Strawbery Banke

For our annual Christmas gift from my inlaws, we get to have an adventure.  We definitely prefer this to things, and so many nice memories have been made and times enjoyed together that may not happen otherwise.  For the past two years, we've gone to Charmingfare Farms.  You may remember if you're a long time reader the two posts I did about those adventures in past years.  A wonderful place, we had a lot of family fun on those nights which included a lovely dinner together followed by a sleigh ride around the woods and fields where they have thousands of lights strung to enchant the night.  A truly fun time.

This year, since we'd done that two years, and well, there are so many things to see in our beautiful state, we thought we'd try something new.  We wracked our brains for days to come up with just the right thing, when Music Man said, "how about Strawbery Banke? Do they do a Christmas thing?"

Strawbery Banke is one of the first establishments in the new world back in the 1600's, when NH was still part of Massachusetts.  It is a museum of sorts, and has 36 buildings original to a time period when the country was still new and beyond.  Thirty two of the buildings are original to the site and 4 have been moved to the site to save them from demolition in other parts of the town of Portsmouth, which is where all this history lies.  Not the least impressive of the buildings relocated to the Banke is the Goodwin Mansion, which used to be on Islington Street and was moved there in 1963 to save it.  To think this magnificent building would be torn down is really sad, but so glad that people with the foresight and ambition saved it for future generations. Below are some re-inactors singing Christmas carols in the parlor of the mansion...they have beautiful voices!

The dining room, set for dinner.  I loved the hand made sign on the hearth...

It was a great learning experience for the boys.  They got to see what life was like in times before us as the museum has the buildings set to experience different periods in time.  There was even a general store, which was set in the '40's during the war, with original packaging on products and a re-inactor who told of her excitement of her brother coming home for the holidays on leave from the war. 

She had baked him a special cake...

We enjoyed the packaging and how few products were in stores.  The boys could not get over how this was supposed to be a grocery store, they are so used to modern excess.

We also particularly enjoyed walking around the streets and imagining what it would have been like back in the olden days when we met Sea Captain Keyran Walsh walking amongst us on his way back from the tavern, saw horse drawn wagons and heard caroling and brass band music.

I was able to imagine a time when things were simpler and also more difficult for the people who came before us in their time.  When choices were not as hard or as many, but everyday life was so much more taxing for them.  When clothes were washed by hand, when heat came only from a fireplace, and gardens supplied the food.  The work that went into their every day existence is amazing to me.  I took time to wonder about the people that lived there and if they would like it that people are still able to see their lives and honor their memory.  I had visited Strawbery Banke back when I was 12, but to be honest, it didn't hold the excitement for me then that it does now.  Then, it was just a bunch of old stuff, what was the point?  Now, I understand the true value of being able to glimpse life in the past and the generations from which we have come.  And to truly appreciate the fact that this has been saved for generations to learn from and is open to the public for all to see rather then torn down or just private homes. 

I do not know the people sitting down, they were enjoying the carolers as well, but I loved the happiness on their faces.

The night ended with a cup of warm cider, some caroling, and the cat scavenger hunt that the Banke had arranged for the kids. They had to find a black stuffed cat in 7 of the buildings, a real highlight for them, and kept them thoroughly engaged in the night (what a great idea on the Banke's part!).  A truly fun time for all of us, we loved the whole experience.  I will definitely return when I can wander around in the summer and read all the information and history that is posted all over the museum. 

Thank you to my inlaws for providing this experience and memory for all.   And, if you've never been to Strawbery Banke or maybe it's been a while, stop and see the wonderful Christmas program they have set up, it's a very heartwarming and informative night!

Wishing for you a glimpse at Christmas' past, ~Peacemom

Letterboxing, Cemetery and Autumn in the Air

Today Music Man and I took the boys to our local cemetery.  It has wonderful stone walls all around and a bunch of very old hand forged gates, one of which appears above.  It sits smack dab in the center of our town at the busiest intersection.  There's no creepy sense of isolation in this cemetery, it's actually quite inviting and friendly.  In this cemetery there are 2 monuments that look like granite but are in fact made of metal.  It was quite a fun adventure for me to try to locate them, which I never could do as I thought they were headstones, not monuments. Music Man showed them to me today.  Apparently as the story goes they are members of a family that had a brother that owned a foundry, and he had them made.  A neat little tid bit of history from our little villa.

Our purpose today was not only to show the boys a bit of the history of the town, some of the founding fathers names and such.  They were particularly affected by the number of children that are in there.  That lead to an interesting discussion of why these children all died so young.  And a good lesson on how vaccinations have made childhood deaths fewer and further between nowdays.  Maestro is at the age and understanding of the fact that these children were just like him and his brother.  We talked about how one family lost 3 children in less then a month, and we hypothesized about what could have happened to them, why they all died so close together.  The thing I didn't say to him, but passed the prayer along to their mother how sorry I was that she suffered so much loss of all three of them so close together.  I can't imagine how I could go on in the face of that pain.  As she was still alive and died almost 50 years after her children, that's a long time to suffer such sadness.  But, I suppose they accepted that it happened to a lot of people then, but I still don't know how you could ever recover from that pain.



I also particularly like to look at the artwork on the headstones.  I attended a really fascinating talk about 4 years ago on what all the particular symbols mean that were carved into the stone.  We noticed today some peculiar ones that I've not seen before but want to look up to see what they mean.  In addition to lots of urns, willow trees and faces with wings, we saw some hearts with diamonds in them (some right side up, some upside down) along with some coffin shapes that were also either upside down or right side up and some celtic type designs.  I don't know why I'm so fascinated with old cemeteries, but I am. 

The other reason we wanted to take the boys into the old plot is that there is a letterbox hidden there.  For those of you that may not be familiar with letterboxing, it's a fun activity whereby you get a clue from the website, follow the directions on the clue until you find the box containing a stamp and journal someone has hidden.  Each person or family have their own stamp which you bring with you along with your own journal.  When you open the letterbox, you stamp your journal with their stamp and their journal with your stamp and write a little something in it such as the date, weather or anything else you might find fun to jot down.  Then in our journal we write where we found it, the date and any fun memories that happen to accompany the day and hunt for the box.  Then, you place everything back in the box and re-hide it in the same spot for the next "hunter" to find.  It's so much fun, and a completely family friendly activity.  Though it's by no means relegated to families.  I know a number of grown ups and retirees a like that enjoy it.  It gets you to places you'd perhaps never see otherwise.  We've been to many neat places, some of them miles in on a trail, or at a harbor or lighthouse.  My favorite, by far, however is the cemetery boxes.  And when I find the clue on line for one, I always save it for autumn.  Something about wandering around a cemetary in the crunching leaves looking for a mysterious box it's super fun for me.  And the kids really enjoy it, too.

Autumn is proving to be on it's way for sure. Letter boxing, fall and cemeteries go together like pumpkin spice tea, smores and fall campfires.  If you've not heard of letterboxing before or are interested in a simpler style entertainment every member of your family can enjoy, check out http://www.letterboxing.org/ .  It teaches the kids lots about how to follow direction with the adventure of the stamp as a reward.  Fun time, free time and especially great as an autumn activity.

Wishing you stamps and cemetery adventures of your own, ~Peacemom