Something About a Semiquincentennial

The cast and crew of Bellairsia pause to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, which established the United States of America.

As is our way, we wondered how one would put a Bellairsian spin on the celebrations. We thought about a silly ceremony with a liberty bell, a liberty book, and a liberty candle, but – let us not be silly. Instead, the answer quickly became obvious. 

Johnny, Fergie, and Professor Childermass always began their adventures at their home in Duston Heights, a small town in the state of Massachusetts, one of the thirteen original colonies and the sixth state. From Duston Heights, it wasn't too far a drive to Boston, Concord, Lexington, and other important communities. Spreading out, it was only a few hours' drive up and down New England, from New Hampshire and Connecticut to Vermont, upstate New York, and Maine. Did you ever stop to consider how many Federal-style buildings and historical plaques they passed?

Bellairs and Strickland mention a few Revolutionary-era names in the books. Ethan Allen (The Bell, the Book, and the Spellbinder) and Nicholas Herkimer (The Chessmen of Doom) come to mind, as do Ephraim Brasher, "a rich planter in Virginia [and] a neighbor of George Washington's" (The Mansion in the Mist), who privately minted boubloon after 1787, and American military officer General John Stark (1728–1822), the "cantankerous New Hampshire man who had fought in the Revolutionary War" (The Eyes of the Killer Robot).

Elsewhere, there is the Presidential Range in the White Mountains of New Hampshire (The Curse of the Blue Figurine), whose most notable peaks are named after presidents and founding fathers. There's a mention of the poem, Old Ironsides, Oliver Wendell Holmes's 1830 tribute to the USS Constitution (The House where Nobody Lived) - though we know she launched some 30 years later. The Star-Spangled Banner pops up in a few places, notably when Professor Childermann plays it so everyone will leave his house (The Curse of the Blue Figurine)

The events of The House where Nobody Lived then end on the fourth, with a red, white, and blue American eagle made of fireworks flapping its wings. No word if it was a Saturday.

Happy reading! Enjoy your pursuit of happineff!