AS difficult as Scotland’s World Cup campaign may have been on the pitch, the Tartan Army have spread their relentlessly positive energy across Boston and Miami, and left locals with memories for life.
But for Bostonian Miles Howard, Scotland fans have done more than that. He believes they have liberated a “famously frosty” city that has become known for being, in his view, “aloof to having fun”.
And after it was announced Glasgow and Boston would be formally twinned following Scotland’s victory over Haiti, Howard put out a “half-baked” idea on social media of walking the 60 miles from Edinburgh to Glasgow along the Union and Forth and Clyde canals.
He received a rousing response and now has plans to do the walk at the end of next month – arriving in Glasgow for the last weekend of the Commonwealth Games.
As a journalist and author who writes largely about improving access to the outdoors, he was keen to visit a bustling population centre in Scotland to see just how strong the connection between the country and Boston has become.
“All this footage on Twitter and Instagram of Tartan Army fans filling bars in Boston, going down the cop slide playing bagpipes and placing the cones, it was a rare instance where what was on social media was actually representative of the ground reality,” Howard said.
“It was not just a few stand-out cases that went viral, the fans were everywhere and they were in such good spirits.
“I think what was inspiring was that this really animated Bostonians in a way I've not seen for years. We can be a famously frosty city and somewhat aloof to the idea of having fun.
“We have early closing calls, not much nightlife here, so to see people in Boston loosening up and humbled by the presence and shared joy of the Tartan Army was really special.”
He added: “What a lot of us were left with was this sense of connection and also the question of ‘what will this look like when the World Cup is over?’ and so I thought about what it would be like to pay a visit to Scotland and do a long walk from city to city while very much outing myself as a Bostonian and being open to spontaneous meetings and conversations on the way.”
Howard, 37, had heard stories of the Tartan Army and the effect they had on cities around the world, but he did not expect they would leave what could be a lasting legacy on the culture of Boston.
From the moment he got his first look at fans gathering in droves at Scottish pub The Haven in his neighbourhood, he knew their presence had the potential to have a huge impact.
“I often do remote work from a coffee shop in my neighbourhood Jamaica Plain and it’s right next door to The Haven – the only Scottish pub in Boston, which became an epicentre for World Cup events with all the visiting folk from Scotland," he said.
“I would look out the window and notice more and more folks in blue jerseys in kilts striding past.
"Jamaica Plain is not really a well-known neighbourhood in Boston when it comes to tourism so to see such a concentration of fans there heading over to The Haven for this three-day festival they had before the game was my first indicator of how big this was going to be.”
There has been no shortage of evidence so far that the Tartan Army have stolen the hearts of Bostonians. Confirmation Glasgow would be twinned with Boston came last week from Boston mayor Michelle Wu’s office, with a deal to be signed next April.
The Boston Globe also took out an entire page of the historic newspaper with a heartfelt letter to Scotland fans who brought “laughter, bagpipes and memories” to the Massachusetts capital.
It would seem Boston has also had a lasting impact on Scots. Howard said he was taken aback by the number of messages he got encouraging him to do the Edinburgh to Glasgow ramble, with people offering to meet up and go for pints.
“I put out a half-baked version of this idea on Twitter before I’d even committed to it and the number of kind messages I got from folks in Scotland suggesting I come over and do it and offering to meet up on the walk was all the licence I needed to go ahead and pull the trigger,” said Howard, whose work on the outdoors has appeared in the Boston Globe and National Geographic.
“I’m very interested to see the [Falkirk] Wheel because so many people have highlighted that. The Kelpies are another thing I’m looking forward to checking out.
“The other thing is just the range of people I encounter. That’s the reason I’m doing this walk instead of going to one of the more classically scenic parts [of Scotland] because when you’re in the vicinity of a city on a thoroughfare, there’s so much potential for crossing paths and being open to what follows.”
Howard, who has lived in the centre of Boston for 12 years after growing up in the suburbs, said he hopes the Tartan Army have opened the eyes of lawmakers to the city’s real potential.
“There are some structural elements that stand in the way of Boston having more nightlife and being able to host more festivals that would bring people from around the world here,” he said.
“Some of these are laws that are imposed on us by our state government which tends to be more conservative.
“With the last week and a half of being sprung from that parochial mindset where people are thinking more about what could go wrong as opposed to what’s possible if we embraced events like this more, it’s been kind of liberating for Bostonians and it’s the reason many of us will feel forever grateful for the presence of the Tartan Army.”
