Revolutionary War Reenactment at the Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation

This weekend was the Revolutionary War Reenactment at the Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation. You may ask, if I ever spend time in the 21st century, unfortunately I do. But today, I put on my petticoat and, jacket and shift and was ready for a warm May day in 1776. A day in 1776 for me, an indentured servant, involved getting wood to keep the fires in the kitchen going, helping out with the cooking, cleaning the dishes, getting more wood, cooking some more, getting more wood, and listening to the battle that was being fought off in the distance and cooking yet again. Then I got to the fun part of the day: cleaning. :D It may seem bleak but I would rather be a weekend indentured servant than pretty much anything else.

Somehow, cooking and cleaning the old fashioned way is much more suited to me. Maybe it's the fact that the standard of "clean" was much different then than it is today. I think more likely it is the fact that everything is done by old fashioned hard work- no washing machine, no dishwasher, no microwave. There is something very satisfying about a good day's hard work and then collapsing for a nap at the end of the day.
I also like the fact that work is done together and that everyone's work benefits all others. I do not mind work when work is also time spent with family or friends- not like the 21st century where members of the family all go off to separate jobs and barely see each other.  

Some specialty reenactors came out to the battle:

A physician and his lovely wife, also a physician.  These two were full of information about Colonial medicine. They had lots of period medicines and instruments, including that scary instrument pictured. They talked about the healing properties of honey and how honey was used in the colonial times to heal wounds and was only recently rediscovered by medical professionals within the last 5 or so years.  

A British physician and his son: These two were knowledgeable, especially the son who is only 12 or 13. He is learning colonial medicine the same way doctors really did back in those days. It is surprisingly effective!

A Hessian Soldier: ( I talked to this man's fiancee. I asked her if she knew she knew her fiancee was a "Hessian Soldier" while they were dating. She said "Yes, he told me--but I didn't know what that meant." :D ) Now she's all dressed up and being dragged to reenactments, they are even thinking about colonial dancing at their wedding reception. (Sometimes I don't think people know what they are in for.) I am lucky that Andy and I are equally interested, crazy, *insane* about history and reenacting.

I hope you all have escaped into the 18th century for the few minutes that you read this post. I hope it makes you all want to gather your siblings or children and do the laundry in a basin in the back yard during this lovely weather we have been having or gives you an ache to make dinner in the hearth tonight.