Monday, August 13, 2012

My weekend away

I took Friday off and headed out to central Massachusetts to two living history villages: Old Sturbridge Village (OSV) and Historic Deerfield. While I have been in Deerfield before, I have never visited any of the houses or museums, and I have never been to Old Sturbridge Village. It was such a nice relaxing weekend celebrating one of the things I love most: history.

After running some errands Friday morning, I arrived in OSV just in time for lunch. Had a yummy chicken pot pie and then set out to see the village. It is set in the 1820s or 1830s. It was kind of rainy so I didn't see as much as I usually would. I loved being greeted by all these flags as I arrived.


One of my favorite places was the general store. There I saw some of the essences that people could buy for medicinal purposes. Most were alcohol or opium based, so of course they made people feel better temporarily!


At 2:00 I had a meeting with Christie, a specialist in gardens and herbs, to glean more information for my thesis. It was wonderful to talk with her and I have some more resources now to work with. I learned that usually once a week they have demonstrations on medicinal therapies and how to make them in the home, based on what they did in the 1820s and 1830s. Will have to go back for that, even though it's a bit later than the period for my thesis.
 

If you want to know more about sickness in the household--a display at the house where Christie was working.

It is so beautiful out there in Central Massachusetts. I wish it wasn't raining so I could have taken more pictures.


It started raining harder after that, so I ended up leaving earlier than planned and heading out to Deerfield for the rest of the weekend.


1 comment:

Lorin and Marilyn said...

I liked Christie's bonnet, much different than pioneer ones. So glad we don't have to wear hats and bonnets today.