It's All About the 'Wood These Days...

Ah, Norwood. Here's another installment in the lunatic fringe.

Our town seal, shown here, depicts Minuteman Aaron Guild leaving his farm to march off and fight the British at the Battle of Lexington Green. As this article details, our town's Veterans' Services Director feels it needs to be changed, as Aaron's clothing is historically inaccurate. I'll give you a minute to see if you can figure out why...

...give up? Well, for those of you who needed the obvious pointed out (as I did, as I've been staring at this thing for thirty-plus years, and it took this article for me to realize the error), Aaron's wearing red. Aaron was a Minuteman, fighting British soldiers, who, in 1775, wore RED COATS. Hence, the common historical term for the Revolutionary War-era British Army being Redcoats. As stated in the article,

"there is virtually no way he was wearing red (of the enemy)," said [Ted]Mulvehill yesterday. "It’s too glaring an error to overlook." Historical Society President Patricia Fanning put it another way. "If he marched off wearing red, he would have been shot," Fanning said."(source)

A resounding "DUH" was had by all.