Times Gone By

On Saturday a local historical museum had its yearly festival. There were self guided tours of the house and surrounding buildings as well as activities on various areas of the grounds. Earle and I spent most of the morning there into the early afternoon. Shawn was a volunteer for the day as was his good friends Deborah and her brother John. Deborah and John's mom, my friend Gretchen, just started a job at the museum. She worked all day in the heat selling raffle tickets and leading children on tours of the museum's garden where they went on a veggie hunt. The game was a fun time for the kids and served the purpose of harvesting some veggies from the museum's garden for the local food bank.

Shawn and John breaking up wheat to put in the thresher.

The broken wheat is poured into the top of the thresher, the crank is turned, and the machine lets the wheat grains fall to the ground as the chaff is blown out the front.

A rare find: a 1954 Kaiser Darrin all original except a new coat of paint. They were only made for two years. This beauty won Best-in-Show at Watkin's Glen the day before, beating hundreds of other vintage cars. What a beauty! That is the proud owner standing with his car.

I tried my hand at lace making with bobbins. Here is the sample I worked on. The last row is my handiwork. Earle and I saw lace makers on the street corners in Belgium when we were there 19 years ago. We bought some old wooden lace-maker's bobbins as a souvenir. They are on display in our living room. I never dreamed one day I would be trying it myself.

The novice (making my one row)

The expert. How does she ever keep track of all those bobbins!!!

Deborah and helpers with their freshly churned butter.

Inside the house we had a yummy sample of hearth baked molasses cookies with that freshly churned butter.

One room on the second floor of the house was dedicated to spinning and weaving. Such a lovely and large floor loom.

When Shawn wasn't threshing wheat or directing cars he was sparring with his fencing instructor on the lawn. They were demonstrating some moves for the onlookers, trying to drum up some possible next victims, oops, opponents! Shawn starts his fencing lessons back up on Monday evening.

Gretchen and her husband John are looking on. She is thinking of taking fencing lessons too, but you didn't hear that from me. Go Gretchen.

Touche.

Shawn is going to be a busy young man this fall. On Thursday he starts accordion lessons. His future instructor was the first act of the day at the festival. Love those socks! I wonder if Shawn knows what he's in for?

Here I am perusing the old books in the one room schoolhouse. Ahh to be a teacher back then when the subjects were simpler and you could graduate them after 8th grade...