{"id":616,"date":"2014-09-30T11:39:30","date_gmt":"2014-09-30T16:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/?p=616"},"modified":"2014-09-30T11:39:30","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T16:39:30","slug":"pioneer-days-bring-past-to-sommer-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/2014\/09\/30\/pioneer-days-bring-past-to-sommer-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Pioneer Days bring past to Sommer Park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Our country\u2019s past isn\u2019t very long but we\u2019ve come a long way from our pioneer days. That time in history resonates with people enough to reminisce about it with other people, and that\u2019s why \u201cPioneer Days\u201d exists. Pioneer Days is a piece of history that anybody can go and see during the summer months (May through to October). The events happen on the last Sunday of every month at Sommer Park, and each day there is a specific theme. Today\u2019s theme was barn dance, and on October 26<sup>th<\/sup> the theme will be butter churning. The events are from 1pm to 4pm and cost about $2.25 per person, for ages four and up.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>A Quiet Life for a Simpler Time<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The first thing you\u2019ll see when you get to the event is the schoolhouse, which stands by itself in a clearing. The inside is very frugal, wooden benches and a few windows, with focus only on the pedestal on the far end of the room meant for the teacher. Tom Miller, Facility Manager, is talking to some children who are sitting on the benches (boys on one side, girls on the other). He\u2019s telling them about how hard life was in the past, how some of the students would have to sleep on the benches of the schoolhouse. \u201cMy favorite part about Pioneer Days is that it\u2019s an opportunity for foreigners to learn about the life the people of our past lived.\u201d Tom Says, \u201cPeople of German or English decent are fascinated to learn about the quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sommer Park has been hosting this event for the public since 2001, 13 years ago. There were about 20 or so civilians there at the time, but the number can differ drastically depending on what else is happening at the time. Last Saturday was Caterpillar family day, and so there were approximately 1500 people at the location according to Tony Klein, a volunteer blacksmith at Pioneer Days.<\/p>\n<p>Down at the homestead there was a group of musicians performing some music from the time period, and around them a group of people dressed in the garb of the time were dancing and socializing with each other. Inside the house there was Jerry Ruck, a retired schoolteacher, she has been doing this for 8 or10 years. \u201cI was born in the wrong century, I love this aspect of history and sharing it with others.\u201d A group of children walk through the house, stopping momentarily to pick up some objects on the table. \u201cI love telling the kids how they would spend their time; doing chores, making clothes, and learning other things that would benefit that family.\u201d She shows the kids a chamber pot underneath the only bed in the house. \u201cIf there\u2019s anything you should take from this, it would be this saying; \u2018Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without,\u201d She goes on later to say that we could save a lot of money in our modern world if we used such a philosophy.<\/p>\n<p>The Blacksmith was a short hayride away, in a small shack relatively far away from the school and the homestead. The blacksmith, Tony, mostly does ornamental work or chains. He volunteers for the events, \u201cOnly two people who work this are actually employed by the park, the rest are all volunteers. This is a good community of people, and it\u2019s my favorite part of being here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pioneer Days isn\u2019t the most fanciful thing you could do on a Sunday, but there are plenty of things to learn, and it\u2019s only 3 hours long, which is time well spent. There is a lot of open space so it\u2019s a great place to have a picnic and pretend you\u2019re in a time that was simpler, and less hectic than the world we live in today.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Following the Path Laid Before Us<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.timetoast.com\/timelines\/pioneer-days<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our country\u2019s past isn\u2019t very long but we\u2019ve come a long way from our pioneer days. That time in history resonates with people enough to reminisce about it with other people, and that\u2019s why \u201cPioneer Days\u201d exists. Pioneer Days is a piece of history that anybody can go and see during the summer months (May through to October). The events happen on the last Sunday of every month at Sommer Park, and each day there is a specific theme. Today\u2019s theme was barn dance, and on October 26th the theme will be butter churning. The events are from 1pm to 4pm and cost about $2.25 per person, for ages four and up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":652,"href":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions\/652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}