Spring Historical Activities: Colonial Cabin, School Presentation, Greenfield Village Visits & Motor Muster, and More...

Spring into Summer~

This year of 2025,  summer begins June 20  (the date this post is published)  at 10:42 pm EST.

I found myself to be quite busy these past few months,  often finding myself coming up with my own  opportunities to wear my period clothing outside of the bonafide reenactments --- and it's mostly these extra's that makes up this week's Passion for the Past blog post.  Hope you enjoy~

:.:.:

On Saturday May 10,  a few of us ventured to Waterloo Farm Museum to the cabin for Jackson County's Free Museum Day.  We spent the day in the year 1775 and planted,  cooked on the hearth,  spoke to many visitors,  and celebrated Rogation Day  (click HERE).

A couple weeks later,  on May 26  (Memorial Day),  my wife and I donned our 1770s farm clothes and ventured back to weed and do some more planting at the cabin.

Here's how it went:

Inside the cabin,  ready to go to work.

When Patty & I venture out on our own like this,  we usually don't cook on the hearth.  Our main objective on such days is to work in the kitchen garden and then sit back for a few inside the cabin before leaving.

Patty's got the beets!

Since beginning this colonial cabin adventure back in the fall of 2020,  we have learned and experienced so much.  However,  probably the one thing that I have come to fully realize is how much colonial folk depended on their kitchen garden and,  had we actually lived during the 1770s,  how much we would depend on farming in general.  Everyone had a hand in agriculture!  It seems our day is mostly based around the vegetables and other plants we grow - we spend much of our time gathering around the kitchen garden to dig,  plant,  weed,  and harvest.

So much so,  in fact,  that Patty & I come out as often as we can to work in the garden on our own.  Just like what we did on Memorial Day Monday.

I planted pumpkins along the edge of the garden.
I'm planting by seed - I hope they take.
We're going to plant a few in cups at our home just in case they don't,  then they can be transplanted.

My outlook on the past has changed greatly since beginning this cabin adventure.  As I've noted a few years back,  we are  "experiencing our research"  in ways I did not understand previously.

I pray that this cabin opportunity continues...

Patty caring for the lima beans and green beans.

Even though there are no other people around - no spectators - we'll still dress the part.  I don't know...I suppose it sort of gives it a mental authenticity,  allowing us to say this was done by colonials.

Watering the just-planted pumpkin seeds with an 18th century-style watering jug.  

We now pray for rain a bit more than we used to.  

We now feel more of a thrill when we see the bits of green begin popping up through the dirt.

And we take a great pride upon enjoying our harvest meal,  knowing that much of it came from our kitchen garden.

My grandfather,  born in the 1890s,  was a farmer and I grew up eating what he grew.  Of course it wasn't that important to me back then,  but now that I think of it,  it's kind of special knowing that this city boy ate food from a farmer.  I think grandpa is smiling at me for my current interest in it.

And he's smiling at my wife,  too.

Along with the pumpkins,  we planted onions...

Each year we experiement by trying new things,  or if something didn't quite make it the previous year,  such as our beets,  we will try try again.  We also plan out our fall activities and plant accordingly.  For instance,  this fall the ladies have been talking about dyeing wool. 

...and flax.
We grew flax there a few years ago,  and it did very well
(Click HERE for planting flax,  and HERE for harvesting flax)

Our flax,  once again,  is of the Blue Bell heirloom variety,  the same variety grown in past years at the Daggett house.  I hope to be able to take the trip here to see the blue flowers when they are in bloom.  If you click the links below the above photo,  you will see how our flax grew a few years ago.  We're giving it another go this year.

Charlotte's Salat  (archaic 18th century word for salad)  is doing great!

The history of salad can be traced back thousands of years.  The ancient Egyptians are believed to be the first civilization to have consumed lettuce and other leafy greens as part of their diet.  

Yes,  our experiment in time has definitely turned more agricultural,  just as it should.

Our experiment in time is about as real as it gets.  No,  we don't stay or live at the cabin,  though I imagine if my wife and I were 20 or so years younger,  perhaps we'd try a few long weekends or even weeks.  But,  for now,  these full-day trips are wonderful and fulfill our living-in-the-past  needs.

Let's jump to another spring excursion:

Less than a week earlier,  on May 20,  Larissa and I did our Daily Life on a Colonial Farm  presentation to the 5th grade kids at St. Michael the Arch Angel Catholic School in Livonia.

Like last year,  we were very pleased at how well it all went.

Larissa and I - your farm hosts!
My friend here is literally brilliant when it comes to colonial  (and Victorian)  farm life, 
for she works at Greenfield Village at Colonial Daggett Farm and at the
1880s Firestone Farm,  and has for over 25 years.

Larissa and I have been portraying a farm couple since 2014,  when we began to expand our time and activities in the 1860s.  Now we now easily fall into our roles in either era:  1860s or 1770s.

We speak of our lives past living season to season,  morning til night,  and explain not only what our  lives would have been like living in the 1770s,  but to the children and what their lives would have been like had they lived during  "our"  time.  We sort of played the role of their parents and explained their role in the family.

We also brought along a few items for them to try,  such as carrying milking or watering buckets with a yoke.

A group photo~
These kids,  like last year,  had well thought-out questions for us.
Plus we really love having them dress the part - it adds so much to everyone's experience!

Another teacher,  Emily Marchetti,  asked us to stop by her room before we left,
and she snapped this pic of us.

Both Larissa and I very much enjoy speaking to the school kids,  for if we can get their brains in tune with the past,  we may hopefully place a seed into the minds of future history scholars.

I usually try to make it to historic Greenfield Village around once a week,  or at least twice a month at the very least.  Sometimes I'll go dressed in my period clothing,  usually when my friend Norm and I will go together,  though I also go in my modern clothes.

However,  I visited on my own on April 19th to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the Revolutionary War.  And I dressed as I should on such a day.

I wrote a post about that HERE.  But here are a few pictures which were not included in that post:

"My good woman,  can you please repair the hole in my shirt?"
"I can,  and will,  for pay."
"Done and done!"

Gigi and I at the Daggett House.

Posing near the Martha-Mary Chapel,  a replication of a New England church.

Doesn't this picture just evoke Easter?

That's because it was!
Easter Sunday was a quiet day for us,  for this year we celebrated the weekend before with our family.  So Easter Sunday this year was fairly quiet - Patty & I went to the movie theater to see  "The Chosen."  Then we picked up our son Miles and went to Greenfield Village.  Sadly,  the restaurants had closed shortly before we got there.  Still,  with the New England architectural style of the Martha-Mary Chapel and the 1831 Eagle Tavern - plus horses and a carriage - the past loomed up before us.

Early May
I snapped this photo of the Daggett House,  built around 1750, 
from the Cotswold Cottage,  built around 1620.

As far as always been said,  this Cotswold Cottage from England was built in the year 1620.  Well,  I heard there's suspicion that it may have actually been built a hundred years earlier.  Either way,  it's from the Renaissance period in world history!  It's not a replica---it's the real deal,  MacNeil!
Now to get a few of my 17th century or Renaissance friends to dress in their period garb so we can take some amazing photos!

Still in early May here,  and I took this photo solely on the basis of its turn-of-the-20th century appeal,  including the Model T.  It could almost be a scene out of the old Cagney movie,  "The Strawberry Blonde."

Norm and I in the Daggett doorway - on my birthday  (later May)!

I listened to The Beatles  "When I'm 64"  a number of times that day - can you guess my age?  lol

This next shot would have been perfect had I snapped it seconds earlier,  but presenter Lyle  (inside wearing green)  was walking faster than I had realized.  But I still have a story/lesson to go with it:

Here you go:  one of the Daggett daughters,  perhaps Talitha,  is in the kitchen and will soon help to prepare their noontime meal,  while mother Anna is in the kitchen garden,  pulling the greens - it’s asparagus season!  The family has been waiting all winter for the delicious greens to begin popping and fresh vegetables can once again be eaten.  Oftentimes,  they may tire of this  “sparrow grass,”  for it seemed nearly all dinner meals included it.

Yes,  asparagus was also known as sparrow grass in the 18th and even into the 19th century.  “The term  "sparrow grass"  is a folk etymology,  a word changed through informal usage,  likely associating the word  "asparagus"  with  "sparrow"  and  "grass"  due to its appearance.”

I love learning this sort of thing!

Over the years,  I've learned so much about colonial life from the presenters at the Daggett House.  No need for me to name who they were - they know - and some have even mentioned to me that they've learned from me as well.  I love the sharing of knowledge.

From the more rural Daggett House we found our way to the urban  (for the 18th century)  Giddings House.  

Norm and I in front of the home once belonging to John Giddings.

I was back just two days later,  on May 24th:

Chuck and Gigi working in the kitchen garden.

Along with the more common vegetables and herbs known in our modern times,  this garden is filled with such a variety of heirloom plants as such one never sees or hears about unless in a historic situation.

In so many places - especially history books - agriculture seems to be downplayed or just simply overlooked.  
Not here---rumor is apple trees will soon be a-comin'!
And rightly so,  for Sam Daggett placed great importance on his apple orchard and cider making.  But in the meantime,  in the kitchen garden...

Besides the varieties of squash,  beans,  lettuce,  asparagus,  and other vegetables used to help sustain the family,  Anna Daggett would have also grown plants for medical purposes as well,  including wormwood,  which was a purgative for stomach issues or worms,  tansy was used to stop bleeding and bruising,  and chamomile,  which was used,  same as it is today,  to make a calming tea.

I almost always eat at the Eagle Tavern when I visit Greenfield Village
while wearing my colonial clothing.
Even though this building was made in 1831,  it still has the feel of a colonial tavern.

In all the years I've been going to this tavern,  for the first time to my knowledge, 
they are serving pasties!
SO good!

Memorial Day at Greenfield Village use to mean Civil War Remembrance reenactment.  I participated in that event for something like sixteen or seventeen years - it could have been considered the best reenactment of the year!

Alas,  but it's all over now.

Except...they throw together little  "pop ups"  to make up for it,  I suppose.

No guns involved that way.

So they had a Civil War era Ladies Aid Society pop up event at Smiths Creek Depot - ladies of the early 1860s sewing items for soldiers off fighting in the Civil War~~~
That's my friend,  Larissa,  walking to the depot.

Most here are my friends and I have reenacted with them for a couple of decades.

Every-so-often I like to do a sepia tin-type kind of  "print"  when photographing the 1860s.
I remember when someone said that I should put my colonial pictures into sepia as well because,  you know,  it would look more authentic.
Think about it a minute...

Meanwhile,  over at my favorite house - - - 

The Saturday Daggett crew.

"What'd I tell you about doing the garden,  digging the weeds?!"

What is Gigi making now?

Why...she made a seed cake - looks wonderful!

I bet it tasted amazing!!

Sure looks good!

While over at the Ford House they are making cheese.

Larissa peaks inside the kitchen door~

You can see a part of the cheese making process here - look into the wood bushel.

I loved the large wooden cheese press.

Jessica - dish washing in a dry sink.

Now we're into early June~~~a rainy one at that!

After a rainy morning...

Here in early June they finally opened up the Giddings House and I was able to go inside.

A Greenfield Village visitor happened to see me in the window,  just as you see me in the picture,  and she told her kids I looked like a ghost!  So,  naturally,  I had her take a picture just as she saw me~

And then she snapped another of me on the front stoop.

And,  on Father's Day Weekend,  Greenfield Village has its annual Motor Muster,  celebrating the automobile from around 1933 up through 1978.

Here is this year's program

Throughout the acreage of Greenfield Village are hundreds and hundreds of wonderfully restored automobiles - and not just Fords  (lol).  There are also bicycles,  motor boats,  campers,  race cars...sadly I did not get any photos of these other vehicles,  for I spent most of my time at the World War Two vignette speaking with my friends.  Maybe next year I'll go earlier and spend the day walking around to visit all of the decades and see all of the different things. 

I love the cars from the 1930s probably more than any other period.  That's not saying I don't like cars from other periods,  just that the 1930s happens to be my favorite decade for autos.

My father was in WWII,  and he and my mother got married soon after the war ended,  so growing up in the 1960s and 70s,  I heard a lot of big band music,  watched the classic black & white movies on TV  (Cagney,  Bogart,  Hepburn,  et al),  and heard stories when my dad and uncles got together,  so I had a 1940s thread running through my life,  similar to my own kids  (who are now in their 20s and 30s)  hearing a lot of my music,  my stories,  watching my movies when they were younger.

Anyhow,  I am very familiar with the 1940s,  so I suppose that's one big reason why I enjoy being around this period.

My mom and maybe my aunt?  lol

My mom used to tell us about Victory Gardens.

Mary,  Meg,  and Gigi

The evening dance theme for this year,  like last year,  was the 1970s.

They hired a band to play the variety of tunes that blasted out of our radios back in the day.

And the kids danced!
We heard Joe Walsh,  Led Zeppelin,  Stevie Wonder,  Eagles,  The Police,  Looking Glass...

Every year I try to get a group shot of the dancers,  and I am so glad they allow me to do so.  The pictures are fun,  and it's probably the only group shot they have.

I also like these  "fun"  photos!

As we were leaving the Village,  I caught the sunsetting and the horses getting ready for the night.

Also,  I snapped a shot of our replicated Independence Hall.

And that was the last time I visited Greenfield Village during the spring.

On to summer~~~

Most memes I at least somewhat enjoy,  though history  'informational'  memes,  in general,  I do not.  I've seen too many that are basically nothing but agenda-filled propoganda lies used as a very poor and idiotic attempt to teach history or prove a point.

Something like this one...

...except whoever wrote this didn't do their homework either!
1)  Correct - he did not shout,  "The British are coming!"  Instead,  he was said to have shouted,  "The Regulars are coming out!  The Regulars are on the march!"
2) WRONG!  He most certainly was on horseback!  A borrowed horse from John Larkin named Brown Beauty.
3)  Partly correct - for his ride into Lexington he was alone,  though there were dozens of other riders throughout Middlesex County.
4)  Except for one small incident,  he made it to Lexington without much of a problem.  But it is true he didn't make it to Concord.

Again,  partial and half truths that too many take as solid history,  basically because the way it is written makes it sound like whoever wrote this knew what they were talking about.

Sounds more like whoever wrote this has an agenda along the lines of James Loewen.  Correcting false narratives should be corrected,  but not with more false narratives.

By the way,  as one who has worked in classrooms for eleven years,  and in public schools in general for nearly 30,  they haven't taught  "The British Are Coming"  in literally decades.  Stop bringing up things from the last century as if it's still happening.

That being said,  I do very much enjoy the humorous memes that can make a history scholar laugh:

This is at or very near the top as my favorite.

Yeah...pretty much!

Little story here - - so,  I happened to be roaming about Greenfield Village dressed in my colonial clothes - such a surprise,  eh? - when a young man from a school group happened upon me and called me George Washington.  I turned and asked him why he thought I was George Washington.  His reply was because of my tricorne hat.  So I explained to him that most men of  "my"  era wore these fashionable hats.  He then asked,  "Well,  are you John Adams then?"  I asked him what did he know about John Adams,  and he said,  "He's the man who defended the Redcoats at the Boston Massacre trial."  I smiled and asked,  "What else?"  He said that  "John Adams was also the 2nd President of the United States."  I gave him a high five and said,  "You have an awesome teacher and great parents!"

Yeah - I love when youngsters  (he was probably in 5th or 6th grade)  can know American history,  especially like him---knowing more than the average school kid.

He then asked me who I was/represented,  and,  rather than state that I was Paul Revere,  I only replied that I was an average colonial man.

Wearing my fancier duds in early June~
Yeah...there's a bus behind me,  but nevermind that---notice the Independence Hall
 replication instead!

This was taken only about an hour or so after my conversation with the young lad.

Definitely yes!
In fact...

Proof!

Okay,  so Father's Day also has a history,  but of more recent vintage:

(from Google AI - double-checked by me to ensure accuracy):  Father's Day,  celebrated annually on the third Sunday in June in the United States,  originated from the efforts of Sonora Smart Dodd,  who wanted to honor her father,  a Civil War veteran and single parent.  The first Father's Day was celebrated in Spokane,  Washington,  in 1910,  inspired by Dodd's desire to recognize the contributions of fathers,  particularly her own.  While it gained presidential support in the early 20th century,  it wasn't until 1972 that Father's Day was officially recognized as a national holiday by President Richard Nixon. 

Father's Day is a wonderful day to celebrate Dads,  as they should be celebrated.  My own father was an awesome man,  and I know his father was as well.  I tried to be as good a Dad as I could be to my own kids,  and I know my son Tommy is a spectacular father to his nearly six children.

Normally we all get together and hang out - me & my kids  (and grands),  but this year it didn't necessarily happen that way for all of us,  which happens once in a while,  for everyone had their own things to do  (though I did see Miles and Robbie,  and spoke to Tommy and Rosalia on the phone).

This year I was surprised with a couple of unexpected gifts:

totally unexpected but a wonderful day all around.

I love my family.

1)  A book called  "The Fate of the Day:  The War For America,  Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston,  1777-1780"  written by Rick Atkinson  (the 2nd part of a Revolutionary War trilogy---I already have and read volume one - volume three has not yet been published...or probably even written.  But...soon hopefully).

This set reminds me greatly of the wonderful Civil War trilogy written by Shelby Foote.  That is one of my  "go to's"  as this trilogy by Rick Atkinson will most certainly be.

But this awesome book wasn't all!

2)  A very unique and downright cool CD called  "Nottingham Ale---Tavern Music from Colonial Williamsburg,"  a very authentic recreation of an 18th century tavern environment recorded at the Raleigh Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg.

So there you go---quite a bit of history crammed into one post about one season of the year.  And music to boot!  This is an amazing hobby,  living history.

There are a few of us in this living history hobby who call each other and discuss our latest historical findings and might oftentimes discuss and even debate the information,  but always on friendly terms.  We are not typical of today where  "people don't want to hear your opinion.  They only want to hear their opinion coming out of your mouth!"

So true.  And it's not just political.

Thankfully those who I am closest with are not like that.  We listen to what each other says respectfully,  then a discussion may ensue. An open discussion.  And sometimes changes in our presentation might take place.

And we've all learned so much in this way!

Until next time,  see you in time...

Here are a few other springtime 2025 events I took part in:
Opening Day at Greenfield Village - HERE

Commemorating April 18th and 19th 1775 - HERE

Michigan's reenactment of Battles of Lexington & Concord - HERE

Springtime at the Cabin - HERE

Traveling the Freedom Trail in Boston - HERE
Traveling Battle Road - Lexington & Concord - HERE

Colonial Taylor - HERE

AND------

How about our previous colonial life cabin excursions?

(remember - each year listed here we are representing 250 years earlier:

2020 = 1770

2021 = 1771

2022 = 1772

2023 = 1773

2024 = 1774

and now

2025 = 1775

~To read about our 2020 excursion - our first autumn at the cabin - click HERE

~To read about our 2021 wintertime excursion at the cabin - click HERE

~To read about our 2021 springtime excursion at the cabin - click HERE

~To read about our 2021 summertime excursion at the cabin - click HERE

~To read about our 2021 summer harvesting of the flax at the cabin - click HERE

~To read about our 2021 autumn excursion - click HERE

~To read about our 2022 winter excursion at the cabin - please click HERE

~To read about our 2022 spring excursion at the cabin - please click HERE

~To read about our 2022 summer excursion at the cabin - please click HERE

~To read about our 2022 autumn excursion at the cabin  (Pioneer Day) - please click HERE

~To read about our 2023 winter excursion at the cabin - please click HERE

~To read about our 2023 spring excursion at the cabin - please click HERE

~To read about our 2023 late spring at the cabin - click HERE

~To read about the 2023 early summer - please click HERE

~To read about the 2023 mid-summer - please click HERE

~To read about the 2023 autumn Pioneer Day - please click HERE

~To read about our 2023 Thanksgiving harvest celebration - please click HERE

~To read about our 2024 Winter experience at the cabin - please click HERE

~To read about our 2024 spring excursion at the cabin - please click HERE

~To read about our 2024 late spring with just Patty & I - click HERE 

~To read about our 2024 summer - please click HERE

~To read about our 2024 mid-and-late-summer - please click HERE

~To read about our 2024 mid-September - click HERE

~To read about our 2024 autumn Pioneer Day Celebration - please click HERE

~To read about our 2024 Thanksgiving Harvest - please click HERE

~To read about our 2024 Christmas at the Farm Cabin presentation - please click HERE

~To read about our 2025 winter & Candlemas day - please click HERE

~To read about our 2025 spring/early May excursion - please click HERE

Including today's post,  that makes 29 days spent in the good old colony days!

By the way,  I simply cannot thank enough those special folk at the Waterloo Farm Museum for their allowance for us to have such experiences.

We are so honored.  And grateful.

I am also honored to visit the past with my cabin cohorts of  Patty  (who just happens to be my wife),  Larissa,  Charlotte,  Norm,  and Jackie  (and sometimes a few others here and there),  for,  without them,  none of this would even happen.

~~~~~~~~~