Yesterday we didn’t really do anything besides going back to the cemetery to put the flowers on Great Grandma Ruby’s grave now that it has been filled in. I also walked around taking pictures of headstones of other family that is buried there.
Today we decided to go see “the teapot”. Aunty Laura led the way and we followed in our rental van. Auntie Laura didn’t seem to know where she was going however, so we kind of just drove around until we found it, and then we realized that it was on an island in the middle of the street and there wasn’t really anywhere for us to park. So Kyle and Auntie Laura got out to look at it and take a couple of pictures:
Then we were back to driving around trying to figure out where to go. As we were driving around I saw a sign pointing to a “Visitor Center”, and I wondered why we didn’t just go there. We drove down one of the main streets of Old Salem and the buildings were all cute really old buildings. I saw some people dressed for the time period too, and thought that was so cool. Then we ended up going back and finding the visitor center. 🙂
The first thing the kids saw in the visitor center were some penny smashing machines. They have never seen anything like this and really thought it was cool. Grandma Katrina saw their interest and instantly thought of all the change that she had in her car. So she took Tyra with her to go get the change and when she came back she gave each of the kids two quarters and a penny so that they could pick a design to smash into their penny.
There was also a video playing that gave some of the history of the Moravians that settled Old Salem in the 18th and 19th centuries. The kids also got distracted in the gift shop, and Grandma Katrina got distracted at the treat shop (she ended up buying several kinds of fudge to share with us). We finally bought some tickets and then worked our way across the bridge to go see what there was to see.
So that main street that we drove down before, with all of the old buildings, ended up being the ‘museum’ that we were going to see. Most of the really old buildings had been restored to look the way they had originally looked when they were first built. Each building had a sign outside to say what it was, and inside there were people dressed in period clothing to tell us all about the buildings and the people that lived or worked there.
First up was the tavern:
In the kitchen of the tavern the lady talked about coffee beans, and showed us how the people would roast them, and she let the kids use the grinder to grind some of the coffee beans.
Next, we saw the print shop. In one room they had the giant printing press:
And across the hall they had a photography room.
Next we saw the “Single Brother’s house”. When I first saw the sign I wondered why the single brother didn’t have a name. It made more sense when we went inside. The Single Brother’s house was not a house occupied by a specific single brother, it was occupied by all the single guys that had left their homes to go learn a trade. 😛 This is the room that they used for meetings:
Also in the single brothers house, there was a tailor. He was sitting on a table, sewing something and when we walked in he talked to us about his job of making clothes for men, and the different materials that were available for use during this time period.
Farther on down the hall we came to the room of the tinsmith. He was sitting at his table working on a pattern for something, and he told us about his job of making things out of tin. On one wall there were some shelves with a bunch of things that a tinsmith would have made. Things like cheese graters, coffee pots, cookie cutters, and tart pans.
On our way out of the single brothers house, mom saw a pump, and thought that was so cool. She asked if we thought it would still work, and I told her not to mess with it because I didn’t want somebody that worked there coming over and telling her that she shouldn’t be touching it. But mom didn’t listen, and she went over and after pumping it a few times, water actually did come out!
Next on the street was the Miksch house and gardens. Behind the house there was a large garden where they had all kinds of plants growing. The man there told us about the kinds of things that would be planted, and what they would do with them. He also talked about letting some of the plants go to seed so they could collect some seeds for the next season.
Here is a picture of the kitchen in the house:
This was the end of the first side of the first street and we decided that we had better go see some of what was on the second street, so we walked to the first building on the second street, which turned out to be the doctor’s house. The first rooms right off the entrance were: on the right, a sitting room, and on the left the apothecary where the doctor would fill prescriptions for people:
Upstairs there was just a kind of mini museum of things that a doctor during this time period would use for tools, and maybe some of the procedures that they would do. Downstairs towards the back of the house was the kitchen, which was rather large compared to the rooms that we had seen in some of the other houses. As we left the doctors house, we were told that there were some crafts in the barn, so we went to go check that out. Each of the kids got to make a valentine and they sent us on our way with enough paper for the kids to each make a second one later. This also proved to be a good break for Jenny to be able to nurse James. Then we were on our way again and because we were running out of time (they were closing the museum soon) we decided to head to the bakery next, because many people had made comments about it throughout the day. The bakery was a bit crowded, and Adam was getting fussy by this time, so mom offered to take him to the van and feed him (because I left the bottles and formula in the van rather than carrying them around with me all day). So mom took Adam, and Jenny, James, Auntie Laura, and Debby all went with her. We finished up at the bakery by purchasing some treats, and worked our way back toward the van. We came across the Timothy Vogler Gunshop and decided to check it out. The men showed us some guns that were made there and told us a bit about the building. They actually sold their guns, so if we wanted a hand-crafted rifle for $2500, we could have purchased one.
By the time we left the gun shop it was time for the museum to be closing, and so we headed back to the visitor center to meet back up with the others. We let each of the kids pick out a souvenir, and Grandma Katrina bought the five older kids each a pop gun, and it was time to go back to Grandma’s house to figure something out for dinner. 🙂