LIVING HISTORY

They used to call them reenactments. Now they call them living history. But it's the same thing: people dress up like people did in colonial, revolutionary, civil war times and make believe for a few hours/days. I've been trying to get my guy to join the group around here but so far, without success.

Last weekend, they had the reenactors/living historians at Horton House on Jekyll Island and we went over to see what was going on. There was the obligatory Oglethorpe (illustrious founder of Georgia) naturally, along with some firing demonstrations of muskets (loud). Oglethorpe is the one on the left--the one not hidden by the woman's mob cap on the lower right.

Thirsty? We got water in mugs made of the stoneware stuff that they used back then. But of course, with real dishes, you have to have someone to wash them. You can't see it, but she had a pan of soapy water on her left and a clear pan on her right. Guess this one was the first rinse water.

There were also spinning wheels. We got to see women spinning yarn, then we got a lesson on dying yarn. Another lady had indigo cakes and showed us how she dilutes them in water and dips the yarn for varying shades of blue. Dying her hands blue at the same time! See the blue stuff hanging up in the back? That's dyed yarn skeins.

There were also rope makers (twisting palm fronds/other plants to make ropes and then using the ropes to braid seats for stools and chairs), tinsmiths (kids were allowed to hammer designs in ornaments), rag doll makers (kids/adults were happy to put together the simplest rag doll design I've ever seen!), a butter churner (he made great butter), bread cooked in iron pots in the coal (with the homemade butter, talk about good!), and lots of other things.

Oh, and there was a colonial toy booth, featuring toys like sticks and hoops and other games. It was fun seeing today's electronic age kids trying to play with them.

All in all, we had a great time.

LIVING HISTORY

We went up to Fort Frederica yesterday to see the reenactors walking around and talking about the colonial history of the area. At one time we were the southern outpost, or frontier, of Georgia. But I won't get into that. It was cold and threatening to rain so we didn't stay long, but I have some pix of the reenactors.

Let's start off with a picture of a street sign. Frederica was laid out very neatly with nice straight streets and alleys. Now the signs are about all that's left to mark where they were, although they do keep the remains mowed.

And I need to make it clear these people don't call themselves reenactors; they call themselves living history. This General Oglethorpe pretender was in a rather heated discussion with a visitor regarding the reason for John Wesley's hurried flight from Georgia. The visitor said he was run off; Oglethorpe said he left on his own. I didn't dally in case they came to fisticuffs!

These are some soldiers huddled around a fire. They needed it today, too. I was turning blue.

And some more soldiers under a tent. It wasn't nearly as cozy as the open-air fire, to my way of thinking.

This one is of a soldier, an Indian, and a woman. They had a varied assortment of people at Frederica. The Indian Mary Musgrove lived in her own tabby house here. Charles Wesley (John's brother) stayed here, too, but was accused of adultery and left pretty quickly.

This last picture is of a Scot. The Scots were the backbone of the Frederica settlement. This one, he explained to us, was called a "pretty man." Nope, not because of his looks, though he's certainly a handsome fellow. Seems a "pretty man" means a man who's armed to the teeth. And he was! You can see the dirk handle sticking out from his coat on his right side and one of his two pistols on his left. There's also a sword on the left that we saw, although the picture doesn't show it. And his concealed knife was at his back under his coat. So he was indeed a "pretty man" arms wise!

All in all, a good day, even with the cold and raindrops!

MORNING WALK

Took our walk this morning even though the temp was in the fifties!!! Brrr! We were a little late because we waited for it to warm up, so the tour van was parked by the pier waiting for a load of tourists.

Notice the two flags, American and English on it. That's because Oglethorpe, who founded Georgia before the Revolutionary War, used us as an outpost to keep the Spanish away from Savannah. We did the job nicely, fending them off with the Battle of Bloody Marsh in 1742.

The name is rather misleading since only seven Spaniards died during this battle along with one English defender from heatstroke. I always figured it for a massacre!

If you look closely under the blue pavilion left of the middle, you can see a ship anchored in the sound. I have no idea what this ship is doing but it's been here for over a week. Sometimes ships anchor there when their cargo hasn't reached the port; they don't have to pay port/mooring fees except for when they actually receive their loads. Maybe that's what it's doing. Anyway, here's a little better picture of it as it skulks around.