From: Chris Roat
Subject: BF Vacation--Poconos, PA (Pt 2-Living History)
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 21:46:26 EDT

Hi all,

POCONO INDIAN MUSEUM: :-(

For the educational portion of our vacation, we first stopped at the
Pocono Indian Museum. After wandering the gift shop for about 15 minutes
before purchasing tickets for tour admission (and being seen by at least 2
employees), my barefoot stepson was reprimanded by a hostile shoddie who
told him he needed to have shoes. I had already gotten the impression
that the museum was going to be less than impressive for me and frustrating
for the kiddies, so we left without protest and headed to the Fernwood
Resort for the kids to enjoy the arcade (barefoot).

QUIET VALLEY LIVING HISTORY FARM :-) (www.quietvalley.org)

On Saturday, we tried the educational part of our trip again--this time by
heading to the Quiet Valley Living History Farm outside Stroudsburg. I
had a good feeling about this one, as a barefoot woman and barefoot young
boy in period dress adorned the front of their brochure. After a brief
wooded trail with cool, moist dirt under thick leafy trees, we arrived at
the ticket booth and bought out tickets. We headed across the gravel path
to the farm then walked through the long, green grass to begin our tour.
We crossed the grass field to the farm, led by one of the reenactors who
showed us the pig sty and pigs and then rabbits. Next, we sat in a barn
for a brief presentation on heirloom vegetables before a walk through the
woodchip mulch-covered garden path. Then we began the official tour of the
period farm buildings.

As we were checking out the large brick bake oven, one of the women making
food was barefoot. Next, we went into the cellar kitchen which was built
into a hill and had a cool clay floor. The young teenage girl who guided
this part of the tour was barefoot. As she showed how things were cooked
over the open fire, she seemd comfortable getting very close to the fire
and even stoking it so embers flew out near her bare feet. As she
explained the construction of the cellar kitchen, she noted that the clay
floor was cool and smooth "for people who were barefoot, like me." Indeed,
it felt nice--cool and dusty.

Next we moved into the parent's bedroom in the 18th century farmhouse.
The barefoot woman who was cooking entered to show us the features of the
parents' bed, bedroom, and trundle bed for the young 'uns beneath the
parents' bed. Our next stop was a visit to the parlor, an early 20th
century addition for the sophisticated lady of the house. A barefoot girl
in her late teens guided us in this room and even played the pipe organ
barefoot before leading us into a more modern kitchen (late 1800s/early
1900s) to show the lady of the house's prize possession--a modern indoor
stove. When she was done telling us about the various period kitchen
accoutrements, she led us to the barn over a gravel trail. She showed no
signs that her feet had any problem with the mid-sized gravel, nor did I or
my stepson. In the barn, we learned about farming equipment and then the
kids got a chance to jump in the haypile before we moved on to the lower
part of the barn to see the horses, mule, and cow. We wrapped up the tour
checking out the dry house and smokehouse. This was an excellent tour.

The guiders all did a very good job of staying in character and the farm
and buildings were extremely well preserved as they would've been in the
late 1700s through early 1900s. Also, not only were our bare feet not a
problem, but 3 of the guides were barefoot as well--perfectly appropriate
period costume, especially for women and children.

Up next....some more general observations and summary of our vacation.

--Barefoot Chris
Barefoot Hikers of PA (NJ-DE-MD)
http://members.aol.com/CAR525/BFHPA2.htm
"Free Your Feet and Your Mind Will Follow."