Colonial Days (Orem, Utah)

On Saturday, my family and I went to a festival called Colonial Days to celebrate the Fourth of July.  It was super fun!  There were a lot of booths filled to the brim with stuff from when America first came to be.  Before America became its own country, we were a British Colony (well, technically 13 colonies). In one of the booths, you could try on the armor they had to wear back then.  It totally reminded me of the type of armor medieval knights would wear.  It was SUPER heavy and HOT!  The man there told a story of a soldier who actually melted in his armor.  Glad that wasn't me!!!

Next we learned a bit about the Mayflower and the perilous journey the Pilgrims made across the Atlantic Ocean to the promised land: America.  That boat was only 80 feet long and I think 20 feet across.  There were about 180 people on it.  So imagine living on the first floor of your house with 179 of your not-so-closest friends for 3 months, plus all their belongings, animals, food, etc.  AND they had to stay on the boat for another 3 months after landing at Plymouth because they landed in December.  Not quite a beautiful, balmy season...  I think they should have chosen a different time to sail.  They must have REALLY been in a VERY BIG HURRY to get out of England!

Next we went to the Haberdashery, a booth where you could try on colonial-style clothing that people wore back then.  Audrey had a blast trying the dresses on.  (So did I...)  They were pretty hot, and I didn't even have on the corset, petticoat, hoop skirt, or any of that extra stuff.  WHEW!!  I am so glad I live in this century!

After that we tried fresh bread and cookies from the bakery.  I had a sourdough roll (which was my favorite), hardtack (a special kind of bread the soldiers ate.  They call it hardtack because by the time the bread arrived at their camp, it was super hard, but since ours was fresh it was quite soft.), and a Frogger Joe, a type of molasses cookie that tasted a lot like a gingerbread cookie.  YUM!  The vendors used actual colonial recipes for all of their baked goods.  I want to learn how to make some!!!

Then, I joined a fake debate on whether or not we should dump the tea into the harbor.  It was really funny and fun.  We were assigned characters and lines so that the debate was quite heated, filled with cries of, "Hazzah!" and some other cry.  I have no idea what either meant, but it sure was fun to yell them!  In the end, I got to march with the other "patriots" and shoot imaginary people with my wooden gun and dump imaginary tea into an imaginary harbor.

I also got to go to a colonial school.  This might sound weird, but it was kind of fun, even though I was the oldest kid there by about 5 years...  I guess it was a one-room schoolhouse!  I got to re-learn my alphabet, how to count to 10, how to correctly write the letter "B" on my slate and solve some arithmetic problems.  I also learned that King George looks a lot like George Washington.  Must be the powdered wig, red coat, same pose... and same name!!!  Except the Washington part, but hey, who really cares about minor details...  

Unfortunately, I was quite a naughty student and wound up in the front of the classroom, sitting on a stool, and wearing a dunce hat.  Just kidding!  I was actually a model student but really wanted to sit in the dunce seat!

Question of the day:

Have you been to any fun festivals, carnivals, etc this year?  Are there any others that you'd like to do?

Me:

Yep, this one.  I'd really like to go to the Festival of Colors.