Thanks to a heads up from a friend, we attended a unique event this weekend, a County Fair set in the Civil War era. The weekend proved exciting.  This time our travels took us to historic Spotsylvania, scene of the Civil War.  I'm sure all of you who know me are shocked!  You are probably saying to yourselves, "She and her family did something that is not related to Colonial Williamsburg? Amazing!"  Well, yes, we've been to county fairs in Texas and New York and I've seen advertisements for tons of them here in Virginia. When I heard about this Civil War twist, I thought that definitely distinguished it from the others. Then my friend told me about a vintage baseball team, comprised of a surprise team, that would be playing. We definitely had to go and cheer them on! When we got to the fair, surprise, surprise! We were thrilled to see many familiar faces from Colonial Williamsburg reenacting various  stuff in the 19th century in their free time. This reenacting bug must be contagious because the kids and I were recruited by the US Army to do reenactments with them.   I was thrilled to meet the CW historian who led the interesting slide show on the Battle of Williamsburg last May. I told him we had recently moved from Texas, so we especially enjoyed the Texas story.  He has quite a versatility of talent!  Also reenacting in her free time was the educational director from the Mariner's Museum!  I told her about our season passes and our trip there last week to see the Monitor and Merrimac exhibit and she told us about more stuff to see. The CW historian told me that she had a lot to do with that exhibit. Wow! Excellent job! I also met the director at another museum....well we'll get to that in a bit. Let's begin at the top!

     After getting situated with a map and schedule, we heard the Medicine  Show beckoning to us. I had no idea what to expect at a Medicine Show, although  I've heard of them before.  All I could imagine was sitting there and learning about medications.  That didn't exactly sound thrilling, but I was game to try it out. Actually, it was about medicine and they were trying to sell various cure-alls like pain pads, which you'll see in use later.  But the star of the line up was the powerful elixer...actually a popular concoction sold by Medicine Shows, made of alcohol and laudanum. Laudanam is derived from opium and was commonly used for ailments and was highly addictive. This was before the government regulated medications and claims to cure.   Although the goal was to sell these products, they spent most of their time entertaining the audience for free, while throwing in a plug for the elixer now and then. We were taught how to be a proper audience of the 19th century...cheering loudly!...engaging with the actors!...yelling encore!....being extremely vocal!  They were hilarious! I was laughing so hard my sides  hurt.  Sadly I am not going to be able to communicate the humor, because it was all in the delivery and timing.  You'll have to take my word for it! 

     Dr. Murdock played the banjo.  They sang old songs like "Old Dan Tucker".  

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 Showing off his Herculean strength, he even let one of the ladies feel his burley muscles to attest to his massive strength...

...posing like figure on a Grecian Urn.  Then he turned around and posed so we could see the back of the urn...

Guzzling down the elixer. (really berry juice) Um, he was told to take a sip. 

After my husband verifyied that this was a 50 pound stone, it was laid on the brother's stomach and smashed. Ouch!  He put on a pain pad.

Hmmmm, I think he was telling us something that he thought was really, really important.  It was so important to him that we remember this, that he did the scene twice.  I wonder what he wanted us to remember...

Getting splashed in the face.  "Encore!!!!!!" we all yelled.  Frustrated with us, he got a plan. He redid the scene, after sneaking to the other side of the booth, but she popped up over there and got him wet again! "Bravo!!!!!"

Drying off. hee hee

The end of the puppet show...the puppet stars take a bow!!!!

Then everyone else took a bow.  Notice the brother is now wearing three pain pads!

Later we learned about Negro spirituals and their codes.  We learned that no more spirituals were written after the war, because their primary purpose was for codes to help the slaves prepare to run away to freedom. The speaker explained the codes and sang many of the songs for us. Interestingly, "Amazing Grace" is written with the same types of notes as a spiritual, using the Pentatonic scale.  Did you know you can play "Amazing Grace" strictly on the black keys (five of them; penta=5).  I tried this yesterday with a version of the song using white and black keys. I played all the notes on the  5 black keys and it was still "Amazing Grace."  

     Next on the stage was a debate from events in 1859 through the beginning of the war.  Back then they could go on and on and on and on. They represented actual Congressmen from their era and the man on the left was known for speaking for h-o-u-r-s without letting anyone else get a word in edgewise. The National Park Ranger told us he would make sure that didn't happen and I yelled out, "Thank you!" to which everyone laughed. (What got into me?  I'm I'm getting influenced by all this audience engagement! I'd better be careful when I reenter the 21st century!)  

Then we walked around the vendors.  There were some unique things here. We met with bee keepers and they tried to sign us up. They even said there were classes in our little town. Well......I snuck out of that one. Then we met the alpacas.  I greatly admired the handiwork from their wool. I would love to have a collection of various colors of skeins of wool. There is something cozy and relaxing about them.  Yet I haven't crocheted in years and I don't know how to knit. 

     Then we visited a basketmaker from Gloucester. I told her I had bought kits and we tried our hand at basketmaking last year.  As a result, we have great respect for her handiwork!  She volunteered to drive up here to give a class on basketmaking, if I can find enough people to join. Her work was quite unique, beautifully and creatively employing items like a Civil War era stirrup (that was actually my favorite due to the coloring and overall look. The stirrup really is subtle.)  walnut slices, beads, curved handles, etc.

     Next we visited the photographer.  This was my favorite!  A Union soldier reenactor was having his picture done and the process was fascinating.

This is his dark room.

Getting ready to take the picture.

I asked a million questions. He gave me his card. He is the director for one of the museums. Ahhh, I knew he had to have a connection like this. As much as I've tried to make things historically authentic for our unit celebrations, it isn't easy because I'm not in the know for how to access items that are no longer used.  He also cleared up some misconceptions. Do you know why people didn't smile in pictures in the 19th century? It is a common misconcetion that it is because they had to sit so long. That is not true. The actual pose only takes a few seconds. I saw it done and this photograher does everything according to instructions in his guide book from the Civil War. Back then, picture taking was taken seriously. People dressed up and posed seriously. It was concerned ridiculous to smile and get toothy for as dignified an ocassion as having one's picture taken.  In his museum, he is putting together a myth display and this is one of them. We asked about other things and he said that one of the things we brought up needed to be added to his display!   

     Do you know what this is?

The double picture, when viewed with a special set of lenses, makes the image 3D.

My son pretending to be old fashioned.

While my husband asked loads of questions about a rifle, my daughter and I met with the surgeon to learn about their methods. Did you know that the Civil War is the first time the hospital went to the soldier, and many of their ideas are used today?  I asked why the Civil War was the first time for this. That question surprised him but he quickly recovered, and we got into a lengthy yet interesting discussion about the media being more prominent.  They were able to quickly print the news and the public was uproared. There were wounded soldiers from Manassas, walking back to Washington DC. He said he realized I probably don't realize the distance.  Oh yes I do! I have driven that route more than once!  In the course of our conversation, I brought up Florence Nightengale and Clara Barton and he added another lady from New Hampshire, Harriet Patience Dame.

     We ended the day by looking at the historic fire engines from around Virginia.

The guys really got into it.

The next day we went back to watch vintage baseball! 

We certainly enjoyed watching and cheering on our favorite team from Williamsburg, incidentally made up of Colonial Williamsburg employees doing this in their free time. They are a new team and this was their first game! 

The other team was from Maryland.

To see who starts the game, you do something with the bat, but I wasn't able to quite catch the details.

 The rules were extremely different back then.  No designated hitters. No swearing. No cussing. No gloves! 

Therefore to catch a ball, you may allow the ball to bounce once then catch it, for it to count as an out.  Nevertheless, there were several times the guys caught the ball in mid air, even without the glove.

You can't overrun first base.  

The ball is a bit different, a bit softer, but not much for bare hands. 

Yea!!!! The first point ever scored by Williamsburg in their very first game. I thought it was appropriate who scored the first point!

In the Victorian era, this was a gentlemanly sport, and meant to be played for the enjoyment of the game. Actually he injured his thumb before the game.  Yet he was a great sport and was the "Thumbs Up" guy!  

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  After a great game, the players gathered around while the team captains gave speeches.

Then they shook hands.

We went back to the photographer who was taking team pictures. Wow were they authentic looking! The photographer was surprised to see me back.  I told him I was not only fascinated with the process, I never got to see the first part.  He put me to work as his assistant at his dark room, preparing the tintype for the Williamsburg team.  (Can you imagine the thrill I had, considering how much I love Colonial Williamsburg?) Then he took the picture. This is the part the team had to pose for.  He had told us that with the relatively sunny day, but with the clouds covering the sun at that particular moment, would require a 3 second exposure instead of 2 seconds if the sun came out from behind the cloud. The team was ready!  The camera was ready! Action! 

   He took off the lens...

...counted 3 complete seconds...

...and replaced the cap.

I heard exclamations of, "That's it? No kablewy? Where's the "Poof!"? You could have said 'click!'" They are so funny!  Their picture came out great. I don't have a copy of their 19th century picture, but here is the 21st century version.