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Description:

If you really want to let your hair down, Walden Pond is the place for you...unless you like that hair to be clean and full of volume, because there isn't a working shower around for miles.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:01

Wild, Wild Walden, a la Shmoop. <<In style of Dateline, special report type

00:05

video; narrator is anchor on show>>

00:06

Welcome back to… Inside the World’s Most Famous Ponds. I’m your host, Kelp McEvoy.

00:12

Tonight we explore Walden Pond. We will take a no-holds barred look at this… very reclusive

00:18

body of water.

00:19

In fact, it hasn’t made a single public appearance… ever.

00:26

What is Walden Pond, and why do we care?

00:29

Well, it is the subject of a work of classic literature. And there haven’t been too many

00:33

great books written about pond scum.

00:35

Unless you include Oliver Twist. That Bill Sikes was a baddie.

00:36

The author Henry David Thoreau spent two years living out his dream of relying on no one

00:42

but himself… and nature…

00:45

…by holing himself up in a little cabin right next to Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts.

00:51

Rumor has it that he did have the occasional pizza delivered, but we cannot confirm those

00:57

reports. Located at 42.4 degrees north, 71.3 degrees

01:03

west…

01:04

…Walden is an unassuming little pond.

01:07

It is buried out in the middle of nowhere…

01:10

…and it has no desire for fame, or accolades, or attention.

01:14

It’s fine just chillaxing out there in the woods, enjoying the peace and quiet…

01:19

…and hanging with its good friend, Henry. The weather there is gorgeous…

01:25

…it never gets too terribly cold, and never gets too hot.

01:29

Like the baby bear in the famous fairy tale, it’s just right.

01:33

It does get its fair share of rainfall, but…

01:35

…being a pond, it doesn’t much worry about getting wet.

01:39

And what about its neighbor… Thoreau’s cabin?

01:41

It’s a tiny little thing… only ten by fifteen feet.

01:44

But Thoreau never needed that much room.

01:46

Besides, his butler could sleep outside. If you’re as fascinated by pond-living as

01:51

Thoreau was…

01:52

…and are feeling inspired to build your own cabin… you’ll have to look elsewhere.

01:57

Thoreau borrowed the land from his pal Ralph Waldo Emerson…

02:01

…and the site is now a state reservation.

02:04

Even the deer need to show proper identification just to get anywhere near it.

02:09

Yes, Walden is not your run of the mill pond.

02:11

We may never know all of its secrets…

02:13

…and perhaps we aren’t meant to. Thank you for joining us for this first edition

02:18

of Inside the World’s Most Famous Ponds.

02:21

Sadly, this will also be our final episode, as we could not think of another famous pond.

02:26

Ah, well. Thanks for the memories, everyone. Signing off.

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