This time we had a full group of about 15. Most of them seemed pretty enthusiastic although there was one guy who must have been along for the ride, because he didn’t seem to be into it while the woman with him asked me a lot of questions. Probably the most unusual thing about this tour happened when I brought the group by the Julia Ward Howe and Samuel Gridley Howe home on Chestnut Street. After describing how Julia was inspired to write new words to the tune of “John Brown’s Body”, and how the new lyrics became tremendously popular, a woman on the tour asked if I could sing it for her, and then a bunch of the other women on the tour chimed in too. So I went ahead and sang the first verse. I got a round of applause, hopefully not for comedic value and/or pity.
-Geoff