Where There's Ice and Snow and the Whale Fishes Blow

My brother and his family went to the New Bedford Whaling Museum last summer, and often speak of how amazing it was, and how much my nephews loved it. So, recently we decided that we'd better go, too, and find out if it really is amazing... let me tell you, it definitely is.

Because I just took picture after picture, I think I'm going let my photos do the talking:

From whaling pics

From whaling pics

From whaling pics

When you first walk in, these giant skeletons are what you see; some of them, according to my brother, still drip oil once in a while. In that last picture, Luke and Owen are standing close to the skeleton of a mother whale and her fetus. Especially after carrying children, I got shivers looking at their bones, so serenely exhibited in this peaceful place. I was glad that the boys didn't really catch on about the mama-and-baby skeletons.

From whaling pics

The vertebrae of (I think) the northern right whale - half as tall as Owen!

Something we liked very much about this museum: it tells the stories of both prey and predator, in a way that even children can understand. The men on whaling ships did not have it easy, living for often three years on a ship, hanging out in below-decks living quarters that were, at best, dim. In the museum, children are invited to explore a life-size model of a partial ship, where they get to experience the below-decks bunk room:

From whaling pics

Combined with a few sometimes-lit candles, prisms like this one provided all the light in the sailors' living quarters, which is really precious little light. Here is the same prism with my camera flash:

From whaling pics

From whaling pics

From whaling pics

The boys, of course, totally loved the living quarters.

We all loved the view from the open-air deck:

From whaling pics

And then, it was on to a half-size model of a real whaling ship, the New Bedford. Luke and Owen spent lots of their time up in this ship:

From whaling pics

From whaling pics

This next one is a full-size whaling boat, into which the men charged with harpooning the whale out in the ocean would set off to do their job once a whale had been spotted:

From whaling pics

It made me think of one of our favorite songs, by the Limeliters, which describes a whale hunt gone wrong out near Greenland - Twas in eighteen-hundred and sixty-three, of June the thirteenth day/ That our gallant ship her anchor aweighed and for Greenland bore away, brave boys/ For Greenland bore away/

The lookout in the cross-tree stood, with a spy-glass in his hand/ "It's a whale! It's a whale! It's a whalefish!" He cried/ "And she blows at every swell, brave boys/ She blows at every swell!"

Well the boats were lowered with the men on board, and the whalefish well in view/ Very well-prepared were all our gallant ship-mates/ To strike where the whalefish blew, brave boys/ To strike where the whalefish blew/

Well we struck that whale and the line played out - but she made a thunder with her tail/ Well the boat capsized, and we lost five of the crew/ And we never caught that whale, brave boys/ We never caught that whale/

"To lose that whale," our captain said, "well it grieves my heart full soul/ But oh, to lose those five gallant men/ It grieves me ten times more, brave boys/ It grieves me ten times more!"

Greenland is a dreadful place, a land that's never green/ Where there's ice and snow and the whalefishes blow/ And the daylight's seldom seen, brave boys/ The dayight's seldom seen....

I think we all love that song so much because it gives a glimpse into what life was really like for whaling folk, even though it ends badly. Perhaps even because it ends badly - too much of life is sugarcoated, and so maybe the telling of stories without happy endings is necessary. In any case, it is a really good song, and to have it in my head while at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, which also was not sugarcoated, felt just right.

Of Muskets and Memories, Part 3

It was not too long ago that summer, for us, meant hiding inside and scrapbooking; all that has changed since Owen came along, and needed excitement and action 24/7. Now, summer is when we get out and DO stuff!

One of our new favorite places to get out and do something is Old Sturbridge Village, a living history museum which returns the visitor to the 1830s, with a village, a working farm, interpreters to help understand how the people of the time really lived, and more to do than you ever could in a day. Which is why we became members, enabling us to go back whenever we want, for a whole year. Some highlights from our first few trips back in time:

From Old Sturbridge Village

Luke and Owen enjoyed the tinsmithy, not just because there was lots going on inside, but because so much of it was done by a fifteen-year-old apprentice (he's reflected in the window glass, isn't that neat?) The apprentice is making an outdoor candleholder, while his masters stand around and chat with the nice people from the future.

From Old Sturbridge Village

Owen's favorite part of Old Sturbridge Village, possibly even beating out the hand-cranked ice cream, is the wagon ride courtesy of Mike and Jerry, the most beautiful and powerful draft horses he's ever seen. They can pull six thousand pounds with ease - probably more, but, as their mild-mannered driver told us, the horses become sad and discouraged if you give them something they can't pull, so they stick to a weight load that the horses can definitely handle.

From Old Sturbridge Village

Here are Mike and Jerry, getting a drink of water.

From Old Sturbridge Village

Both boys enjoyed the musket firing demonstration, despite its loudness. They got to ask a million questions, and even got to hold a musket ball:

From Old Sturbridge Village

Those things are heavy!

Luke especially is very taken with the games that children played in the 1830's:

From Old Sturbridge Village

From Old Sturbridge Village

We all are, if you want the truth. They're fun!

From Old Sturbridge Village

From Old Sturbridge Village

Trust me, stilts are much harder than they look.

I think one of my favorite spots in the whole place is the Pasture Walk. The path goes through the pastures of Freeman Farm, and the animals are hanging around, grazing!

From Old Sturbridge Village

From Old Sturbridge Village

Because Luke instructed Owen on how to not scare sheep away, they nibbled grass right up to our feet. I mean, like six inches away from us. It was amazing. (That brick building in the distance was for the town's gunpowder stores. They kept it away from the other buildings in case of fire; isn't that a good idea?)

From Old Sturbridge Village

Both boys, but especially Luke, were fascinated with the blacksmithy. Luke and his dad stood inside that 90-plus degree building for at least forty-five minutes, watching this apprentice forge a single chain link. (Owen and I caught the tail end of it, we had been learning about the Freeman Farm root cellar, where they still winter over their food.)

From Old Sturbridge Village

This is place that I have a feeling I'll be blogging about often. They are having a Revolutionary War reenactment in a few weeks, and other cool and interesting programs go on throughout the year. But I think the reason the boys love it so much is because of all the interpreters, especially the young apprentices. The idea that somebody not so very much older than Luke himself is forging iron or making lamps out of tin is exciting, especially for kids living in our modern world where children are often treated, as Lenore Skenazy recently pointed out, as "the new 50s housewives."

A Persuasive Essay on Education....

... by my friend Susan of The Expanding Life. I know, I said I'd stop being serious - but I couldn't not share this!

The Parental Rights Question

Pat and Larry Kaseman write for Home Education Magazine, and I love their columns because they focus on issues that come up for homeschoolers, such as how US adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child might impact us, and they always manage to strike the right tone for me on these issues.

Their latest, about the proposed parental rights amendment to the Constitution, is a great example. There has been much discussion and nail-biting among the homeschoolers we know about whether to fight for or against such an amendment, and I have been on the fence. With this latest article, the Kasemans make a clear case against it. They write:

Our parental rights exist prior to and independent of anything done by the government, so a parental rights amendment is unnecessary. Our rights are part of being a parent, a fact that is based on common sense and is commonly agreed on by parents and the general public and upheld by US court decisions. They are natural or God-given rights that will be weakened if parents ask the government to validate or protect them. When US courts have ruled in cases involving how a parent raises their child, which are primarily cases involving education and/or religion, courts have consistently ruled in parents' favor.

I take comfort from the fact that courts consistently rule in parents' favor when push comes to shove, and I'll sleep better with the Kasemans' matter-of-fact words in my head.

Do you have an opinion on this issue? If so, I would love to hear it.

Sorry to get all serious like this - my next post will be a return to muskets and memories!

Of Muskets and Memories, Part 2

I have a special place in my heart for Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, arguably one of the most important fighters for the Union at the Battle of Gettysburg. He and his men, of the 20th Maine, held the Confederates back from taking a hill called Little Round Top, on the second day of fighting at Gettysburg. In his incredible book, The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara tells the story of how these men held "the line at all costs," as they were directed to do by their commander.

As good as this book is, reading about Gettysburg is one thing. Actually being there, standing on Little Round Top in the woods where these men made their stand, is something else entirely.

From Gettysburg PA

Here is the first monument that we find, walking into the woods. It marks the extreme right of this particular skirmish; Luke and Owen are walking into the woods where the Confederates were running up the hill, 146 years ago almost to the day.

From Gettysburg PA

Perhaps 100 feet away - maybe, not even that - is the monument marking this as the place where the 20th Maine made their historic stand. It tells how, outnumbered and out of ammunition, Chamberlain and his men, including his little brother, kept the Confederates back. When they finally ran out of ammo, Chamberlain ordered a bayonet charge to hold the line; amazingly, it worked.

From Gettysburg PA

And then, another hundred or so feet from that monument was this one, marking the extreme left of Chamberlain's fight. Standing here gave me goosebumps, because this wasn't just the end of the 20th Maine's fighters - it was the extreme left of the whole Union army. If the Confederates had broken through here, we might be a slave-holding nation still. Isn't that just freaky to contemplate?

We camped in a great campground right near the battlefield, so Ben let me go back to Gettysburg myself for a few hours, while he and the boys played mini-golf and ate ice cream. (One thing that was kind of jarring about Gettysburg was the mix of solemn battle history, and the intrusions of the modern world. Giant billboards advertised great used cars at Battlefield Kia, and then there was our personal favorite, Pickett's Buffet. General Pickett was the Confederate General best known for leading thousands of southern fighters in a charge, a mile wide, that was annihilated by the Union cannons at the top of Cemetery Ridge; why in heck name a restaurant after him?)

From Gettysburg PA

This picture gives a sense of the 6,000-plus acre National Park; monuments everywhere, surrounded by quiet green grass, wildflowers, and the occasional plaque explaining what went on in detail. It is perfect.

From Gettysburg PA

When I took this picture, I stood where the Union soldiers and their cannons held back the mile-wide, thousands-strong charge known to history as Pickett's charge (although, as the sign points out, others were involved, too). I took this pic through tears, because I could almost see the Confederates charging and screaming their rebel yell, from those trees visible in the distance.

From Gettysburg PA

Much like the memorials in the grass, the cannons are set up just as they were during the battle. It is eerie, and again perfect.

From Gettysburg PA

From Gettysburg PA

From Gettysburg PA

Pennsylvania has built a huge monument to the men who fought at Gettysburg. You can climb up to the second level, where you find these signposts:

From Gettysburg PA

Little Round Top is the hill farthest right in this pic.

From Gettysburg PA

Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address where this memorial now stands. One of my favorite things about the whole park was coming upon this plaque, containing the speech in its entirety:

From Gettysburg PA

To help kids appreciate and understand what went on here, the National Park has a great (if somewhat overwhelming) Visitors Center, where you can watch a movie about the battle, narrated by Morgan Freeman and very helpful for understanding why the Civil War was fought, and why Gettysburg was so pivotal. Also, the Visitors Center has this incredible painting, The Cyclorama, which depicts Pickett's Charge in a very vivid and amazing way. It was first exhibited in 1884, not long after the war had ended, and it must have been mind-blowing to behold back then - even now, it is amazing. Probably the best thing about the Visitors Center, though, are the Park Rangers available to help you figure out how to take the National Park in; we found them to be helpful and very knowledgeable about the battle and the park.

We decided about two days before we left that we were going to go to Gettysburg, meaning that we had almost no prior planning. But two books were helpful in getting the boys ready for the visit: Gettysburg - July 1-3, 1863, one of the American Battlefield series that explains the lead-up to the battle, the battle itself, and the aftermath, including a reenactment that was held fifty years afterward in which the formerly-Union-and-Confederate soldiers camped together. This book has lots of pictures, which can be both a blessing and a curse, as you might imagine.

The other book is The Civil War for Kids, which is more general but talks about the war from the perspective of children. It features activities, like cooking food from that period or playing games that children of the Civil War era might have played, so that kids can get a sense of what life was like back then.

All I can say is, if you get the chance, go to Gettysburg. It is an incredibly moving, amazing place, for kids and adults.

Of Muskets and Memories, Part One

First of all, I just have to say how weird it is to be absent from the blogosphere for two weeks! But I'm back now, well-rested, museum-ed out, and with those few extra pounds that creep on when Rum Swizzle becomes one of your main food groups... and s'mores becomes the other.

We had the opportunity to go to Philadelphia during our vacation, and I am so glad we did. We ate lunch at the highly recommended City Tavern, and loved it, in part because they actually let us in early when they saw us hanging around.

From Philadelphia

Also, the server, dressed in Colonial period clothes, happily played Rock, Paper, Scissors with Owen, and how can you not love that?

We spotted this sleeping lion as we walked toward Independence Hall:

From Philadelphia

And then came one of the highlights of the whole trip. It started small, with just a fife and drumming in the distance. Then we turned a corner, peeked into a large green space, and this gentleman waved us in:

From Philadelphia

A captain in the Continental Army he turned out to be, and guess who was one of his most enthusiastic recruits?

From Philadelphia

Yes, that is Luke there on the far right side. Here is my absolute favorite picture from our trip, and possibly ever:

From Philadelphia

The bayonet charge - I think largely because of this, the Captain field-promoted Luke to Corporal!

From Philadelphia

From Philadelphia

Special red 'corporal' musket in hand, new stripes fluttering in the breeze, you can almost see Luke thrumming with excitement in this picture. Talk about bringing history alive...

From Philadelphia

Owen was somewhat less-inclined to run off and join the Army.

In all honesty, Independence Hall was kind of a penultimate experience after all the excitment of the muster. And, I kept cracking up because, whenever I looked at the actual chairs where our Founding Fathers sat, I could think only of Susan at In The Kitchen's recent post about Thomas Jefferson, poking gentle fun at his future countrymen for revering these relics from the past.

From Philadelphia

Truly though, my best memory of Philadelphia came as we were heading back to our car. While waiting for a light to change, Corporal Luke tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to a homeless person sitting on the ground up next to a building behind us. His sign read "Homeless Vet, Any Help Appreciated." Luke's big eyes looked meaningfully from me, to the man, and back to me, until finally I asked, "would you like to give that man some money?" Wordlessly, he shook his head yes and when I handed him some change (I wish, so much, that it had been more), Luke walked back over to the man and solemnly placed the money in his cup. The man looked up to him, nodded his thanks, and then over to me, and nodded once more - the combination of gratitude and pride in his expression nearly brought me to tears.

I was raised to ignore the homeless - but, I must note, I was also raised to feel empathy for them, and to help them by other means, with donations to charities, shelters, and soup kitchens. I think my folks feared for my safety and also felt that any money I gave to a homeless person on the street would go to support a drinking habit, and would therefore be a waste. But this man, and my son's earnest desire to help him, caused me to feel ashamed at how blithely I had walked past him.

I am so thankful that Luke did not follow his mother's lead.

Top Five Things We Have Learned This Year: #1

And the number one thing we have learned in the past year:

Summer is AWESOME.

From Summer 2008

From Summer 2008

From Summer 2008

Top Five Things We Have Learned This Year: #2

The line between 'learning' and 'having fun' is blurry...

From Fall Blog

From Fall Blog

From Fall Blog

From Fall Blog

From Fall Blog

From Fall Blog

From Summer 2008

Very, very blurry.