My wife and I recently toured the East Coast for our 25th Wedding Anniversary. One of our stops was Boston. I was delighted to find a couple of Twilight 2000 themed stops: Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish and the USS Constitution (“Old Ironsides”).

The Black Madonna & Gateway to the Spanish Main

…and yes, in case it wasn’t obvious, I’m done GMing our Twilight 2000 campaign. I had creative burnout, and we’ve since moved onto other RPGs. Our 5 year campaign was a good run. We may pick it back up at some point in the future of course.

Our Lady of Czestochowa

My wife and I are Catholic, and went to a morning Mass at Our Lady of Częstochowa Parish (655 Dorchester Ave Boston, MA 02127).

English speakers can pronounce Częstochowa as “chenstahova“.

Naturally, I misread the schedule, so the Mass was in Polish. Heh. Well I got the culture I was looking for! It gave me plenty of time to look around.

And of course the beautiful centerpiece Black Madonna!

The service was thinly-attended and brief.

[Non-Catholics, the daily masses are a great way to get in a quick visit; they run about 30 minutes. You are very welcome to attend. Just don’t get in line for the Eucharist – you won’t look out of place staying in the pews; it’s common for Catholics to not take the Eucharist for various reasons.]

After Mass, Father George (Jerzy, “yeh-zhee“) greeted us in English, and invited the two of us to have coffee with him. He gave me permission to post photos.

Father George is friendly and has lived a full life, speaking several languages. He’d studied Japanese to follow in the footsteps of his legendary uncle “Brother Zeno”, but the powers-that-be sent him to Africa instead.

We returned to next day’s Mass, where Father George blessed our marriage. Once again, we had coffee with him, this time in his parish house next door.

It was a wonderful, auspicious visit we’ll always remember.

USS Constitution (“Old Ironsides”)

The world’s oldest commissioned warship still afloat.

…was closed the day we were there. (Mondays and Tuesdays, alas) But I got some shots of the exterior.

BONUS: The USS Cassin Young (DD-793), a World War II destroyer, is berthed nearby.

T2000 refs: Imagine the Young in your scenario. Those guns are like tank cannons in power scale, and there are several turrets.

And we’ll wrap up with my wife manning the guns.

See Also:

Silesia: The Black Madonna
Northeast USA in the Twilight 2000 America Campaign
Classic GDW RPGs on CD-ROM: Traveller, Twilight 2000, 2300AD, Dark Conspiracy, and more