Whistling Past the Graveyard

My husband and I love to run along the forested trails near our home. We usually do this in the morning before work, and in the winter months this involves raingear and a headlamp. We start out running along the road towards the trail with streetlights shining above us but once we reach the trail, it is extremely dark. I concentrate on the beam of light coming from my headlamp to avoid downed branches and deep puddles but always keep glancing to the sides, looking in the trees for any movement or even a set of glowing eyes. Near the top of the trail, the sides of the small canyon move in closer and there are no wide spaces. As we turn the last corner at the top, there is a series of hollows made of bushes and trees. I always make some sort of sound and flash my headlight into the darkness to be sure nothing is hiding or sleeping there. We have seen wild animals along that part of the trail but nothing too fearsome – a rabbit, some deer, a few opossums and a flock of wild turkeys. However, I still get a bit unnerved in that area.

The other morning I had to get back earlier to prepare for the day, so I ran home and my husband continued on and ran the upper part of the trail alone. When he got back he said he did it because he just had to whistle past the graveyard that day. I was curious about that phrase and did some research on it. I found that in the Middle Ages and even into the 1800s, cemeteries were often built on the edges of a town. During these superstitious times, it was believed that the spirits of those buried there would come out at dusk to haunt any one who happened to be passing by. To escape these ghostly encounters, travelers would make loud noises or literally whistle as they walked past the graveyard to keep the spirits and their own fear away until they were past the cemetery.

Robert Blair who lived in the early 1700s, was a Scottish poet who was educated in the Netherlands and Edinburgh. He only published three poems during his lifetime and is most well known for his final poem titled “The Grave.” A portion of this poem mentions the idea of whistling past the graveyard:

            Oft in the lone church yard at night I've seen,


            By glimpse of moonshine chequering thro' the trees,


            The school boy, with his satchel in his hand,


            Whistling aloud to bear his courage up,


            And lightly tripping o'er the long flat stones,


            (With nettles skirted, and with moss o'ergrown,)


            That tell in homely phrase who lie below.


As we look at amazing individuals from the past that have accomplished great things under difficult circumstances I think that we need to realize that they may have been doing a lot of whistling to make it though and keep going. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Do one thing everyday that scares you.” I think she was telling us to try to look beyond our current situations, no matter how challenging they may be and see where we could be if we just kept walking and whistling.

So, next time I run in the dark past the shadowy hallows, I will just whistle a little louder and enjoy the run. By the way, there is also a graveyard at the top of our running trail.

Skara Brae

One evening I curled up with a blanket, some hot chocolate, my Kindle, and the sound of steady rain on the back porch. I had just begun Bill Bryson’s book, “At Home: A Short History of Private Life.” After several minutes of reading, I was totally intrigued by Skara Brae, a place I had never heard mention of before.

Skara Brae was discovered during the winter of 1850 when a storm swept through Britain. Many ships were destroyed and hundreds of people were killed in just one night from the winds and stormy waters. Several hundred miles north of Britain lay the Orkney Islands of Scotland-which are so far north that they are not physically part of Scotland. After the storm raged through the waters surrounding Britain, it continued north to the Scottish islands and blew a grassy covering entirely off of a rocky area near the water. Once the islanders recovered from the storm and began to evaluate the damage, they found that the grassy area had actually been covering an ancient stone village that was amazingly intact –Skara Brae. This well preserved piece of history “consisted of nine houses, all still holding many of their original contents, the village dates from five thousand years ago. It is older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids, older than all but a handful of built structures on Earth” (Bryson). This Stone Age village was incredibly detailed and included locking doors, drains and large rooms with ten-foot ceilings. There were also built-in storage areas and dressers as well as water tanks. Hardly what one would think of when visualizing a Neolithic village.

There were no trees near Skara Brae so the inhabitants burned seaweed to keep warm and cook their food during the long, cold, northern nights. The lack of trees available in Skara Brae would have been a challenge but it became a boon for historians today, since these Neolithic villagers were forced to make their homes from stones instead of trees, thus preserving them for thousands of years.

Using my iPhone, I was able to travel through space and time and become acquainted with this distant location. I googled pictures of Skara Brae and was impressed with how well preserved it was, how beautiful the ocean cliffs, are and how far north the Orkney Islands are. I wonder how these early people got to these remote islands in the first place, where they came from, how long they lived there and how their civilization abruptly ended. I am reminded that there are so many minute corners of time yet to be discovered . . . . what an exciting challenge!

Croquet Anyone?

This summer our family has taken up a new form of entertainment – playing croquet. Mind you, we do not play by any official rules and treat it a bit like miniature golf with hoops. Plus, we have added a few house rules of our own. One of these house rules insists that participants must wear hats: the crazier, the better! We have had a lot of fun hunting down an assortment of hats to have on hand for ourselves and any guests that come over to play – stocking caps, Darth Vader helmets, Australian cowboy hats, top hats – to list a few. The strange looks, smirks, and shy questions we get from some of our neighbors indicate employment of them as observers as well.

The game of croquet and golf both came from a variation of the Roman game of paganica. Basically a version of paganica with limited space became croquet a one with a lot of space became golf. In the 1860s in England, croquet had become a trendy game after being brought there in the 17^th century by a bunch of Irish travelers. Croquet was officially established in 1867 and was an important game as it was the only acceptable game that women and girls were allowed play. It became popular with those who were courting since a ball hit into a grove a trees could turn to a chance to flirt or even sneak a kiss. The 1880s were a perfect time to manufacture and sell croquet set since leisure activities were becoming more popular in the United States.

My husband appreciates the quality of work that went in to making the older croquet sets and has collected a few different sets for us to use. On one, he noticed a worn and brittle label that read “South Bend Toys, South Bend, Indiana. With a bit of searching we quickly became interested in the history of the South Bend Toy Company and the croquet sets they built. Frederick Badet, who worked as a grocery clerk and John Teel, a woodworker, established the toy company in 1874. They began by building wooden toys- including croquet sets. They constructed these sturdy sets in their spare time after work, using locally grown hardwood trees.

The Badet family owned the South Bend Toy Company until 1956. By the early 1900s, the South Bend Toy Company had 225 employees and continued to grow and moved into a larger building. In a South Bend Toy Company Catalog (dated 1911) a croquet set sold for 75 cents, and a shellacked set sold for $2.25. In 1960 South Bend Toy Company merged with Playskool, then Milton Bradley and finally Hasbro. Sadly, the South Bend Toy Company could not compete with the increased competition of domestic and foreign toy makers and in 1985 they went out of business.

Another cause of the ruin of the South Bend Company was the high quality of craftsmanship they exercised in making their wooden toys. For example, the croquet sets were so well made that even though they may have had a lot of use, they were sturdy enough that people hardly ever had to buy a second set.

Louis Chreist, who served as the President of South Bend Toy Company from 1960-1977, shared his philosophy about toys: he said that a toy first “entertained and educated the child. It should teach how to play with other children or how to treat others. It should have a moral value. It should teach without shaking a finger.'' He also believed that a few good toys were much better than a room filled with mediocre ones.

As I consider the fine craftsmanship, and the lofty ideals for making toys at South Bend Toy Company, I also wonder if that much thought and care goes into making a toy today. I have serious doubts, as profits instead of moral values appear to be the driving force in today’s toy production. In my mind’s eye, I can see Frederick and John quickly eating their evening meal after a long days work, and gathering at their small workshop to build, lathe, and assemble their handcrafted croquet sets. Next time I put on my crazy hat and grab my yellow handled South Bend Toy Company croquet mallet, I will more greatly appreciate the piece of the past that I hold in my hand.

“Croquet: The Lost Art of Toy Making in South Bend,” South Bend Tribune, 16 August 1999 by Kathy Borlik.

Cultivating Gardens and Statesmanship

Typical 17^th century gardens in the New World began as a very useful part of a homestead. Many were surround by fences and hedges to keep out livestock that roamed about freely. These early gardens were filled with practical herbs, fruit trees, and plants that were used for medicinal purposes and general cooking. These initial gardens were used to provide for families and prove to themselves and others that they could tame the wilderness of the New World.

Within a few decades these New World gardens went beyond the basics and began to host unique plants from far away. In 1642, a garden in New Amsterdam (now Manhattan) contained tulips. This seemed an ordinary item to include in a garden; however, tulip mania had only hit Holland in the 1630s, and since New Amsterdam was at the entrance to the Hudson River, the colonists had easy access to these botanical treasures. By the 1660s, gardens in New Amsterdam contained parterres, which were borders made of low hedges, flowers, and herbs, used to divide up the gardens and add a bit of refinement to their overall appearance (Graham).

During these early colonial days, plants were status symbols. They became living treasures, having been shipped between continents among the continual stream of overseas explorations and colonization expeditions. Profits could be had by “swashbuckling botanist-adventurers” who sailed with instructions from kings and queens to return with the “most wonderful and lucrative species from the corners of the world” (Graham). Part of the reason for the excitement surrounding the flora resulted from Carl Linnaeus’ publication of Systema Naturae in 1735, which introduced the idea of identifying and classifying every plant with a two-part scientific name.

Thomas Jefferson is a name that is synonymous with gardening. He was not only one of the Founding Fathers of the United States but was also a successful gardener at his home at Monticello. He began to actively garden in 1757, when he was only fourteen years old.  This was the year his father, Peter Jefferson, died and left young Thomas with approximately 5,000 acres to manage.

In a letter to Charles Wilson Peale, Thomas Jefferson stated, “I have often thought that if heaven had given me choice of my position and calling, it should have been on a rich spot of earth, well watered, and near a good market for the productions of the garden” (Lipscomb and Bergh, 78-80).

Jefferson’s desire to cultivate the land was realized because of his continual planning and hard work. Beginning at the age of twenty-three, and up until two years before he died, Jefferson recorded nearly daily entries into his Garden Book recording the goings-on of his many plants at Monticello. This record contained meticulous notations of everything that Jefferson planted, when he planted it, in what type of soil it was planted, when it was transplanted, when it was harvested, and details explaining to the reader which plants thrived and which ones failed. Jefferson’s record also included notes about when the first flowers bloomed each year, when the first migrating birds were seen, and details about the temperature. Though Jefferson’s days were filled with travel, war, and decades of public service, he continually carried on a never-ending exchange of bulbs, seeds, and plants with individuals all over Europe and America.

Jefferson incessantly experimented with new plant varieties. Each year he grew 150 different fruit trees and up to 350 vegetables at one time. These included 50 varieties of peas, 44 varieties of beans, and nearly 30 different types of cabbage. Jefferson’s garden at Monticello was officially started in 1774, which makes it older than the United States (McCullough, 221). Wade Graham recorded that Jefferson stated that the “greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture” - this from the man who penned the Declaration of Independence! Jefferson’s vegetable garden was eighty feet wide and one thousand feet long, and is still cultivated today . . . his enduring legacy of statesmanship.

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Graham, Wade. American Eden: From Monticello to Central park to our Backyards. (HarperCollins Publishers: New York, 2011).

Lipscomb, Andrew A. and Albert Ellery Bergh. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson. 20 vols. (Washington D.C., 1903-1904) vol. 13.

McCullough, David. Brave Companions. (Simon & Schuster: New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, 1992)

Farmers Markets – Part II

 Farmers Markets are not a recent development connected to the ‘organic foods’ and ‘buy local’ movements seen in recent decades. They have been around for a lot longer time than one might think. The first Farmers Markets began over 5,000 years ago along the fertile land of the Nile River in Egypt, where farmers brought their produce to be sold.

Colonists in the New World also gathered to buy, sell, and trade goods as the Egyptians did. Their weekly gathering allowed colonial families to live more comfortably, since they were far from supplies that arrived only after a long ocean voyage. These earlier markets were not staged under tents and awnings like today. Instead, many of them set up under the protection of large trees that allowed the dappled sunlight to dance across their goods and produce.

The Colonial Markets included more than food, since there were settlers who made a living by crafting shoes, hats, clothes, and tools. However, the protocol to purchase these items was much different than going to the mall today. Instead of simply finding an outfit, and wearing it to work the next day, the colonial buyer went to the Colonial Farmers Market, placed an order for the clothing, and then waited until it was made, usually picking it up from the seller several weeks later.

Participants in the early Farmers Markets often traded for items instead of exchanging money and goods. For example, if a toolmaker did not have enough in his garden to feed his family one year, he could trade a tool he had made with a farmer who needed the tool and had himself raised a productive garden.

Towns within the colony of New Netherland in the mid 1600s had a specific day each week set aside as Market Day. This made it easy for buyers and sellers to prepare for exchanges that would take place on the given Market Day. Farmers Markets were more than an avenue to purchase and sell supplies. These gatherings were a time to visit with friends and neighbors, get caught up with the goings-on of the previous week, a time for the settlers to refresh their souls, and renew their friendships. At the end of the day, after close of a Market Day, most of those who attended went home a bit happier, glad to be an important part of their community.

Farmers Markets - Part 1

            The first Saturday in May is a day I look forward to each year because that is when the Farmers Markets open up for the season. I enjoy the Farmers Market for several reasons. First, it lets me know that summer is coming. After a cold and rainy winter, it is inspiring to see healthy plants lined up in black pots; knowing that only a few months previously, they were seeds. Gazing at bunches of fresh picked lettuce and parsley makes me question why I have not taken the time or effort to cultivate my own bunches of fresh produce. I am often reminded of the people who lived before supermarkets. At the end of a long winter with only small apples and wrinkly potatoes from the root cellar left, I am certain that the sight of leafed out lettuce was greatly appreciated.

            Another thing I enjoy about going to the Farmers Market is the instant camaraderie felt there. You can walk up to any booth, initiate a conversation and soon it seems like you are visiting with a life-long friend. I went to two Farmers Markets the first day of the season both in smaller towns with several booths each. At the first Market the merchants were cheery and had tables filled with goods however, it was not a typical spring morning. Instead, it was pouring down rain, causing the fire in the middle of the Market to smolder. The cold, wet weather did not hinder the man selling peppers, and tomato plants though. As my husband and I asked him about his plants, he knew each variety extremely well – how large each one would eventually grow and how soon they would produce fruit. As we chose the mixture of plants we wanted, the man at the booth carefully picked out plants that were healthy and straight with no wilted leaves. He gently loaded our plants into a box top as the rain poured on their leaves. As we walked away with our carefully selected plants my husband made the comment that the plants we were holding were the man at the Markets’ children, as he knew each one very well and had spent the past few months carefully tending them and watching them grow.

            The second Farmers Market I went to was small as well and by then the rain had stopped but had been replaced by a fierce wind that whipped around the edges of the coverings the merchants stood under. Here I visited with the sellers; first with an older, quiet gentleman who sold me a rosemary plant. He described how his wife used the herb in cooking and how to keep my plant protected during the extremely rainy weather we had been having. Another lady was passionate about tomatoes. I could have asked her about varieties of tomatoes for hours and she would have known every detail.

            It seems that farmers in the New World who shared plants between their friends and neighbors would have also known their plants well. They would want to be familiar with how well each variety could best be preserved through the winter. They would also want to be acquainted with when the plant produced so as to have a continual supply of food during the warmer months of the year. Herbs would also be important plants to acquire since their colonial homes did not have shelves filled with little plastic jars with red lids containing numerous spices to flavor food. This time of the year their food was fresh and favorable and a joy to eat.

Colonial Cloth Making

If you enjoy sewing and quilting you may have noticed the price of fabric going up. In actuality the cost of raw cotton has doubled in just a years time, which has been followed by an increase in fabric and clothing prices. This rise is due to difficulties around the world: droughts in China, restricted imports within India and devastating floods in Pakistan. Centuries ago, trade began between countries for commodities. Today however, we have become so specialized and reliant on imports, that we no longer possess the skills to create some of the items that people in the past used to. One of these antiquated skills was making linen cloth, which seems like a very complicated and daunting project that would take more patience and skills than many of us possess.

Early colonial women were among those who knew how to make linen cloth.  They began the process by planting, tending and harvesting a quarter-acre of flax each year. After it was harvested, the seeds were removed and the flax stalks were spread on wet ground and the edges of ponds, which allowed the stalks to rot and loosen the flax fiber from its woody cores and outer bark.

After the fibers had sufficiently rotted, the bundles were dried over a fire and broken into smaller pieces that were then “hackled.” This was done by separating the flax fibers with combs - known as hackles, which were made from pieces of wood with steel spikes in them. The women used three sizes of hackles to produce finer fibrous strands. At this point the hackled flax looked like limp, thin hair. Next it was spun into linen yarn, then into linen thread and lastly, woven into linen cloth.

The linen cloth was then beaten with wooden clubs, sized and flattened to lessen the gaps between the weaves of the fabric. The cloth produced was always a dull, gray color that matched the dreary autumn sky they worked under.

Before the linen cloth could be used for making clothes, it was bleached in lye. This was done in a “bleaching yard” which was simply a fenced off area, far from the kitchen garden; the fence kept dogs, geese and children from running across the drying linen cloth. The bleaching process began, as the linen cloth was soaked in warm water for a few days, then saturated for two days in lye and cow dung. Afterwards it was stretched out in the bleaching yard, washed off and beat with wooden paddles for approximately three hours. The process of soaking, stretching and drying was completed 5-6 more times. Next the cloth was soaked in buttermilk for two days and stretched in the bleaching yard. This buttermilk procedure was completed six more times after which the cloth was finally transformed from a dull grey, to a clean white.

The fabric could then be transformed from fabric into clothes, however, remember this was accomplished during a time when there were no paper patterns or sewing machines. Often women chose to sew simple dresses for themselves and mend clothes that were wearing out instead of making now cloth and clothing.

If we had the expertise to make our own cloth, we would not have to worry about the price of cotton in China. However, I think I will use up my fabric stash and not complain too much about rising cotton prices. I do not think my neighbors could tolerate the assorted smells of lye, cow dung and buttermilk during the final month of a hot summer.

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Cross, Gary and Rick Szostak. Technology and American Society: A History. (New Jersey: Pearson, Prentice Hall, 2005), 45-47.

Messer, Sarah. Red House. (New York: Penguin Books, 2004), 90-92.