Few Weston residents are aware that today is known as Knox Day, the day that a bunch of crazy Colonials rolled 500 huge cannons into the big city, after passing through lots of towns including …yes, Weston! This is actually the last time anything really truly momentous happened in this town. Oh all right, apparently George Washingon slept a night in the tavern, possibly even in the room where the Weston Forest & Trail Association is setting up office. That’s our story, anyway.

Knox, cannon and men rolled down (actually on sleds) the curb-free and probably potholed Boston Post Road and in front of the Josiah Smith Tavern after an almost 300-mile journey from Fort Ticonderoga. Who knows if they stopped in the Tavern for some edamame and a pint (tiresome liquor laws not yet in effect)? The event is memorialized in Weston in the form of Knox Park, home of 5000000 benches which would have been super helpful on that fateful day (yeah, Weston probably was January 23…the traffic through Waltham was a real bear) and also honored by the naming our awesome Slovakian/Westonian K9 Officer Knox. Which brings me a chance to post a gratuitous photo of the big fuzzball.

The story of General Knox bears a read over on Mass Moments–there is no way this Owl can improve on those facts.

Happy Knox Day, Weston!