Old Sturbridge Village

Today, I fell in love...with Old Sturbridge Village, the most useful and authentic re-enactment site I have ever been to, a walking, talking real life experience. The Village is a collection of homes, businesses, and meeting houses (churches) that were, for the most part, donated from families across New England. In most buildings, there was at least one person to act the part of an individual working there. The time period represented is 1790-1830.



But those are just dry facts; let me describe the authenticity. There was no constant piped-in music flooding the grounds, leaving one with a much better sense of the true environment, of the calm and quiet pace of life in the Colony. There were no paved surfaces---none. No golf carts running staff around. One horse-drawn coach was the only wheeled vehicle that came through, and that was for visitors. There were no bold, bright signs to mar the ambiance, no park-oriented materials in displays along the paths. I mean, they were so faithful to representing that, even on a day of record-breaking heat, the only thing the actors drank from was a tin, brass, or wooden mug made in the Village, water out of their bucket! I don't see any more vivid way to present the history of Massachusetts; it was a great start for my trip!



Of course, this doesn't speak to my learning experience, but this should: the historical knowledge of the actors was dazzling. In one home, the lady of the house gave me the names of two books on settling: one about the New England frontiersman and another about pioneering in the Mid-West. They were two very different things. The image of the one-room homesteading cabin that we of the plains states find so familiar is not necessarily the case in colonial times. Those settlers came from a moneyed background, and they had every intention of building the multi-storied homes they left behind. At the parsonage, I was able to engage in a little philosophical discussion with the minister about the change from one religion to multiple religions. He, too, recommended a book, one on witchcraft, by Sir Walter Scott of all people. Scott supposedly claims that the KJV of the bible was mistranslated, that instead of "Thou shall not suffer a witch to live," the earlier version said "poisoner"! Oh, how many ways could that be misunderstood or misinterpreted!

One other thing I loved about OSV was the fact that they had 1-week camps for students 11-18, all of whom learned a skill and served as apprentice to someone on site, dressed in full costume, etc. I took some fun pictures of a group of young boys trying to learn to march in time.

Needless to say, today was a smashing success. And tomorrow, I'll tell you about meeting Miss Emily Dickinson tonight! Any former student of mine can tell you that I'm just a little obsessed with her.

Thanks for reading!