Bob Shapiro writes:If you haven’t been to one of Jim Kaplan’s walking tours, you’re missing a treat! Spend a Class of ‘ 71 4th!Watch Alice Young on Channel 13 at 9, and then head on downtown for Jim’s middle of the night walking tour. [SEE NY POST ARTICLE below; starts at 2 a.m. at Trinity Church, Broadway.] And then give yourself a break – sleep late on the 4th!All The best,BobP.S. Remember, no Class Table this month or next (even Jack Bauer “goes dark” occasionally!) We’re back in September. See you then!*****DEAD OF NIGHT: SPEND INDEPENDENCE DAY REVISITING WAR HEROESBy LARRY GETLEN 
[Caption] NOW THIS HERE’S A CHURCH:For 12 years, James Kaplan has been conducting an unusual historical tour of lower Manhattan at 2 a.m. on July Fourth. One of his stops is the Trinity church on Broadway at Wall Street.July 1, 2007 — If the excitement of fireworks, barbeque and beer is too much for you on July Fourth, here’s a potentially thrilling alternative. How about a leisurely, four-hour stroll through lower Manhattan spent listening to lectures on the unsung heroes of the Revolutionary War – that starts at 2 o’clock in the freakin’ morning!While this may sound like torture for some, veteran walking tour guide James Kaplan has been leading just such a tour every July Fourth for 12 years, and the passion in his voice – along with the event’s surprisingly robust attendance – belies any doubt that for learning our city’s Revolutionary history, morning is golden.You’ll get more people on a walking tour at 2 a.m. than you will at 2 p.m., says Kaplan, a history buff who serves as head of the tax and estates department for a Manhattan law firm. “Last year, we had 100 people.”When asked why anyone would subject themselves to what many would consider more of a Paris Hilton-worthy punishment than a way to celebrate something, Kaplan – who calls the tour a ‘unified theory of the history of the city of New York as it relates to the Revolution’ – feels the answer is obvious.”You can more easily summon up the dead Revolutionary War generals that are buried in lower Manhattan at 2 in the morning,” he says. “You can really understand the city if you’re not distracted by traffic and everybody else along the street.”The 92nd Street Y started the tour around 25 years ago. Kaplan took it over 12 years ago, and it moved from the Y to the Fraunces Tavern Museum in 2003. Kaplan traces his own love for introducing people to our nation’s heritage to the mid-70s, when he spent lunch hours as a young lawyer walking through lower Manhattan, soaking in the history.”I was having lunch with some young woman around 1975 or ’76,” recalls Kaplan, “and she said, ‘It’s such a drag to work in lower Manhattan. I wish we were in Midtown. There’s so much more to do there.’ I said, ‘Are you kidding? This is the most historically rich area in the world!'”So Kaplan made a pledge to bring the woman to a different historical site every week. “One day we would visit the Stock Exchange, then the U.S. Customs House, Federal Hall, Fraunces Tavern Museum, the Great Hall of the Chamber of Commerce – in two years, we never ran out of things to see.”For this tour, history buffs and other morning-loving masochists meet at Broadway and Park Place next to City Hall Park at 2 o’clock, a venti coffee or Big Gulp presumably hooked up through an IV drip. Over the next four hours, Kaplan brings them to sites like the residence of Thomas Paine; the statue of Nathan Hale; and the unmarked grave of Kaplan’s personal hero, General Horatio Gates, the commanding general at the Battle of Saratoga.Each site comes with an intricately detailed story, told with the sort of geeky passion generally reserved for ‘Star Wars’ enthusiasts.But if you really want to hear Kaplan revved up, wait for the part about Gates. “The tour for me revolves around Horatio Gates,” he says. “Twelve years ago I bought a book on the Battle of Saratoga, and it mentioned that Gates was buried in an unmarked graveyard at Trinity Church. I had given tours for years and walked by Trinity every day, and never knew that Horatio Gates, who was as important as George Washington, is buried in an unmarked grave at Trinity Church. To me, that was fascinating. So the highlight of the tour comes at about 4:30 in the morning in front of Trinity Church, where I go through the entire history of the Battle of Saratoga.”If this sounds like your ideal way to spend July Fourth, the required tickets are $25, and can be purchased by calling (212) 425-1778.And if it doesn’t? Don’t worry you’re not alone. “There are a lot of people who will never come at 2 in the morning,” admits Kaplan. “Including my wife.”
