Neil and I did a little day tripping today over past Knoxville to Norris, Tennessee, where the Museum of Appalachia is having its Fall Homecoming, an annual event that Neil and I have attended off and on for twenty years or more. We enjoy it very much each time we go, because we get to spend a day in October roaming around this fascinating reincarnation of a frontier/pioneer village. There is a festival atmosphere with bluegrass and country bands providing background music to great food, old time crafts and demonstrations of how our great great (great!) grandparents lived. There are no reproductions here. Mr. John Rice Irwin and his family spent years collecting these pieces of history from the 1700's and 1800's and displaying them in a way that makes you feel like you are walking around in those days when life was certainly a day to day struggle and everything was made by hand.
Neil and I always gravitate towards the pottery. Mr. Akin is from Franklin, Tennessee, and demonstrates his craft.
We bought a couple of his bowls (with handle) that will be great to use for soup and chili.
This hide was cool but kind of gross. It still had bits and pieces of animal innards on it. This craftsman had all sorts of pelts and such to sell.
Back in the day, mules were put to work turning the press that squeezed the syrup out of the sugar cane you can see piled up by the press. Sometimes he'd have a piece of cane in his mouth. A treat, I guess, for his hard work.
He's a hard working guy but I think he shared his duty with another mule during the course of the day.
I think they were making sorghum from the sugar cane.
I like hand made wooden bowls, and there were some beauties here.
Lunch! Pork BBQ sandwich, potato salad and baked beans. There is so much food to choose from. You could eat all day and not eat the same thing twice. This was so yummy.
Besides the crafts, music is the center piece at this event. This band was really good. They sang a song lamenting how many times must I cross the Caney Fork River to get to her....or some such. Kathy Mattea is singing here Saturday. Would like to have heard her.
The smithy forges some way cool and useful iron tools. Hot stuff.
I imagine an actual bed to lay your head down in after a long day growing your own food would have been a luxury back in those times. The cabins these folks lived in were usually just one room, maybe two if they were industrious or had tons of kids. Cozy.
There are usually Civil War reenactment soldiers here at this event which is always interesting and we always learn something new--like the process the soldiers on the battlefield went through just to fire off one shot of a canon. But it was accurate up to a thousand yards. Not too shabby.
The simple life. It seems so to us until you start thinking of the challenges they endured just to stay alive. I might be able to spend a weekend getaway in a little cabin like this--but I'd probably never survive the winter.
This is Daniel Boone's actual cabin. It was used to film the TV series back in the sixties. (Remember Fess Parker? No? Remember Daniel Boone?) When I was in high school, my best friend told me that her mother had a friend who thought we all had dirt floors here in the South. Big surprise for that lady when she finally came to visit. I think she may have watched too much Daniel Boone.
Dessert! The best funnel cake. Ever.
We're having more fun than human beings should be allowed to have.
This sign was on an old bank safe. I'll bet they never had a break in.
A general store recreation.
Roadside signs erected by H. Harrison Mayes as a promise to God for sparing his life when he was crushed in a coal mining accident.
Abraham Lincoln made an appearance this afternoon. I don't know who was playing the part, but he's a dead ringer for Honest Abe.
Someone had stopped Mr. Lincoln and asked to take his picture. While she was taking hers, I took this one (cell phone camera --it's all I had with me today). I like the way it turned out in silhouette against extremely bright sunlight. We really enjoyed the museum's fall homecoming today. Anyone who has any interest in history should visit this place. It's well worth the trip. Here is a link so you can check it out for yourself. http://www.museumofappalachia.org/
