September 21, 2005
Living history lesson
Past comes to life for 1,175 fourth graders at Heritage Festival
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Kicking off the school year with a bang, 1,175 area fourth grade students gathered Friday at Hannah Park to learn about life without refrigeration, electricity, medical equipment or even stoves - modern ones, that is.
An extensive pioneer kitchen at the 10th Annual Heritage Festival introduced students to the chores and daily struggle to feed a family using a wood-burning stove. A nearby Metis camp featured an open fire with meat roasting on a spit and soup bubbling in large iron pots.
Both set ups demonstrated the labor-intensive process of preparing everything from scratch and by hand, usually from ingredients grown or gathered by family members. The volunteer presenters also discussed food preservation and the ups and down of endless meals featuring chicken (the meat stayed fresh while the chicken was alive.)
"A lot of people who grew up before refrigeration never thought they wanted to see another chicken," said Helen Vogel.
Volunteers cheerfully listed typical children's chores for attendees - everything from gathering, chopping and bringing in firewood to cleaning without modern conveniences. Every day and more so wash day, youngsters hauled countless buckets of water for the family.
"Do you see the faucets?" Vogel asked while holding up the kitchen sink - a small tin dishpan. "No, here's the pail and there's the water - go get it."
The Heritage Festival, which was also held on Saturday for the general public, featured a Metis camp, an old-fashioned survivalist and the Mackinaw boat Gracie L. Indoors at the Heritage Center, attendees toured the Con Foster Museum and learned about quilting, rug hooking, spinning yarn and weaving.
Some of the 37 volunteer presenters at the event set up and staffed a Civil War field hospital, camp and recruiting station. Re-enactors from the Lakeshore Tigers, representing Company A of the 26th Michigan, described the life, equipment and weapons of a Union soldier, loading and firing rifles of the era.
"I thought the gun shooting was cool, and the museum," said Taylor Peck, a fourth grade student at Cherry Knoll Elementary school. "I'd never been to the museum before."
After viewing with her classmates the exhibits throughout the park, Peck mulled over the daily life a hundred or more years ago.
"At certain times, I'd probably want to live back then, other times not," she said, adding about the lack of modern entertainment. "You'd have to have a good imagination."
Since 1995, fourth grade teachers at schools around the region have enthusiastically brought their classes to the Heritage Festival. Teachers typically refer to the event throughout the year as the students focus on Michigan history at this age.
"This gives them the visual experience and a picture is worth a thousand words," said Robin Brister, a teacher at Norris Elementary School. "When the picture is in their minds it's so much easier to explain things."
Cherry Knoll teacher Linda Egeler acknowledged the presenters for connecting with the fourth-grade mind.
"They do a nice job of relating it to the nine-year-old perspective," she said. "They say, 'If you were ten, you'd be feeding the chickens or scraping the muscle off the hide,'"
Ann Hoopfer, event coordinator since the Heritage Festival began, led a crew of volunteers that also included 35 guides and 15 others who registered classes, made meals and rang the 'change exhibits' bell.
Volunteer Dick Marr, dressed on Friday as Uncle Sam, crafted a meticulous schedule that kept more than 1,200 people - most of them under nine years old - moving smoothly and efficiently among the exhibits, to lunch and on or off buses.
A mini-grant from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs helped buy food for volunteers who worked the event and provide nominal honorariums to out-of-area presenters.
With a decade of success behind the festival, Hoopfer noted that she and Dan Truckey, executive director of the Grand Traverse Heritage Center, will conduct an extensive post-mortem of the event with some teachers and volunteers.
"Dan and I kind of need to take stock of where we've been and where we've come to," said Hoopfer. "To look at how can we still satisfy the same goal and mission but in a new way."