Bennington Banner from Bennington, Vermont • Page 5

Bennington Banner, Saturday, April 26, 1975 The original battle of Concord is portrayed in a painting by St. John Honeywood. pictured is the Old North Bridge i a contingent of British Regulars to the right Robinson and Major Buttricfe to the left. Three British and two Minutemen died in the battle, an American victory of sorts, though the British did burn some of the town. The painting is on display in the Bennington Museum's military gallery.

The 19th of April, 1975 CONCORD, Mass. It will probably never be known how many people came to town April 19 to celebrate the skirmish between British Regulars and Minutemen. Police estimated 110,000 but the crowds seemed to belie all estimates. Suffice it to say that this town of 17,000 had just about as many visitors as it could handle and just about as many as you would ever want to see. Concord drips history.

cannot walk through town without stumbling over traces of Emerson, Hawthorne, Alcott and Thoreau and "the shot heard 'round the world." Last weekend more history was made in celebration of history, and while many Con cordites expected the worst they clearly did not see it. There were a few overdoses, several hundred cars 'were towed off the parade town, was "strewn with vast quantities 'of trash; and it rained: But that was mild 'compared to 100 years ago when hungry mobs stormed hotels and people were stranded in town for days. To many, though, the outlook was ominous on Friday the 18th. Having painted their stores and hung their flags, merchants talked of boarding their windows against the crowds and sleeping the night in their stores. What really worried this most American of American communities was not the hordes ejected to arrive in celebration of the bicentennial, but the thousands of "youth" expected to appear to protest it.

With permission from the National Park Service, which runs the Minuteman National Historic Park, for a midnight to 5 a.m. rally April 19, People's Bicentennial Commission (PBC) leader Jeremy Rifkin promised a demonstration that would rival those staged during the height of the anti-war movement. The point, however, was not to get the United States out of Vietnam but to get Wall Street out of the United States. Though the permit allowed for only 25,000 protesters, closer to 40,000 were expected to "send a message to Wall Street." And with a Presidential visit planned for the I9th, the situation had all the makings of big trouble. The battle Friday could be seen shaping up in graphic terms.

Up, on one side of the Old North Bridge, which spans Folk singer Pete Seeger the Concord River, went television cameras, press platforms and the presidential podium. Up, on the other side of the bridge, went the stage for the PBC rally. By Friday evening thousands of PBC people, armed with sleeping bag sand wine bottles, streamed past the fine houses along Monument Street toward the park. The town was dosed to vehicular traffic by 11 three hours earlier than planned. Meanwhile, townspeople had begun celebrating, either at private parties in their homes or at the Patriot's Ball which spun along until midnight in the armory and a mammoth tent adjacent to it.

But all the early-evening visions of a ragtag army gathering while Concord played shortly dissipated. The PBC people came to play also. Soon after the rally started, the intermittent rain that had begun 'earlier in the evening turned into a steady drizzle and the 40,000 were more intent on fortifying themselves with alcohol than sending a message anywhere. "The patriots in Boston never used to go out to the Liberty Tree until they got tanked up on Tavern Row," apologized one PBC official later. Despite the political rhetoric, only folk singers Pete Seeger and Phil Ochs injected any real spirit into the rain-soaked event.

Joan Baez, Graham Nash and Robert Bedford were all rumored to be in town but did not set foot upon stage. One person, who said he should know, claimed it was because the rally "wasn't run right." If the PBC rally was not run right, the President's visit was --at least from the point of view of the Secret Service. Dashing around, talking into radios concealed in their palms, they made sure that Ford appeared and disappeared exactly on schedule. The President was on about the fifth giant helicopter to beat its way down to Fenn School near the battleground. Briefly he shook hands with those stationed near the ropes surrounding the landing field as the Fenn Band played and replayed "The Victors." A motorcade tran sported him to the Concord battlefield for a speech and wreath-laying, and then off to Lexington where he spoke again.

Ford's Concord appearance at the Old North Bridge aroused the protesters who rapidly recovered from their all- night party and charged across a marsh to the river bank opposite Ford. There they waved yellow and green "Don't Tread on Me" flags and booed the President's back. The President was not entirely well received by those he was addressing either. His references to America's military might provoked scattered hissing from the crowd that faced him. The next few hours was pure pageantry as Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, men dressed as Revolutionary warriors, military marching bands and fife and drum corps paraded across the bridge, down Monument Street to the center of town.

And the end was fitting too, lost somewhere among the trash and overturned portable toilets. Hie tired protesters and spectators went home and the journalists returned to their desks to search for the meaning in something that was just wh a It should have been--a celebration. What could so many different people all celebrate but a bicentennial? Text and photos by Russell Garland s- People's Bicentennial Commission people crowd the bank of the Concord River following President Ford's speech while marchers in the parade watch from a replica of the original Old North Bridge. i i These British Regulars do noi.appeqr.impressed by America's 1 'show colors. They are probably only, tired, fiavirjg Lexington where they reenacted the battle there.

Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis grins at the leader of the Fenn School band white awaiting (he arrival of the President. The cannon is prepared for firing at 6:30 a.m. April 19 after Dr.

Samuel Prescotf, who took over when Paul Revere was captured by the British near Lexington, announced to Concord that "the British are coming." Workers mount a giunj spenfccron preparation for the People's Bicentennial Commission rally..