Presenting at Lisa's School

Just as I arrived at Lisa's school for our presentations, I got a text from Leslie and Rick. They live in Brookston, a small town north of West Lafayette, and a train was on the tracks and blocking their way!

Due to road construction also going on, seeking an alternative route that didn't take them miles out of their way wasn't an option.

Fortunately the train finally rolled through town and they made it to school with a few minutes to spare.

Lisa and her fellow 4th grade teachers had split their students into three groups, and they rotated through the presentations every twenty minutes. Part of Indiana's 4th grade Social Studies state standards is Indiana's history, and Fort Ouiatenon's story is an important part of that.

Leslie and Rick presented on what a day in the life of an 18th century nine year old would look like.

Lisa had lots of artifacts to share and discuss. The King's Rope is always popular. Made for me by a rope maker at the Feast years ago when I was teaching, it is a rope with a red thread embedded within it. That red thread indicated that the rope belonged to the King and was a way of preventing theft.

I taught the kids a little French, discussed the First Nations found in Indiana in the 18th century, and showed them period clothing. The Bum Rolls, Panniers, and Frances Rump were especially popular. Not really a surprise - they do seem funny to 21st century minds of all ages! 

The students in each of my sessions were fantastic and anxious to learn. I love teaching, and while I was tired when I finished, I came home happy. Some days I really, really miss teaching and being with kids all day.

On the docket for today is tent set-up. Curt is meeting Craig and me out at Ouiatenon at 1:30 and will help get it up. I'll stay after they leave and begin arranging things inside.  A customer is going to meet me and pick up an order, too.

I won't stay too long. I received a last minute order to sew a chemise and need to finish that plus I am really trying to conserve my energy by breaking things to do into small pieces. Regardless, it will be a busy day.

Before I go, here is a link to a reel from yesterday that takes a look at how the grounds are morphing into an 18th century outpost. Enjoy!

https://www.facebook.com/reel/2702250540114427

Stay 'tooned!

Vintage Club, Vintage Clothes, & "Vintage" Pup - Part 3

Second Post of the Day

I said I would get back to all three vintage topics, but I have yet to share about the vintage clothes. The hold up? I am waiting to be able to access the photos. 

The publicist for the Tippecanoe School Corporation came and photographed the seminars that Lisa, Leslie, Rick, and I taught at Lisa's school and she hasn't yet released the story. When she does, I should be able to share the photos that she took of us presenting to the kiddos.

Leslie and Rick gave a seminar of "A Day in the Life of a Child at Fort Ouiatenon" to give the students an idea of what their own lives would have looked like had they been living back then. (Feedback from the kiddos is that Rick's demonstration of a flint and steel was super cool!)

Lisa's seminar was very hands-on. She showed artifacts from not only the 18th century, but from thousands of years of Indiana's history - a stone ball, spear points and arrowheads, a fife, lantern,

and a King's rope! (Which I think is especially neat and we are lucky to have.) 

To prevent theft, a red thread would be woven in with the hemp fibers in rope that was being made for royalty. That made the rope very identifiable as belonging to the King, and penalties for stealing a King's rope were severe. 

I was at the Feast with my students years ago and we watched a rope maker making this particular King's rope. When he finished, he gave it to me as a gift. I passed it on to Lisa when I retired. Some day I hope to find that rope maker at the Feast and let him know that his gift is still being used to educate kiddos twenty odd years later!

As for me, my seminar was about teaching the students to speak a few French phrases (Fort Ouiatenon was a French outpost) and then about the clothing that was worn in the 18th century and how those clothes also communicated much about the person wearing them.

The kids guessed this necklace would have belonged to a priest or a "Jesus believer" as one boy phrased it. It's a French cross, also known as the Cross of Lorraine or even older, the Cross d'Anjou, a symbol that dates back  to medieval times. (And there's  fascinating story about how it had a resurgence in World War II as a symbol of Free France and a counter to the Nazi swasticka.)

The Ouiatenon cross, discovered when excavating the site of the fort, is also a  Cross d'Anjou. 

Rick is a silversmith and received permission to replicate it in trade silver.

He gifted it to my mother (Leslie did the beadwork) and now I have it and wear it.

When I asked what a necklace with bear teeth or claws on it might communicate to others, they suggested that the person was displaying that he was brave. Another said it might be a warning to not mess with him because he had taken down a bear! (See why I love teaching so much? What a great answer!)

When talking about the clothing I'd brought to show them, I was asked who'd made it. I replied that I had as well as the clothing that I was wearing, and there was a brief silence. 

Then, "You made all that??" 

I replied again that I had, and there was another silence. 

Finally a small voice from the back, "Wow." 

Made me smile. But, later that day as I continued taking inventory, I felt a similar emotion when I counted and recorded all I'd made to take to this year's Feast:

15 men's shirts

6 chemises/shifts

6 bedgowns

4 shortgowns

4 cloaks

5 aprons

2 panniers/pocket hoops

5 bum rolls

7 pockets

9 pin pillows

3 hussifs (sewing cases)

146 blackened beeswax ornaments

14 natural beeswax ornaments

I honestly had no idea I'd made so many things until I finished inventorying everything yesterday.

Wow, indeed.

I Didn't, But I Did

I didn't ever do this!

(Yes, that little girl really has taken her pony into the wading pool.)

But I did do this!

That's Cee and me swimming in Burnett Creek just behind the Battlefield. Right where Mary Cutler, the Tippecanoe County Naturalist, has taken my class to do water sampling and lectured us on the importance of water quality and keeping Burnett Creek clean. I have never had the heart to tell her that Leslie and I used to swim our horses in that very spot!