Stepping Back in Time...to 1627

Where: Plimoth Plantation (Yep, when you go to the Plantation...it is P-l-i-m-o-t-h, not Plymouth.)
When: April 2, 2011 or perhaps it was 1627
Stepped out with the bunch in April for a trip down to Plimoth Plantation. The official vote to go was:
3-yes,
1-no,
1- whatever-you-want-to-do-is-fine-with-me.
 Homeschoolers love field trips, but with a full-time job of my own, I have to grab the time with the family where we can. It doesn't matter how often we've been somewhere. Just like re-reading a good book, revisiting a great field trip location is always great. Kind of comforting to explore it differently than you might have before. These places are never the same twice....so....
while it's always easier for some to stay home and think it's a good day, I know there will be times enough in the future when everyone goes their own ways. For this, it was majority rule. We went.

The day had the potential to be cold and rainy, but sometimes looking beyond the weather can mean good things. I had everyone dress warmly and wear boots, anticipating some mud...well, lots of mud actually.  In this case the sun came out and, while a little chilly, it was a lovely day. Mud-free.

When the little brother becomes the bigger brother to the older sister, then the older sister needs a little bit of a boost to see over the rail of the fort. No offense, Lisa. Good things come in "shorter" packages.

Of course that boost meant that we couldn't get Ben in the picture...which makes this shot interesting... showing a smiling girl and a head sitting on the railing. How'd you do that, Sam?












This particular view is one that I always find pretty...no matter what the weather. Someday I'll get this picture with no people in it from "now."  Imagine what it might have looked like in 1627? Like this? Better? Worse?

Beautiful day for a stroll down the road into the past. You never know who you're going to meet, what conversation you're going to have, or what you're going to learn.

 Reading some 1600's scripture can be instructive...especially when you look up passages that you thought you knew...and discover that once you've transposed the "fs"and "ss" and more...that it still doesn't quite scan the way you thought it would. Well, scripture is still scripture...and it's all good.
I think they were looking up something in Joshua. I don't know why, but Joshua was on their minds that day.

 Peas porridge hot,
        Peas porridge cold.
             Peas porridge in the pot
                      9 days old.


(Of course it could have been something else, it was kind of hard to tell. Soap perhaps?)

Just one of the interesting conversations we had that day was with 2 women....one younger (perhaps a teen) and one older (perhaps in her 40s)...from different places and with different experiences and with different religious beliefs. Fascinating to hear these interpreters/actors speak in the dialects and with the experiences of their characters. My question of the day for each person we met was, "What do you know of William Shakespeare?"
        Answered were similar....
They all seemed to have some idea that he was a writer of plays.
(Except the woman who said, "I've never heard of him. Is he a Minister?" Lisa was entertained by that.)
They all were pretty much in agreement that his work was "baudy."
None of them would watch or read it.
And this woman made an excellent point.
" Mr. Shakespeare's work makes sport of unfortunates. It's not very nice."
Hmmmmm.

Heading over to the Wampanoag Homesite. Smiles...because it's been a pretty good visit to the village so far...and the camera was pointed that way...and they were having a pretty good time. Even the one that voted "no."

And on the way to the Wampanoag site we came across this branch.
Perfect branch, wouldn't you say?






It simply screamed, "Put your children on me and take a picture!"  So, I did... A few of them.

OK...more than a few.

(What can I say? They were cute...in a teen-aged kind of way.)

 

 The Wampanoag Site never fails to have something interesting going on. It's always neat to see the long houses or nush wetu and talk with the Native People. On this particular day though, we got one of the more interesting experiences we've had during our visits to Plimoth.

We stood and talked with this young man who has spent his life learning about and teaching about Native arts. He was working on a dugout canoe by burning a controlled fire in the log, making sure to only burn enough throughout the inside. We spent some time learning about the process and hearing about the canoe races on the marshes behind him. There were about 6 other hand made canoes like the one he was working on in or under the water behind him. Bailing wouldn't have been my favorite job that day, since it was still chilly, early April.
Nonetheless, the process that he was demonstrating was really interesting.

I think, when all was said and done, everyone had a cool day. Learned a bunch, laughed a bunch...climbed a hill and through the bushes, found a tower, sat on tree branches...









 And in the end, everyone was glad that majority ruled. Even the oxen.

(And when I buy fudge there, Sam is always happy. Ah well, we suffered through the fudge. Small price to pay. But none for the oxen.)