Williamsburg, day four...

happened at the Jamestowne Settlement. The history of Jamestowne was the first part of our history curriculum this year, so in many ways it was a real review for us all. Since this day was Thanksgiving, they had closed the Historic Jamestown Site and moved all of the interpreters and personnel over to the Settlement area to hold a special event day called Food & Feasts.

The Settlement contains a recreated Powhatan Indian Village and the Jamestowne Fort. The detail is amazing--another walking back into time event. For the Food & Feasts event, they showed how the Indians and the settlers would have prepared their food through the cooking, smoking, & drying process. There was a demo for the boys to participate in on making a canoe from a tree log as well. You can walk into the Powhatan Indian living quarters and see the animal skins, tools, weapons and all manner of household items.

Additionally in the Fort, they held more musket drilling and firing demos plus how to prepare a hog, make sausage, bake bread, fetch and carry water, dry and preserve meat, and make clothes. During the hog demo, things became very interesting for our family. My youngest, the Chairman, is not easily deterred by anything. Exceptional inquisitiveness is his trademark. Until the hog.

The hog had all ready been gutted, the pumpkin innards removed so to speak, so the demo was the meat dressing part. Chairman was in front of me at the roped off area. I leaned down to talk with him about the process and he looked up and smiled at me. Less than a minute later, I looked down and he was leaning over the rope. I leaned down to tell him to get off of the rope and quit playing around only to realize that he has completely unconscious. I was hemmed in by many people behind me so I started tugging on him and hollering his name plus "Something's wrong!" The crowd parted and I was able to pull him out where Husband was and quickly recognized a familial fainting episode.

We set him up with head between his knees and slowly color returned to his face. As soon as he was able to walk, I took him to the snack area and filled him up with a 20 oz Pep*si, a bag of Peanut M * Ms, and a package of grilled cheese crackers. It was about an hour before his inquisitiveness returned. And he had no desire whatsoever to see the hog demo again. That, and he skipped the rest of the day.

This story will be legendary in our family I believe. Chronicling it here will help with the telling at his rehearsal dinner.

I still have to write about the three Jamestowne ships. They were great. This post is long enough for now.