Field Trip

The most wonderful thing about spending a month in Maine is I feel no compulsion to pack a lot into everyday. This makes this a truly relaxing vacation. But today we took a family field trip we could only do today. In our little neighborhood we noticed this sign for The Old Homestead. It stands in front of a tiny shingled house with no driveway, just a small barn and outhouse in back. Since the sign says it is only open 2-4 on Wednesdays we went on to visit.

There was a car parked on the grass so I just pulled up next to it in the yard. We approached the house and realized we had to go around to the side to get in. As the door was wide open I called out a greeting as we came in so as not to startle the docent. She was an 84 year old woman who never told us her name, as is often the way here in Maine. She told us that the house was built in 1773 and inhabited until 1938. It was a lovely tiny home with four rooms downstairs which we could go in and one big upstairs, which we only saw by looking up the staircase.

The smallest room had an antique rope bed and the docent told me it was the borning room. Since the original family had 13 children I think the room got good use. Russ, Carter and I spent a good amount of time looking at the books they had displayed showing the history of the area, the photos of kids in local schools in the 1950’s and a local cookbook.

Carter and I got quite a kick out of the cookbook. They were recipes submitted by local people with very little editing. Consequently there were multiple recipes for the same thing, like Fruit Salad or chocolate pie. In the case of fruit salad I wouldn’t eat anyone of them, especially since they were essentially all the same recipe, except for the one that wanted you to make your own salad dressing, using flour. Yuck!

Carter’s favorite were the two cream Puff Recipes. One titled, “Cream Puffs” the other “Prize winning Cream Puffs.” Which one would you make?

One chapter on sandwiches was down right scary. How many of you have eaten a fruit sandwich like the one described here.?

Things happen slowly here in Maine. Proof, they were giving away 2008 calendars at the Old Homestead. Since they are only open two hours a week it must be taking a long time to move those calendars. Maybe in a year or two they can give away 2009.

All in all it was a very interesting display and we could have spent a lot more time, but they weren’t opened long enough. So we went home and sat on the porch and enjoyed the view. Happy to do not much.