Special to The Windham Eagle
Windham Historical Society’s Village Green opens its season of history tours to students who experience an old-fashioned school day, shop in a country store and dance around the long-forgotten Maypole.
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| Students visiting the Windham Historical Society's Village Green revive the tradition of a Maypole dance during their May 1 history tours. PHOTO BY SUE SIMONSON |
The eclectic assembly of about 20 elementary aged scholars hailed from several Cumberland County communities including Gorham, Poland, New Gloucester and South Portland. Their two-hour visit included tours of four museum buildings that place an emphasis on the history of Windham and the way people lived in the 19th century.
Dividing into small groups, the children and their chaperones toured each building and listened to volunteer docents who showcased the archives and told stories of the town’s past.
The Old Grocery Museum is presented as the Walmart of the 19th century. Patrons bought cooking ingredients like molasses and flour by the pound, and picked over fresh, locally sourced vegetables and fruits. Some produce, it was pointed out, was bartered. A farmer, for example, might bring in eggs to be traded for sugar or apples.
Tucked away in a back room or a corner of the building was the village cobbler who made and repaired boots and shoes, or the telephone switchboard where an operator flipped switches and plugged in patch cords while nasally inquiring “number please?”
Also featured in this building is a re-creation of an old farm kitchen. The centerpiece is a stately, antiquated woodstove with overhead warming ovens; beside the tea kettle are several irons that will be heated for pressing clothes. Hanging within easy reach are colorful quilted potholders. Mounted on a nearby counter is a hand pump that draws water into a metal sink. Also handy are flour sifters and hand grinders for processing meat; and various sizes of crocks to store liquids such as cooking oils and molasses. Some country stores even accommodated a post office – patrons would access their mail through a corner window.
A particular favorite building for the young visitors on the Village Green is the one-room schoolhouse. Schoolmarm Hawkes puts her scholars through their paces, lining them up in girl-boy lines, exchanging bows and curtsies. Upon entering she demands, in a respectful manner, tight discipline. One girl is wearing trousers, which is unacceptable. “Are you wearing your brother’s britches today, Mary? barks Miss Hawkes.
The 45-star American flag hangs next to a chalkboard at the front of the room; it is saluted with a pledge slightly different from the one we recite today. The scholars are reminded that wood for the school’s pot-bellied stove and the water in a large wooden bucket was supplied earlier by an older student. Each student has a personalized metal cup hanging near the water bucket.
Miss Hawkes is upset today. She eyes the scholars warily while announcing that someone has pilfered the ink used for handwriting lessons. She checks everyone’s fingers for telltale smudges.
Next is arithmetic. The students are not allowed to use their slates – this is a mental exercise. “If Arthur picks 3 bushels of apples and Molly picks 5 bushels, then they give away 2 bushels, how many bushels are left? The scholar who responds with the answer is instructed to repeat the problem while supplying the correct answer. A bell sounds, the school day is over, and Miss Hawkes dismisses the girls first.
The children are next escorted to the replica South Windham railroad depot where they wait on a platform for an imaginary passenger train to arrive. Inside the building is a scale model of Cumberland & Oxford Canal boat that once traversed lake, river, and canal waters between Long Lake and the Portland waterfront. That the canal was hand-dug astonishes the young visitors.
Windham’s first public lending library was located across from Corsetti’s store on Windham Center Road. The building was eventually moved to the Village Green and is now open as a museum and displays early book collections and the histories of past clubs, civic and fraternal organizations. The young visitors learned that the first library was in a closet in the home of a farm family. This was, of course, inconvenient for both the family and the borrower. A group of lady librarians raised the funds needed to buy the building at Windham Center where it served the community and the schools for many years.
Library docent Rebecca Delaware showed the group a set of encyclopedias. Most of the group knew how to find information online but had never heard of or seen an encyclopedia. One youngster wanted to know, “Does it tell about Minecraft?” The library also introduced the kids to a typewriter, a rotary phone (“How does this work?) and a telephone book.
Now their tour of Village Green was over, but since it was May Day (unfamiliar to most of the group), volunteer docent Paula Sparks decided to resurrect the tradition of the Maypole. With the help of her husband, David, the pole was put up next to the schoolhouse with brightly colored ribbons extending from the top. Students and chaperones each held a ribbon fully extended and on cue from a recording of bouncy Celtic music began to “go-round” the pole, keeping time with the tune. The movement soon turned into a dance, of sorts, with Sparks directing the participants to weave over and under until the pole was transformed into a colorful braid; an exercise that will be conducted only one day a year.
It was a day for history tours that concluded with an even more historical tradition. <
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