Florida Trip Blog: Skipping thru time & space~ Part 3 (Antietam Battlefield)

Our last adventure on our trip back north this year, was to the Battlefield of Antietam on our way home.
You can find the Antietam Battlefield Visitor Center at
5831 Dunker Church Road, Sharpsburg, MD 21782

This museum and location,  documents the day, September 17, 1862, one of the bloodiest battles in the history of this nation.

Here is a Betsy Ross flag with the 13 stars

Oh my. So much history...and it's of the tragic kind.

Americans fighting Americans.

23,000 soldiers killed in 12 hours. Making it the bloodiest one day battle in American history. 

And the meeting point of both the North & the South, was here at Dunker Church.

Ironically, this church was pacifistic and the battle was fought on its front yard.
Wow.
Let that sink in.

 Here is a photograph from that tragic day...

The church was nearly destroyed due to artillery, souvenir hunters and storms...
but was later rebuilt

Here it is as it stands today..

Visit Dunker Church webpage

 The museum was very interesting, with so many exhibits to absorb.
Here is a battle drum...

and a minstrel coat of the era....

Some of the many, many monuments that dot the countryside in this historic area:

You can even take a virtual tour on the website! Amazing story.
The Antietam Battlefield Museum

The battlefield itself is now pretty much devoid of any trees...

and there is a haunting feeling of sadness and despair that lingers there to this day....

We remember and pray for those who died there...
and we hope and pray that our present day Americans can learn to listen to each other and work for the good of all now and in the future.
<3

Merry Mischief Civil and Medieval School Shows :)

Hey Ho~

Just thought I'd share some of the fun stuff that we do for our school programs.
We had a very fun week last week, full of history and costuming, song and story!

At Gorham Elementary we played there and did our show "Songs of the Civil War" and wanted to show you a pic or two of that. We had a fun time there, and this is our 3rd year there doing this program. The Gorham Historical Society helps to put on a day for the students and they are very knowledgeable and also dress up for the kids (next year, if they do it again, I will be sure to get more pics of them!)

Here is our setup for that....

It is mind-boggling to me that an overwhelming majority of children these days are not acquainted with traditional American folk music. I mean, such standards as: "Old Grey Mare", "Polly Wolly Doodle", "Dixie", "Goober Peas" and "Beautiful Dreamer" are brand new songs for them! We do these and many more including Lincoln's Campaign Song! This is our Merry Mischief way of bringing old music forward and keeping it going! We commend this school and their community's Historical Society for caring enough to keep kids learning and having fun with History!!

Hey, wait.....
Who's that old guy? :)

We bring music and dolls and folklore to help tell some of the history of the day.
Oh, and check out those flags. That is a replica 36 star flag from 1861....not the one we have today.

The following day found us even further back in time at one of our favorite schools to play at. Martha Brown Middle School in Fairport! They have an Annual Medieval Days for their students and we've been there for many years now and are always grateful to be asked back again. This school is phenomenal! The teachers AND the students all get into the spirit of the event and dress up too!

Check out this school's team spirit!

 Here is our Merry Mischief Stage setup for this day's events:

 Some fun props....including Ratty for the Black Plague.....

This is a Model School and I wish more schools were like it.
Their Music and Arts programs are tops. And the reason is because of a great Parent-Teachers Association with involved and caring Parents that support the Teachers and the school. But check out these teachers!
How's this for modeling participation?

Aren't they AWESOME???

Truly a fun day had by ALL!

A Minstrels many hats~ Day 4

This would be country panama hats and Civil War caps & bonnets~

Our 2nd day at Waterloo and playing the festival and encampment. A beautiful day spent out of doors playing music and recanting local and national history to fair goers.

Over the last four days....that makes 8 different historical outfits (Ren , Erie Canal & Civil War) a bunch of different props, 2 large backdrops ....lots and lots of old tunes.

Tired now....

Garbed out.

Done singing.

Time to eat, drink and be exhausted.....

Happy Memorial Day!

A minstrels' many hats~ Day 3

Actually the hats involved today.....
were mortar boards....
and stovepipe hats to be precise...

Mortar boards. Graduation Day at Wells College. Harry responsible for the sound for the ceremony, as usual for the last 15 years or more.... 
It was a beautiful day with Cayuga Lake sparkling vista providing a wondrous backdrop for the grads.
A funny guest speaker lightened the festivities with humor, plus she directed her message to the audience in advising them that life is made up of events that happen, and to dare to step out and be the first out there! Take chances, enjoy life...stand out. Be someone. Look around and help the world.

And the 2nd portion of the day was spent in Civil War garb...as Erie Canal minstrels singing for the troops at the Civil War re-enactment at the Waterloo Commemorate & Celebrate event at the birthplace of Memorial Day right here in NYS in Waterloo!

We sang "Shady Grove" for Union soldiers under the cover of cool leafy trees in the heat, and we sang love ballads and hymns for polite ladies in their afternoon rest after tea at the encampment. We sang for Confederate soldiers and made our Limber Jack doll dance jolly tunes for them.

We sang drinking songs for boothies who were thirsty and needed a drink.

We sang "Long Black Veil" by request from a Union soldier and made this old crusty bearded man almost cry. He loved it so....

We sang a smattering of songs for a woman who'd been wanting to meet us for ages, and who had "tracked us down" and we sat and sang to her personally for quite awhile. She was beaming.



BIG NEWS!!

Harry & I sang for President LINCOLN!!!

 Aye~

We were THERE!

We sang him his very own campaign song! "For Lincoln & Liberty Too!" The character of Abraham Lincoln was STRIKING and VERY adept at his character. He is THE most believable Abe Lincoln look alike that I've ever seen.

And he was indeed FLATTERED and pleased with our efforts at his campaign song!! Dave Duprey, the videographer of the event caught this magical moment on tape and will be sending it to us....to share with YOU soon!!

We were VERY lucky and happy to "meet the President" and sing for him this day.

Mortar boards of learning.....
and
Stovepipe Hats of honorable icons.

A goodly Merry Mischief day :)

A minstrel's many hats~

Some weeks are like this.

It's Murphy's Law.

You know it when it happens. There can be a whole month of days....and for some reason, things fall on the same weekend. So, as minstrels (read: those that live by the Muse) you "make hay while the sun shines" and take all the possible work you can and then book around the edges.

So it is with this weekend.

Day 1

Today, saw Harry & I getting up at the "crack o' dawn's arse" at 4:30am. I didn't want to fool around, because of the time element... but knew it was the best motivator for the begging Harry to get going.
Sort of like a carrot to a horse.

How'ere, once you have sex, that early in the morning, even if it is only a "quickie cuz you gotta get going-to take the edge off-sort of sex" you KNOW you are both gonna wanna lay there entwined some more afterwards....to lounge....and you're still gonna have to face the fact that you gotta get your ass outta bed at "o'christ o'clock"...
 and now you have even LESS time than before, because you both decided to fuck around.

OY.

COFFEE. That's what's next. Lots of it and keep it coming....even if it makes me want to pee while we are on the one hour road trip after we finished loading the car and that we started driving at 5:30am. Or at least.....5:fucking45 by the time Harry gets done with printing bills for the day and loading his last bit in the car and packing his fiddle particularly, and filling his coffee mug again ...and like that.

Anyways....we are off!

We arrive...pretty happy.... to the school at  6:40AM. To unload and set up our show, "Songs of the Civil War" and thankfully there is no warring this morn in this civil union. (see previous wake up call ;)

Unload Subaru that is packed to the gills with: speakers, crash box, snakes (the electrical monsters not the scaly ones :), instruments (2 guitars, mandolin, fiddle, bodhran), and huge garb bag (full of matching costuming and backdrop and flags for this event), music stand, banner, show notes (in an order from military/historical beginning to silly songs on the end), period dolls/props, accessory table, water, instrument stands...and let's not forget the "buckled to the roof of the car" is a bundle of truss and trees (wrapped in a tarp and duct taped and bungeed) for the 10' x 12' backdrop.

Load in, set up, put finishing touches on stage....students arriving any minute now...Merlyn dressed and Harry almost dressed but still setting up wireless for each instrument...clock ticking....tic tic tic tic tic tic tic....

now ARMED and READY...the kids file in.
250 fourth and fifth graders and teachers.

It is now 8:15am.

We have exactly 40 minutes after the introduction to cover music of the Civil War.

Holy Shite. That's a lot to cover in a small amount of time!

SMILE.

SING!!

You get the kids exposed to some history, factoids, filking of old songs, clapping along in time (hopefully....this IS how one learns), and then, when all is said and done and you have watched the clock (because it's all about MODS....and TIMING....and squeezing in the learning in a SET PERIOD OF TIME....and cutting songs or verses...cuz you have SO MUCH material...and you make executive decisions about your show on the fly...it ALWAYS goes faster than I want it too...and I always want to squeeze in so much every time....)

And you make SURE you give 5 last minutes before the last fun song for QUESTIONS & ANSWERS (because this is your favorite part...aside from the singing and playing ;) and you get to hear what are in kid's heads:

"What was the name of the 2nd song?"
"Tell us about Harriet Tubman"
and one bright child who was apparently not paying attention to extensive introduction to "Goober Peas" that asked, "What's all that about the Peas?" and you reiterate the information again with a smile...careful not to slay him like the pub wench you really are....

You finish the show, the kids and faculty are pleased. But even more impressively, the President of the local historical museum and society (that is putting on the event) comes up to you (in full Union uniform) and tells you what a good job you did.

That's nice...

but not nearly as nice as several dozen of the kids coming up at the end of the show and start approaching you to tell you what to name your dolls...

or one girl who came up to me, tentatively who said to me, "When you sing you remind me of my Nana".  I said, "Is this a good thing? or a bad thing?" She beamed, "Oh...a very GOOD thing." And I squeeze her arm.

Another girl, came up amongst the kids giving me names for my dancing limberjack doll...and I could tell she wanted to tell me something important. I said, "yes?" She cleared her throat...
"When you were little, did you sing good then too? Did you like to sing?"
I said, "I have always sung. Even in my crib. My mother told me I would wake up singing and sing till she got there. And she would have me sing to her in the car when she drove."
She liked that answer and said..."I love to sing. I sing all the time!" I said, "and you keep singing hon! Maybe one day you will be onstage too" :)

The kids filed out to their next adventure on their day planned to learn of the Civil War down at the museum...

We struck the stage, unbuckled, unplugged, unpatched, unscrewed, folded, sorted, changed clothes, and loaded our gear and repacked it all into the stuffed Subaru and drove another hour back to Harry's van we left at the mini mart parking lot halfway from home. We got subs and ate them at 11am because we were starving. I took my car home...

and he took his van, also loaded...to the Chiropractor College to run sound for a Memorial Service for the cadavers that are in medical experiments... It is nice that they do this extra step to honor those. Leonardo DaVinci had to study in secret. How else do you think the science community knows so much about the body?(a plug goes here for you to sign your donor cards...). After this event, Harry had to go to yet another college and load out his brother's scaffolding that has was leftover from an install...

And den?

Chinese food....... and pack for tomorrow's Ren shows. Different costuming, different show, different backdrop.

All in all, a fun, energetic, interesting, learning day in many ways.


Day 2 tomorrow.

A Tale of a True Goddess, Amazon & Heroine

For my final project for the “Goddesses, Amazons & Heroines” in my online course at Grey School of Wizardy, I am choosing a local and national hero.

Harriet Tubman

 I believe that she WAS all of these things when you hear her story.

She was born Araminta Harriet Ross 1820- and lived till 1913. Her life’s events wove in an out of American history during a very progressive and tumultuous time.

She was born a slave in Maryland and was hired out and beaten by those masters. Her family was separated  from each other by slavery.

 Once she was hit in the head with a heavy metal weight. She was left bleeding and unconscious for 2 days without medical care and the resulting head wound gave her seizures, headaches and powerful spiritual visions for years. She believed that the visions came from God.

She then escaped slavery and fled to Philadelphia but then was courageous enough to GO BACK and forth saving relatives, one by one. Imagine that. After escaping being raised in terrible, harsh environments, that she was brave enough to go back to it and try to rescue other people from it!

She eventually married a free man, and she went by her middle name “Harriet”. He was “manumitted” and given his freedom, but she was still a slave. This meant that any children born to them would be SLAVES because their mother still was! Many called her “Moses” for she brought so many out of slavery. She was a “wanted” woman.

In 1857 it was the hay day of the Erie Canal here locally. Much travel was done on the canal and she used a combination of boats, walking and carriages to rescue as many people as she could. After the “Fugitive Slave Law” was enacted, she took people as far away as Canada.

When the Civil War broke out, Harriet then became a cook and nurse at first…
but then came to her true gifts as an ARMED SCOUT and SPY. 

 She was the first woman to be given this post to, and she lead 700 slaves out as an armed leader. This lady knew her calling, and it didn’t take long for her to be an important cog in the war. 

 She also was very involved in the Sufragette Movement in the late 1800’s.  

 Ladies....here is our "Sister Suffragette!"

"Votes for Women!!"

Harriet Tubman, had a house given to her in Auburn, NY by William Seward (at that time, he was Senator of NYS, later he became Secretary of State. 

 And an aside, The Seward House is also in Auburn, and he was friends with Abraham Lincoln who also spent time in Auburn.) While it was “against the law” at the time, Seward sold to Tubman that house for a modest sum”. Great leaders of our time, recognized this woman as an equal even tho’ all odds were against her.  She was awarded a monthly pension by Congress!

Harriet Tubman, should’ve by all the impediments given her in life (being a poor black female born in slavery and abused and physically impaired by it) could’ve remained in that way of life, being beaten down by it.

Instead, she took up arms and stealth and by wits and courage became a most ferocious protector and deliverer of those who were bound by it. She was punished for being who she was. She balked the system. She fought with what she had. She was rewarded in so many ways.

I honor Harriet Tubman as one of the truly documented “Goddess, Amazon & Heroine” of our land and folklore.

As a musician and storycologist, I love bringing stories forward, with either tale or music. Melodies that I have in my repertoire, "Suwannee River", "Poor Wayfaring Stranger", "Bring 'lil' water, Sylvie", "Amazing Grace" and "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" all support this tale.

It's a tale that needs to be sung....and I like to sing.
Her life was quite a song.

New York History Net. 2008.    http://www.nyhistory.com/harriettubman/

Harriet Tubman. Wikipedia.       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman