, any animal that talks, is not food. Rewatch The Lion King. Timone and Pumba eat grubs, but the grubs don’t talk. They don’t have faces, we never get to know them.
Now think of the movie the Fox and the Hound. There’s a worm that two of the characters who are birds constantly attempt to catch and eat. But, the inch worm has a face. We see his fear at being eaten. we see him escape time after time. We root for him to survive. He never gets eaten.
I had come to care about this insect. Something I would swat at without thinking if it were to land on my arm, was now important to me. If he was hurt and suffering would it be more humane to simple end his suffering? But, what if he knew he was dying. Suppose, he’d lived a long life and after surviving being eaten by a bird, or swatted by a human, this was his final journey. He was devoting the last of his life to achieve the goal of. . .what? Crossing the bootprint?
Who was I to say? Was it even right for me to think about “saving” him? What made me the arbiter of when his life should end?
I’m an early riser. Yesterday was no exception. I got up and walked the quarter mile down to the showers at Mather Campground inside Grand Canyon National Park. Now I was back in my campsite. But, I had nothing to keep me occupied. I had no cell service. (My phone has been turned off since we got here last Thursday.) I don’t have a book, or even a piece of paper to read.
I was forced to simply sit. Sit and think and observe. I saw a sparrow fly by and then another bird with blue feathers. A chickidee? Now, why would I assume that it was that bird? Maybe I should Google chickidee. . .oh that’s right. No cell service. It’s a pretty bird, in any case.
I sat there for about an hour. I listened to the campground, and the forest wake up. I watched the sun continue to shorten the shadows as it climbed into the Arizona sky. And I observed. An ant. A squirrel. The birds.
And one brave little insect playing out the end of his existance struggling across yesterday’s footprints.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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I’m not here today. I’m not available on email. I won’t answer my phone, so don’t try. In fact, by the time this posts at 7:00am Mountain Time, I hope to be somewhere south of Provo headed for Arizona. We are taking a family vacation to the Grand Canyon.
I travel a fair bit for work. I also, as many of you know, go camping with the boy scouts just about every month. Most times I take my phone with me. It’s the curse of being oncall.
I work with two different oncall groups. The first is my client. Every week they switch to a new oncall person. I have to remember who to call if we have an issue. They tried creating a single phone number to make it easier on me and their other suppliers. The number didn’t always get answered. So, they switched back to a named backup.
There is someone backing me up today. If my call center catches on fire, the client will call my backup. And they’ll fix it.
Most times, I tell my teams to “call me first. If I don’t answer, then call the backup.” Not today. Today, any problems go straight to the backup person. first.
It’s hard for me to let go. I don’t think I’m a controling personality. Maybe I am and just don’t recognize it in myself. I’ve had managers who insisted they weren’t micromanagers. Sadly they were not particularly self-aware.
I think part of my issue is that I enjoy my job. . .a lot. And I’m pretty good at it most of the time. And my backups are not IT people. They are business people. They may be smarter than me, but they cannot do IT work better than me. It’s difficult, I think for me to place our center into the hands of someone else. If something goes wrong, the most important thing is to get up and running as quickly as possible. It’s my most important job and it’s absolutely the reason we have to have a backup for me.
The other worry about letting go, even for a long weekend, is what if I really don’t like my job as much as I think I do? Suppose, it’s simply the constantness of it that keeps me from seeing the truth? That I want to run off and join the circus.
Or, maybe it’s just time for a vacation.
That’s probably it.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2018 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Yesterday was a day I’d been envisioning for nearly 18 years. Not exactly, 18, but pretty close.
It was graduation day. . .times three.
These are my three most recent high school graduates.
I don’t put pictures of my chidren online. I figure they get to tell their own stories. I get to tell my stories. Today, these three go from children I feel the need to protect, to adults that can make their own choices.
This is Isaac, Sabine and Ammon. That’s my lovely wife, and of course, me. It’s probably obvious that these kids were adopted. They have a brother who is also 18 years old. He’s 6’5″ and white. He decided to graduate a year early or we would be celebrating the class of 2018 times four.
The kids came to us at various ages. One was five when they joined our family. Another was three days. The third was 2 years old. And of course, our birth son was zero when he joined our family.
Throughout the years we’ve watched these four children grow into four adults. Each has a unique personality and interestingly, each has their own set of friends. Pleasant Grove High School is a 6A school. The graduating class was about 600 students. My kids each move in different circles.
This is the end of “raising” them. They will quickly move off in separate directions. Some to missions for the Mormon church, some to university, some to working.
There are still several kids at home. But, we are definitely closer to the end than the beginning. I’m incredibly proud of each of them. They are good people. In some ways it’s been difficult as a writer to censor myself. I’ve slipped up a few times over the years and written them into stories, but overall, we feel strongly as a family in the right to privacy.
Even at school, my kids typically direct people with questions about a sibling to go talk to that sibling. People get to tell their own stories.
In fact, if you look at my signature block, for example, you’ll find no identifiable information. Yes, I have thirteen children. And I have some grandkids. How many? Well, that’s more information than I’m willing to share.
Congratulations to all the 2018 graduates, but to these three especially.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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The governor announced it. . .on Facebook, of course.
Today, I have the privilege to announce that Facebook will construct a 970,000 square foot state-of-the-art data center on nearly 500 acres in Eagle Mountain.
Almost immediately, the complaints started. The complaints spanned a gamut of issues.
– It’s going to increase traffic
– It’s only going to employee 30-40 full time people
– It’s going to use our water
– It’s going to pollute our air
– They got $150 Million in unfair tax incentives over 20 years
I love my adopted state, but sometimes our citizens can be somewhat NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard.) They are failing to understand that this new building will be almost universally beneficial for Utah.
Here are the details according to the governor’s Facebook post.
– Capital expenditure will exceed $750 million
– Infrastructure development will exceed $100 million
– Will increase the property tax generated by 1.2 million percent in excess of any incentives
– Property taxes on the land will increase from $50 of annual tax revenue to $500,000 for our schools
– Will bring power, water, data, sewer and roads to an area well-off the I-15 corridor that previously had little or no other opportunities for development
Having this datacenter in Utah will be all kinds of good. And given the right deal, other communities would do well to lure these type of projects. Here’s why.
Traffic
I find it funny that some of the same people complaining about the low number of permanent jobs, want to also complain about the increased traffic on I-15, our major North-South freeway in Utah.
Of course construction will increase traffic, but once the datacenter is up and running, it doesn’t seem like 30-40 fulltime employees are going to make much difference on a freeway that carries thousands every day. Maybe we can incentivize the employees to carpool and get it down to only 15-20 additional vehicles on the road.
ONLY 30-40 Fulltime employees
I’ve never understood the complaint that a program will only bring a few dozen jobs to an area. Would the area be better off without those fulltime jobs? Sure, maybe you think the other costs are too high, and I’ll talk about those in a minute, but the argument that only a few dozen people are going to get fulltime work makes no sense.
Datacenter technicians make $50,000-$80,000 per year. Managers make $80,000-$120,000. Those people are going to buy houses and cars. They are going to shop in our stores. They are going to spend money at Jazz basketball games and Real Salt Lake soccer games.
Facebook assumes they will most likely hire more than 30-40, and as they expand the site, they will, of course hire more employees as well.
Water and Power
In the desert, water is life. Water concerns permeate all aspects of our lives here in the high desert. Much of the infrastructure improvements Facebook will make will be to get water and power to their site.
Datacenters take a lot of power and a depending on the design, a lot of water. Once a datacenter is completed, power is typically its single biggest expense. As a result, datacenter architects spend a lot of time thinking about power.
A few years ago I toured the eBay datacenter in Salt Lake City. The work they were doing to reduce power were everything from cutting edge, to kind of quirky. For example, eBay used water to cool some of their server racks. They then piped that hot water underneath their sidewalks to keep them clear of snow in the winters. The most innovative design I saw was that all the server racks were white. The guide explained that the white ones cost the same as the more common black ones. But, by making his server racks white, he could reduce his lighting by 30% and thus save additional energy.
Datacenters use a lot of power and water, that’s true. But, they are also amont the most innovative and “green” buildings I’ve ever seen.
Those $150 million Tax incentives
But, everything comes at a cost, right? Sure, the city of Eagle Mountain and the Alpine School District get some advantages, but it comes at a cost.
Critics will ask, “Why should Facebook get an unfair tax advantage? Why shouldn’t they have to pay their fair share?”
This is often the argument whenever a state or community offer tax incentives to try to lure business. Isn’t it costing the citizens of Utah $150M to put that datacenter there?
No, it’s not. In fact, it’s not costing the citizens anything.
Think about it. That 500 acres plot of ground is sitting empty right now. And, trust me, there’s not a big push from business to want to develop it. In fact, the land is currently generating $66 per year in tax revenue. That’s for the entire 500 acres. It’s a desert.
Now, we let Facebook come in and build a million square foot building and all of a sudden we are getting $500,000-$800,000 in tax revenue. So what if they could have gotten more in taxes without a tax break. If they hadn’t offered the tax break and Facebook decided to go somewhere else, we are not even getting $500K. We are getting $66. Getting lower taxes means we are still getting more than the current tax bill.
And it’s not like Facebook is coming in and taking business away from a local company. If Eagle Mountain offered WalMart a tax incentive to build a store, you could rightly complain that WalMart’s success is coming at the expense of existing local businesses that are not getting the same tax benefits. That’s not the case with a Facebook datacenter.
Utah is a great place for datacenters. Our dry air is ideal for cooling computers without requiring expesive dehumidifier processes. Facebook said this is just Phase 1. They intend to expand the datacenter in the coming decades. That means they are going to build for expansion. Construction is going to pour millions into the local economy. When they finish, there will be dozens of high paying good jobs. The datacenter will take power and water. But, given the payoff, it’s well worth it.
We just got a new Facebook datacenter. Your community should try to get yourselves one too.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2018 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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It doesn’t happen as much with automotive repairs, but it’s pretty common with construction. At least DIY construction. You buy a 4×8 sheet of plywood. You use it for a 3×6 cabinet back. But, you keep the left over pieces. Later you cut the 2×4′ piece down to 18″x36″ for a shelf. Later still you use the smaller piece as backing for a minor repair.
And that’s just the first use. Your cabinet may get recycled into parts for a dresser. You shelf might be made into a wall hanging. The point is that you reuse pieces over and over.
Today marks the 1378th blog entry on www.staging.rodneymbliss.com. It’s not a significant number, as far as I know. I’ve been doing this for about five years, so I’m sure the math works out. And other than the last week of the year when I repost the most popular posts from the previous 12 months, I’ve never reused content.
I don’t say that as a brag. (Too late, I can hear you saying.) It’s just that I don’t really know how, or when to reuse content. And I’ve always got new stuff to say.
Yesterday was Memorial day here in the United States. We set aside the day to remember service men and women who have passed away. It doesn’t matter if they died in battle, or year later. Memorial day is a day to honor them.
My sons are working on the Communications merit badge and they needed to do a Scout program. They decided to hold a Memorial Day program and they asked me to be one of the speakers. And unlike the items I post her everyday, I decided to reuse content. I’d written a speech for Toastmasters several years ago. It’s a first person telling of my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather Captain Abdail Bliss. He was at the battles of Lexington and Concord. He was later at the battle of Bunker Hill and served in the Massachusetts militia. He was one of the original Minute Men.
Here’s my version of the day he was born.
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My name is Abdiel. I want to tell you about the day I was born. I don’t mean the 15th day of December, year of our Lord seventeen hundred and forty, although that was the date of my birth. I want to tell you about a day much later. Year of our Lord seventeen hundred and seventy five. It was the Springtime. I remember it was Spring because I’m a farmer. And I migh have remained just that, a farmer from Rehoboth with my wife Lydia and our six children, in the colony of Massachusetts, if it weren’t for the events of the nineteen day of April.
They said we were in a state of rebellion. And I gues that’s true. General Gage and the regulars controlled Boston. The Massachusetts Provincial Congress controlled the rest of the colony. Our spies told us that the soldiers were going to make a scout to capture our arms at Concord. Funny, that. That this all started over a failed raid. Because, you see, we had moved the arms from Concord weeks before. There were a few left, but not many.
The night of th eighteenth I travelled North to Lexington to join up with the militia there. For the road from Boston to Concrod must run through Lexington. We gathered in Buckman’s tavern. Paul Revere was there. As was William Dawes. They brought word the regulars were on the move. We weren’t sure if they’d push through or if they might have turned back. We sent out scouts. Just before dawn the last of teh scouts came back at a gallop.
They were coming. And they were coming in force.
Captain John Parker was in command. He was stricken with the tuburculoses. It made him hard to hear. As he formed us up he said, “Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon. But, if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”
Eighty of us formed up on teh West side of the square. The thing you need to understand is that we didn’t go there to fight. Many of us hadn’t even brought guns. We didn’t block the road. Like so many times before, we were there to observe. . .and to be observed.
Just as the sun was coming up the first of the soldiers entered the square. One company went to the left, one to the right to take up flanking positions. Still, we didn’t see them as the enemy. We were ENGLISH! That the English government would send English soldiers to point guns at English citizens was INTOLLERABLE.
An officer on a horse came out and addressed us.
“Lay down your arms, you damn rebels!”
We held our ground. I guess you know what happened. They say it was the shot heard round the world. Still there’s debate over who fired that first shot. The regulars on the far side of the square fired a volley. I was standing next to Ebenezer Munroe. “I think they are trying nothing but powder,” he suggested.
They reloaded and fired a second volley. Ebenezer turned to me with blood running down his arm, “Now, I’ll give them the guts of my gun.”
The square filled with smoke. We could only see the heads of the horses. We both fired.
They came out of the smoke with bayonets fixed and run us through. We retreated. We left eight dead and carried away ten wounded. We retreated to Concord were other militia were gathering.
The column arrived in Concord shortly before noon. We retreated across the North Bridge to the high ground. The soldiers took control of the bridge. Militia continued to join us. When we were about 500 strong, Major Jon Buttrick led us in an advance on the bridge.
There was doubt in Lexington. There was none here. They fired on us and we lost two men immediately. The major led us with the cry of, “Fire, fellow sodliers. For God’s sake, fire!”
We drove them from the bridge. This shocked us. Us, farmers, tradesmen, coopers had driven the soldiers from the world’s greatest army from the field. Around noon, the column started the march back to Boston. It’s seventeen miles from Concord to Boston. As they reached Merriem’s Corner, the Reading militia caught their rear guard. The battle was joined. We drove the column before us. It turned into a rout. They ran. Finally, at Lexington, they met up with a relief column and continued their retreat under the added protection of the fresh troops.
As I walked onto the Lexington square for the second time that day, I realized that something had died. We were no longer English. We truly were rebels now. But, with death came a new birth. That was the day that I, that was the day that we all were born as Americans.
Captain Abdail Bliss survived the war and moved to Vermont where he founded the city of Calais. He died in 1806 in the country that he helped form.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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