Evening on the Green

When I first heard about evening on the green I had no idea what it was supposed to be about. Apparently no one that I work with did either, and that's why they called it that. It's basically just a day when the Homestead stays open until 9 pm and we try to put on some kind of interprative programming. We had a few activities going on for visitors, and I was assigned to stay on the porch and interpret the boone house. This was the first experiecnce at the homestead where I felt comraderie for with my co-workers, and overall I think that workers, volunteers, and visitors enjoyed the program, and maybe even learned something.



We had a plethora of activities for guests at evening on the green, spread out over the rather expansive grounds of the Daniel Boone Homestead. We ran the Sawmill at 7pm, this is water powered, and if you're curious you can look at my past blog entry about it. Ryan, another intern, orchestrated a game of rounders that Jim Lewars, his son, and a few volunteers demonstrated for visitors. The amity colonial dancers performed in our visitors center, clothed in 18th century garb. Their costumes were very pretty, a lot fancier than any of the stuff I get to wear. The Boone house was the site of most of the action though. There the Past Masters demonstrated traditional needlework, and ladies in traditional dress poked around in the garden and interpreted it to guests. A highschool aged volunteer demonstrated various colonial children's games and allowed kids to take part. We had a strawberry rhubarb pie baking on the hearth. There were volunteers inside of the house itnerpreting it, and a musician playing various traditional instruments in the parlor.

My role in all of this was to sit on the porch of the house, clothed in 18th century garb, (notice I did not take any pictures) and give people an introduction to the house as they came by. This was about a 4 minute thing that I threw together as I went along. I baiscally told them a little about Daniel Boone, and then I went into the history of the house, becuse that's what they were staring at, and what they seemed most interested in. Most people seemed pretty interested and asked me questions. A few were so enthusastic that I even walked with them to the cellar to make sure they saw it. I would end by letting them know about all of the things they were able to see around the site.

Although I was dreading evening on the green becuase I didn't want to dress up and stay at work very late, I felt that overall it was a very worthwhile profram. All of the volunteers were very nice, and many of them were knowledgeable, or at least liked history an awful lot. I began to realize that those re-enactor people were not so bad after all. And what's more, I realized that it's kind of fun, and very uninhibiting to dress up in a colonial costume. You aren't yourself. You can be whatever charecter you'd like. There was a certain comraderie that developed among everyone in costume that night. We were putting on a program for the public, and we were the ones who were different. Yet all of us were alike. It was heartening. Volunteers were sitting around on the porch even at 9:30 when I was leaving, talking, eating pie, and having a good time. Even ryan and I, who on some normal workdays hardly speak to each other got along on that night. The visitors too seemed to sense that we were a happy bunch. They were thrilled to be around people in costume, and to see the house and garden being put to use. I had a wonderful vantage point on the porch where I could watch the families experiement with the various colonial games. Everyone from little kids, to fickle teenagers seemed to be laughing and having a good time.