Last week, Jay and I had the privilege of joining Abigail, her classmates and teacher, and the entire lower portion of the Covenant School for their annual Living History Day.
Each year, coinciding with their course of study in a particular segment of history, the students take a day to experience life as someone would have in that time period. All the children, parents, and teachers arrive for the day dressed in clothing somewhat appropriate to the era they are studying. It is a rich day full of learning and fun.
This year we visited Farmer’s Branch Historical Parkwhere they have preserved quite a wonderful bit of history. Through the help of folks from the Texana Living History Association, we stepped back into the time of the American Pioneers and got a glimpse of what life was like for them. We visited a one-room schoolhouse, made rag dolls, explored several different homes preserved from the 1800’s, watched a blacksmith hard at work, heard from female cattle rancher Molly Goodnight, and even visited with a couple of cowboys on the cattle trail to see how they lived. What a treat to spend this day with Abigail and some of the wonderful folks from her school.
Part of the fun was dressing up. I enjoyed planning and working on our costumes, though I didn’t sew all of the pieces myself: only our matching aprons. Part of Abigail’s “pioneer” outfit is 25 years old. The blue dress she is wearing under her pinafore is one that my mother sewed for me when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade, and wanted to dress as a Pilgrim one Halloween. After taking a sizeable hem in the skirt and sleeves, it was perfect for Abigail. It was fun to see her wear it again after all these years.
Click here if you would enjoy seeing some more photos from our day. By way of note: Photaccess has changed the way they do things and we notice the resolution on the smaller photos is not very good at all. We recommend choosing the “view photos larger” option for now. And a bit of good news: we are in the process of changing our photo hosting site so look for the new page coming soon.
Where’d that scary-looking farmer come from? Looks like a straggler wandered into Living History Day uninvited. Oh, it’s just Jay, dressed in some pioneer-styled GAP jeans.