Living Historians on SS

[Farmfresh]

Ha Ha yes we love history around here as well!

The neighborhood that I live in was one of the starting points for the wagon trains to the west. HISTORY surrounds me. Many of the homes on my block are over 100 years old! We are also close (within a short days drive) to a Historical Fort, a WWI monument, the Agricultural Hall of Fame (which is FULL of farm history), a restored woolen mill from the 1800's, the home of the Pony Express, a historic battlefield and battlefield hospital and Missouri Town 1859! Our own old house was built in the roaring 20's - which really roared around here.

We have friends who own and drive an oxen team. They are planning on doing the Santa Fe trail this summer with them hitched to their Conestoga wagon. Another friend was a reinactor at Missouri town where he was the village Blacksmith and if that isn't far enough back in history probably a dozen people in my neighborhood participate or work at the local Renaissance Festival! Plus I collect farming books from the 1940's.

When my daughter was little she used to LOVE the "Little House on the Prairie" books. I had to read them over and over. A while back she (now an adult) confessed that she was pretty sure the stuff in those books had happened only a few years ago! When I started to tease her about her apparent confusion in time, she reminded me that she grew up going to horse plowing events, touring historic sites and watching neighbors that were blacksmiths or practicing their harp skills. Even her mom was always making soap, or picking chickens for dinner. How was she supposed to realize that we were nearing the year 2000 instead of 1900?

The old ways ARE best IMO.

 

[old fashioned]

The old ways ARE best IMO.

yep

 

[Henrietta23]

We spend as much time as we can at Old Sturbridge Village in Mass. I just love it there. We went to their Revolutionary War reenactment two years ago. A friend from church was involved. We have another friend who isn't an reenactor but portrays US Grant as a general. Fun for me since USG is a distant cousin.

 

[ducks4you]

what the heck is hard tack?

Hardtack History and Recipe
http://users.lmi.net/mcm20me/20th_Maine/CompG/research/hardtack.htm
"Hardtack is the most famous American Civil War staple food. Hard as a rock, this cracker was easily made by large contract baking companies to the bane of many a Civil War soldier."
Hardtack Recipe
6 parts flour
1 part water

Knead dough until thoroughly mixed. Roll out on a floured surface until about 1/8 inch thick (or there abouts). Cut into squares--there is an actual size piece of hardtack pictured in Hard Tack & Coffee by Billings (p. 114 in my edition), seems to be about 2 3/4 by 3 1/2 inches. His piece of hardtack was small and I've seen larger ones. Probably due to whatever
contractor made the hard tack.

 

[ducks4you]

Farmfresh , we've been to the Pony Express Museum!! Stopped there on a horse-riding vacation in 1999, and ended up at Fort Robinson. DH majored in History, and his favorite area is Post-Civil War West, which, of course, includes where YOU live.

 

[FarmerDenise]

Whenever I go to visit the folks in NY I try to visit a museum. My favorite is The Old Stone Fort in Schoharie. It is wonderfull to find out how the people lived back in them days. They also have an Iroquois Indian museum and then there is Cooperstown. I have yet to make it back there when Cooperstown does their reenactments. I'll keep trying.
I love seeing the tools that people worked with and get a better understanding of how they managed their day to day lives.

I wish SO would like history more, because there are a lot of historical sites around here too and I have only visited a few of them.

 

[Ldychef2k]

"Hard Tack" was the nick name of the guide who took my grandfather on a pack horse trip across the Sierras in 1910, at age 17. He repeated the trip several times over his life.

In 1850, IIRC, my great-great grandparents planned on leaving on a wagon train from St. Joe, Missouri, on a wagon train, heading for California to see what this gold rush thing was all about. They had to delay their departure for the birth of my great-grandfather. They ended up here in the San Joaquin Valley, choosing agriculture over the lure of the gold. Grandpa became an engineer and served in France in WW1. When he came home, he used his education to serve our county as an engineer, ultimately being elected five times as County Engineer, Road Commissioner, and Surveyor.

My other grandfather emmigrated here as a lad from Scotland in 1917. He became a citizen and served in WW2, serving as a pilot in the Army Air Corps, who gained vast experience by "flying the hump" in Burma.

And...our family had an ancestor on the Mayflower. Richard More -- he had the distinction of being a con man and a womanizer. Explains a lot !

 

[Farmfresh]

Farmfresh , we've been to the Pony Express Museum!! Stopped there on a horse-riding vacation in 1999, and ended up at Fort Robinson. DH majored in History, and his favorite area is Post-Civil War West, which, of course, includes where YOU live.

You all need to come this way and visit then sometime!

 

[MsPony]

Ohhh!! It sounds so interesting!! I always loved the wagon/gold rush days, I have been to the end of the train in Portland!! I'm kicking myself for not going there last month, boo.

I wouldn't even know how to get started though, hmm.

 

[valmom]

When my kids were little, we lived in Concord, Mass on one of the roads that the Minute Men from outlying towns marched down to get to the battle at the bridge. Every Patriot's day they re-enacted the march and came down our street to the Old North Bridge.

I loved living in Concord- the stories were great! Like, the Minute Men from Concord overslept the day of the battle because they spent the night before in the tavern in the center of town down the road from the bridge. I think the Sudbury minute men got to the battle before they did!

The Old North Bridge is a lovely park with a nice museum in the old house and grounds.

I love local history more than who did what in what year.

And, of course, I love knowing HOW they did things before modern conveniences. I sometimes think I would like living that way and doing for myself (well, for some things) until I remember the downsides of diseases people died of and the whole "wife as property" mindset.