independence day at olde sturbridge village

to be honest, i've never really enjoyed the fourth of july. growing up in the sixties and seventies, i've nurtured a strong disdain of all that is patriotic. when reading farmer boy by laura ingalls wilder with the girls several years ago, i was surprised to note a strong sense of pride in the celebrants of that special day in the book. the people in laura's time had a very different sense of what it was to be american. today i, again, sensed that pride in the characters the volunteers were portraying, and that pride was not arrogant, but joyful. this sense was culminated during the reading of the declaration of independence, which is done every year at sturbridge. hearing thomas jefferson's words declaring the decision to break away from england brought home the excitement of the time and the audacity of the colonists. it must have been a thrilling time in which to be living.

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sturbridge townspeople celebrate their independence day with a parade, fife and drum corps music, independence day cake and beer bread, and dancing. the above picture was taken of the hot air balloon event. a fire is kindled in an iron stove and the hot air rises through a chimney to fill the balloon, which when released, rises with the hot air. they have lots of fun stories about balloons getting caught in trees and balloons flying over interstate 84 which is just over the hill east of them.

i loved shouting "huzzah" with them. caroline is the volunteer leading the event. morgana is in the long, full apron on the left.

they sent up three balloons today. one of them came down in the townhouse garden and another on the green. the third got caught in a tree. i'm really not sure how they get all the balloons out of the trees. i suppose they either use a ladder, or climb up and shake it out of the branches.

there was dancing on the green by the church in the morning. i was impressed by the volunteers' skill at working with the crowd of people. there were four volunteers and they broke up into three groups, each with a different teacher. this way everyone learned quickly and the groups were small enough for everyone to have a turn down the line.

 another aspect that makes the dancing so fun is that the musicians play so well!

morgana and i were impressed with this little girl who danced on her own with one of the volunteers. her mom asked morgana to pose for a picture, so i took one too.

morgana had schoolhouse duty today. it's an event listed on the itinerary for the day. she got a little nervous as the crowd in the schoolhouse was the largest she had ever had. luckily, the musket demonstration was happening at the same time on the other side of town, otherwise it would have been even more crowded. she did a wonderful job of describing the schoolhouse ways, and having several children come up for a lesson. we met one family later on in the afternoon in the gift shop, and the mother praised morgana for her lecture and her poise.

 on the way out she had the children participating in the lesson "make their manners," which was to curtsey or bow as they left the teacher for the day. this is a picture of her handing out a schoolbook as people come into the schoolroom.

finally, time for the parade!

morgana had no idea what would be happening today. all she knew was that she had games in the morning, and dye-making in the afternoon. (she didn't know she would have to give the schoolhouse lecture until late morning. the college interns can assign it to the junior interns with only a moment's notice). she said to me before i dropped her in the morning, "i have to be on the green at 1 pm for some kind of a parade. i guess i have to watch it."

the villagers march around the town green once, and then around again to a path that leads to the freeman farm, the sawmill, the gristmill and the blacksmith shop. then they march over the covered bridge and back up to the green. they go halfway around again and stop at a wooden platform in the middle of the green. speeches are then made in the spirit of 1840 (since it's currently an election year, otherwise they work with 1838) and the declaration of independence is read. there are references made to the current president martin van buren and the candidate william henry harrison who rallied under the slogan "tippecanoe and tyler too" which you can read on the giant rolling ball. i'm not sure of all the political intrigues of this time period. i'm sure it was just as crazy as today. perhaps this should be my challenge for next year's post: detailed information about the fourth of july in 1840!

(addendum: 1840 presidential election saw democratic incumbent martin van buren running for re-election against william henry harrison. there was an economic panic in 1837, similar to a recession, and the whigs wanted to take back the white house so they picked war hero harrison - who was born before america was america and had led the battle of tippecanoe in 1811 against native american tecumseh - and played up the women's influences over their spouse's votes; the slogan was "tippecanoe and tyler too." it was the first time parties began calling each other names; the whigs called van buren, martin van ruin, and built up harrison's image. they put his picture on cups and mugs and pockets for ladies. none of the pictures matched, but no one knew what he looked like anyway, and spread stories about him. it was the biggest voter turnout and harrison won bya landslide. he caught pneumonia after his inaugural speech and died a month later. vice-president john tyler was now president and changed parties!)

we are all enamored with the different prints on the dresses. we love morgana's brown/beige dress (you can see it in yesterday's post) and also the green dress on the girl all the way on the right. it's a beautiful olive/evergreen color with a dot print.

these children are part of the village's childrens' camps. i saw them practicing their marching all week.

 the oxen were very well-behaved and knew what they were doing . . 

these cows were not! i saw this young man practicing with them on monday and tuesday. they were not happy campers and often tried to go in the opposite direction of what he wanted!

many of the sturbridge visitors that were there today come every year to this celebration. many have family and friends participating.

this is the stand at which the speeches were made and the declaration read. they also read out each signer state by state. i had fun clapping for new york, along with several other people to my right. there was a very loud and enthusiastic contingent from rhode island!

after all the speeches, the militia men fired their muskets three times. of course we had to wait for them to reload. this is the final round, after which we were all urged to cheer "hip hip hooray," three times.

the fife and drum corps played at the end of the day (note the number of stars on the flag-26! michigan was the last state at this time to come into the union; here is a link to the states' order of entry).

they were excellent and i could have listened all evening.

here is caroline (she did the hot air balloon event) taking down the flag while the fife and drum corps played. (morgana and i like her hat!)

  i enjoyed her seriousness and skill at folding the flag. she didn't break character as she walked away, but kept her steps slow and carried the flag carefully in her arms.

back at aunt kathy's i took a picture of morgana's braids. she had fixed her hair special for the day. of course no one sees it hidden beneath her cap! however, she said many of her intern friends exclaimed over it in the morning before they all went out for the day.

after dinner (we had a very american meal of hot dogs and burgers and salad and beer bread with sturbridge fudge for dessert), we waved sparklers that aunt kathy had found in stop and shop. they were really fun and went from white sparks to colorful shooting stars.

while morgana and i were busy at sturbridge, chanda had a busy day with aunt kathy. at 10 am this morning she had her swimming lesson and swam out to the dock with her instructor. it was a long swim and she did a great job. i felt a little sad at not being there, but i know aunt kathy was an enthusiastic cheerleader and made chanda feel good about her accomplishment. they also went bike riding with uncle warren when he came home from work. and they probably had ice cream too!

 chanda and morgana each got to do two sparklers.

 happy independence day!