More from My Travel Sketch Book

Since it's vacation time, I thought I'd include more pages from my travel sketch book (see my June 16th posting) as further inspiration for you to start a sketch book of your own.

Olive trees and the Alpilles mountains in Provence

Scenes from Dieulefit, France

A Marsden Hartley painting in Boston's Museum of Fine Arts

Looking out over the hills of Ojai, California

Calvin Coolidge's Vermont birthplace

The Indian Ocean from a beach in Bali

Wooden statue of Guanyin at the Honolulu Academy of Arts (great spot, by the way)

A local lake, done to the tune of bull frogs.

Crossing the Canadian Rockies by train

A Visit to Old Sturbridge Village

The Fenno Barn and pasture

On the Fourth of July, family members and I drove the nearly 90 miles down to the heart of Massachusetts to Old Sturbridge Village, listed as "an 1830's working village and farm with costumed artisans and farmers." With plenty of sunshine and just-right temperatures, it was a perfect day.  A fife and drum ensemble tootled along various byways over the course of the day. A crowd gathered late morning to hear a reading of the Declaration of Independence plus patriotic poetry followed by a naturalization ceremony welcoming new American citizens who had chosen to be sworn in on that particular day and in that particular place.  And at 1:00, militia fired a cannon in celebration of the Fourth.

Our little party, in the meantime, was busy taking a gander at the turkeys plus spring lambs and chicks ... with a peek inside the Fenno House where one woman was carding wool, another twisting it into yarn, and a third wrapping it on a measuring rod.  Though not all shown everyday, OSV demonstrations include dying wool, weaving, blacksmithing, operating the sawmill, making soup over an open fire (and bread in a brick oven), grinding corn, making pots, shoes, and brooms, plus firing that cannon on special occasions.  All great fun.

We also discovered what is called the game of graces (from the French le jeu des graces), an early 19th century lawn game played with small hoops and sticks that young girls enjoyed and that supposedly helped them become graceful.  Basically, it involved tossing and catching a small hoop with the use of two sticks, one in each hand.

Here are some photos of our day.

Spring lambs

Coach ride

Center Meetinghouse

Turkeys

Friends Meetinghouse

Wrapping twisted yarn

Style of the day

Wallpaper in the Towne House

The Towne House dining room

A bedroom in the Towne House

Part of the Towne House kitchen

One of many flyers outside the general store

Tending one of the gardens

Making pea soup (right-hand pot) in the Bixby House

Carding Mill (in front) and Grist Mill

Inside the Carding Mill

Militia getting ready to fire the cannon

18th Century Version

I don't know about you, but whenever I run into the term, "Revolutionary War patriot," I waft through a few visions including Mel Gibson yelling, fighting, making a big fuss in the movie, Patriot, which, in fact, I never saw.  (Who needs more bloodshed!)  Or, I envision our F. Fathers in their 18th century attire doing Their Thing to Make Things Right.  Patriots, all.  All, of course, done with fervor, for flag and country.

So, when I came upon a piece from that day requiring every male to take an oath, I realized it had been less fervor and more livelihood.  That or else leave the country, please.  All this came up when I was working on my genealogy bit last year and found several antecedents with a little subscript note to the effect that they had "taken the oath."

That meant, at least in their state of Maryland, that all free males over 18 were required to go to the magistrate of their county by a certain date and take an oath renouncing the king of England and supporting the new revolutionary government.  Or else.  If they didn't, they would have to pay triple their annual taxes on real and personal property.  They would be prohibited from practicing their trade or profession including medicine, pharmacy, law, education, church.  They could not vote or hold any civil or military office.  And then the magistrates had to submit the proper paper work or be fined 500 pounds.   Hmmm ... why did I imagine the whole thing was more voluntary than that?

So one, then, became a patriot or remained a loyalist, royalist, or Tory and skedaddled off to Canada or returned to Albion unless he didn't care about his job or could afford to triple his tax rate.  One family antecedent, finding himself in Boston in 1775, decided things were heating up so got himself north of the border where that branch of the family remains.