A Journey to the Past

My sister's visit prompted me to plan a field trip to Old Sturbridge Village. This living history museum is set up to bring to life an American town set in the 1830s. Most of the buildings are actual structures from that time in history that have been relocated to the museum. I was surprised at this because I thought they would all be more recently constructed to represent what the buildings might have looked like at that time, much like what we saw at Plimoth Plantation.

When we arrived, the children immediately wanted to visit the children's area, called Kidstory. This is an indoor version of the village, where kids can "farm", dress up in period clothing, cook, shop, and "wash" clothes. I finally had to drag them away from it so we could see the rest of the place.

H working on his crops

Farmer S

K serving a customer root beer

K working at the general store

AJ cooking

Once we moved on, we walked by a small house, a Quaker meetinghouse, a barn, and some sheep. Then we arrived at a place where a lady was washing wool yarn and preparing it to be dyed. There were several colors of yarn hanging up to dry that had been previously processed, and the colors were amazingly earthy and natural. A nearby building showed what they used to arrive at each color, and there was a display showing various types of yarn and how they were processed. There was also a lady at a spinning wheel spinning some of the raw wool into yarn. Upstairs was a display about quilting, and the kids enjoyed playing with plastic squares and triangles to design their own quilt squares.

H in the Quaker Meetinghouse

H in a barn

K and AJ with the lady washing yarn to dye

The beautiful colors of dyed wool

Spinning

Weaving

AJ designing a quilt

One of the display quilts

The chair where the lady of the house would have done her knitting and mending

A cute little doll's bed

At this time, I took S down to sit on a bench and eat some lunch. The others soon joined us, and we ate in the shade while looking out across the common. When we finished, we started toward the schoolhouse. I pushed the stroller while everyone else rode a horse-drawn trolley. The kids told me one of the horse's names is Jim.

Upon arriving at the schoolhouse, we stepped inside where a lady was explaining the building, the school, and the requirements for the teachers at that time. One thing that stuck out was that the teachers did not have to have much training, and they usually ranged from 15 to 25 years old. The literacy rate at that time was about 90%, whereas it is now around 75%. S was getting fussy, so I stepped out with him. K and AJ wanted to experience a "lesson", so they stayed inside until the "class" started. They could choose from reading, math, or spelling, and they chose math. The questions were oral word problems, and my kids aced them. The actual math was very simple, and I wished they asked them more challenging questions. K was disappointed that she did not get to use a quill pen, but at least she could write on the slate.

S at a desk in the schoolhouse

A well-used desk top

K practicing her letters on a slate

AJ peaking out of the schoolhouse window

After their lesson was over, they came outside and played with the schoolhouse toys -- jump ropes and a pair of stilts. The stilts were a bit broken and therefore very difficult to use. My sister, Jaime, helped my kids walk on them, but no one could do it solo.

H walking on stilts with Auntie Jaime

AJ walking on stilts with Auntie Jaime

 From the schoolhouse, I stepped over to look at the pottery making building. As they only fire up the kiln twice a year, it was full of unfired pottery. After that, we hurried back to where the musket demonstration was supposed to take place.

The kiln

Pottery waiting to be fired

We arrived at the musket demonstration just in time for the guy to fire off the final round. He showed us how to load a musket and explained why the muskets of that period were so dangerous to shoot. The barrel was formed out of a sheet of metal and welded on the bottom. If that weld failed, the shooter could lose life or limb.

Musket man

The kids wanted to try out the town pump next, so we followed them over where they took turn pumping and playing in the cool, refreshing water. From there, we headed to the bake shop and store, where H convinced me to buy a Colonial soldier costume and AJ bought a hat.

Fun at the town pump

 

 

Jaime pointed out that the craft center would be a fun stop for the kids, so we strolled in that direction. When we arrived, K, AJ, and H chose to dip candles, and Jaime took S to the nearby play area to keep him happy. H grew tired of the tedious process of dipping candles, so my niece, Edith, finished for him while I took him out to join his little brother. When they finished, K asked if she could make the sconce as well. My response? "If you pay for it." She headed back to the craft shop to complete her project, and the rest of us sat in the shade and watched the boys play.

Dipping candles

A cute little sheep

K making a sconce for the candles

A familiar cow and farmer's wife

Once K finished her sconce, we realized that she was missing her bonnet. She claimed that she had it at the well, but after retracing our steps back there and inquiring at the store, it was still MIA. At this point, we split up. Jaime and Edith took the boys to the beekeeping exhibit while K and I retraced our steps even further until we found it at the schoolhouse. Praise the Lord. We then hurried to catch up with the rest of our crew. When we arrived at the beekeeping exhibit, I realized that S had kicked off his shoe somewhere along our hurried way. We turned around and had only walked about 100 feet before someone who had found the shoe returned it to us. Another praise.

At this point, I was ready to get out of there. We made our way to the exit, paused to peruse the gift shop, stopped at the bathrooms, and headed to the car.

It was a busy, day, but I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I don't know what I would have done without Edith and Jaime. They made the trip so much easier, providing two extra sets of hands (and eyes) to help with the kiddos. I am so thankful for their visit out to see us.

My little Continental Soldier

An Author's Abode

Mark Twain's former residence.
That is the conservatory there in the lower left. 

My sister and niece, Jaime and Edith, honored me with a visit this week. Their presence prompted me to get out of the house and see what Connecticut has to offer. Today we perused Mark Twain's Hartford house. I had always thought he was from Missouri and, therefore, spent most of his life there. However, this trip taught me that he actually wrote his most famous works in Connecticut. 

The front of the house



The house measures more than 11,000 square feet in size, and much of it has been restored to at least resemble what it may have looked like when he lived there with his family. In  fact, one of his daughters was still living when it became a historical site, and she helped the original restorers put things in their proper place to most closely resemble the house when she (and the famous author) lived there.

 

We chose to tour both the servants' quarters and the main house, but no pictures were allowed in either region, so I had to commit to memory what I could and rely on publicly available photos for the rest.

 

The back of the carriage house.



 

The servants' quarters seemed fairly typical. They lacked the ornate features found in the rest of the house, but the oven and stove were top-end, and the rest of the furnishings at least gave us an idea of what it might have looked like. None of the items in this portion were original, but the oven/stove was supposed to be the same model that Samuel Clemens had bought for his staff to use.

 

Behind the main house lies the carriage house. At the time, it housed not only the carriages, but also the coachman and his family (including seven children). It seemed to be a pretty good-sized building, but it is for staff only. We therefore had to settle on viewing it only from the outside.

 

 

The Carriage House

The rest of the house was fun to see. Most of the fine art never belonged to the Clemens family, but the museum has done their best to give visitors an idea of how the house was decorated. Some of the original pieces include a mantle purchased on a trip to Scotland and their bed, an item for which Samuel Clemens evidently paid entirely too much. The second floor included a schoolroom for his three girls. I loved seeing the little desks and chairs. I could picture my own little brood sitting there learning their lessons. The top floor holds the billiard room and Mark Twain's desk. He kept his manuscripts in a piece of furniture with cubby-holes. He would take a story out, work on it until he got stuck, put it back, and grab the next one. In this manner, he finished many of his famous books.

Of course, I could not have toured the house without the assistance of Jaime. She watched S and H for me so I could listen and learn about the former home of this talented man. What a sweetheart she is.

When we were finished with the tours, we headed out to eat and then home. It was fun to have a chance to visit a new museum and explore a small portion of history with my children. I hope that AJ and K remember what they saw and learned when we study the late 1800s in history this year.


Wait, I know that girl!

Tom Sawyer?

This guy is up to something.

Not quite tall enough

Standing with Lego Mark Twain. This was the best picture I got with him.

Blueberries for Salley

My mom came to visit us for a few days, so I decided to take her and the kids blueberry picking. Timo took S so I did not have to chase him through the blueberry fields, which was a huge blessing. It was a hot day, but we slapped on the sunscreen and headed out.

When we arrived at the field, we were surprised at how prolific the blueberries were. I had been resigned to the fact that we would not be able to pick that much since the berries are so small, but the sheer quantity available allowed us to pick quite a few in a relatively short amount of time. K was my berry-picking machine. She took my large bucket about 15 minutes into picking in exchange for her smaller one. We ended up with a little more than 11 pounds of blueberries, some of which we made into jam and muffins. I froze some as well, and I am looking forward to having those available for a while.

My mom had gone along to be a good sport, but she told me she enjoyed herself. So did I. I love picking my own produce and eating it as fresh as I can. I also have enjoyed learning to make different kinds of jam. This was an opportunity to do both, and I am blessed to live where we can participate in these activities.

Pilgrim Breakfast

My breakfast

Our last morning in Plymouth, we participated in the Annual Pilgrim's Breakfast. Set on the back lawn of the historical Harlow House, the atmosphere was enhanced by women spinning yarn and a group of "Pilgrims" singing old songs for the diners Women dressed in traditional Pilgrim clothing served us fishcakes, baked beans, scrambled eggs, thirded bread, and corn muffins. It was a fun way to eat colonial-era food, and it offered us a chance to tour one more historical house before we drove home.



K enjoying her breakfast

Timo and S

Pilgrims serenaded us



A brush for the wool

The old spinning wheel

Some sort of device to wind the yarn

An old horn book

Cookware



Unground flint corn

Corn ground using a mortar and pestle

The huge fireplace