Thursday, June 8: Plymouth, Massachusetts

As we drove toward Plymouth we passed a number of Cranberry bogs. We Wisconsinites are the largest cranberry producers in America, Massachusetts falls in just behind us. 

Today was Plymouth. We will begin with Lydia:

The first thing we looked at was the Mayflower II. It was a good-sized boat, and beautiful! Even though it's a recreation of the original Mayflower its historic feel was still there. The paint and stain were all new and beautiful. There were three masts, two on the main deck, and one on the bridge. None of the sails were up, and the ropes were all tied. The masts reached up to the sky as the ropes came down to the boat for support. 

The captain's quarters were roomy and pleasant with a simple table/bench, and two beds, one for the captain and one for a rich merchant or someone important. Below deck was a completely different story. 

It was a huge, open space as big as the boat with some ropes and controls on either end. Very spacious, but stick 102 people of all ages, sizes and backgrounds in there and you have a recipe for disaster and chaos! Can you imagine being shoved from side to side by a hundred people as you tried to get from one end of the ship to the other? Sleeping on the floor next to people you may or may not know, many with seasickness, and probably some grumpy people roaming around. I, for one, wouldn't want to be in that hot mess! But England wasn't much better: war was breaking out and chaos was coming. Many other people were going to the new land. 

So, would you go to the new land on the Mayflower or stay in England with a war about to come? 

Tomi  Fay:

Our ticket bought us admission to the ship, Plimouth Grist Mill, and the Plimouth-Pautuxet village. The Plymouth Rock is near the ship. It has lived a varied life through the years, including being ignored, cut in half, basically paved over for a street, the bottom half "saved" and encased in a small pavilion, and finally the two halves meet again and were granted a fine neoclassical home. 

A pleasant walk beside a stream took us to the Plimouth Grist Mill. Our narrator was a young man who offered an excellent talk on how the mill grinds corn. I have often discussed grinding grains when I gave walking tours in Cedarburg, but I never understood the process as well as I did today. He showed us how they moved the 2,000 pound upper stone in place over the lower stone, and how they collect the cornmeal as it tumbles out the ruts cut into the stones. 

After an outdoor lunch and ice cream at a farm market, we visited the Plimouth-Pautuxet village. One area is devoted to demonstrations of how the Wampanoag people lived, the other to the Pilgrims. The Wampanoag were a maternal society, a man lived with his wife, her sisters, and their children in long buildings called wetu. The framework was bent trees, covered with an inner and outer layer of bark. This ingenious system permitted the heat from the fires to circulate in the building, warming it to what we would consider to be a comfortable room temperature in the winter. The wetu were warmer than the Pilgrim's homes in winter. 

We are in Watertown, Massachusetts at an AirBNB for five nights. We completely unloaded the truck, which seemed to be getting a bit out-of-control with all the stuff being loaded in and out. The Egg is sitting in the side yard of this house. So far, Greg has always found a place to park the truck where the Egg was out of the way in parking lots - but that may not be true in the Boston area. The house is pre-1900 and I love that all the original wood trim, doors and doorknobs are intact. With three floors, and four bedrooms, we have plenty of room to stretch out! And there is a tiny room just perfect for Tobias' porta-crib. 

Children's Activity:

The Mayflower is 106 feet long and 25 feet wide. Your mom or dad can help you figure out how many square feet each person had for themselves and all of their belongings. (106 x 25 divided by 102)

Now measure how long and wide your house is - you already measured its length two days ago when we talked about twisting rope. Then divide by how many people live in your house. How many square feet does each person have in your house? Is it the size of one of your rooms?