Piggy-back

When, he asked, were the first swan boats?  I dunno, was my reply; at least 40 years ago.  A few steps further and he informed me: 1877. A Robert Paget was granted a boat for hire license and his descendants still operate the business of ferrying mostly tourists in a figure eight around two small islands in the Public Garden lagoon in pedal-powered boats inspired by Wagner's Lohengrin.

Well, that's information I'll add to my tour, but I was a bit nonplussed by fact that what I don't know or what I know that isn't so can be supplied or checked on the spot. It puts any tour guide, or teacher for that matter, on notice: your authority is no more secure than what the internet says on the subject at that moment.

This guy was smart clearly, all along the way asking good questions, making astute observations, just the kind of person a teacher loves and loathes. He had the sort of calm confidence that cames from possessing a valuable and undisputed body of knowledge (though what that is I have no idea, not having taught him.) There are others who are as firmly convinced about what they know but who, since they also know their knowledge is in dispute, are aggressively defensive.

What do I know?  An assortment of odd facts, some stories, a generalization or two, a mental time line and map, a few ponder-worthy themes that tie things together: that's about it.  I review these periodically to see if they still hold, and augment them with new relevant stuff that I put myself in a position to come across. I don't have to know everything. I don't even have to always be exactly right. As long as I stay in the knowledge trunk line, I'm learning and at the same time giving good value.

So thank you for the facts about the swan boats I hadn't thought to ask. I'll happily piggy-back on your newcomer curiosity. At the same time, I'll consider some old-timer's questions: Just how do such licenses stay in families? What other local attractions are family property? Does concession-granting work the way it used to? Is this just a Boston phenom?  You likely don't care about the answers, whatever they are, but I should.