Last Sunday found me at Hale Farm and Village in beautiful
Bath, Ohio. It was a lovely day to be out and about. The leaves were just a bit
past their peak, but that’s okay. There was enough color to make it worthwhile.
And the blue skies and warmish temps helped, too.
Hale is a working farm that hearkens back to the mid-19th
Century. Many of the buildings have been brought from other places and restored
to their original condition.
I hadn’t been to Hale Farm in a number of years. As I recall,
the last time was with my parents. This time, I was flying solo. I didn’t quite
have the place to myself, but there were only a handful of other visitors. Some
kids, but not too many. And they were well-behaved, so that was cool.
I met Starsky and Hutch, a pair of oxen with the stage names
of Star and Bright (which they don’t answer to). There were chickens and sheep.
(I did the obligatory “baaaa” at them. They ignored me, as well they should.)
I talked to the broom maker and had a long conversation with
the woman who works the looms. She’s made carpets, blankets and towels for many
of the buildings on the farm. She showed me how she changes out the card to
make smaller or tighter weaves. Very time consuming, but beautiful
craftsmanship. There was also a candle maker, a huge kiln for pottery and a
place for dyeing (with an “e”).
I spent some time watching a glass blower. She didn’t bother
wearing authentic garb, and she didn’t seem to like the audience much. But her
work was amazing. I’ve always thought glass blowers were magical.
There was enough of a crowd at the blacksmith’s that I
couldn’t see much. But I get the gist, I’ve seen blacksmiths before. Heat.
Pound. Repeat. Still pretty amazing that everything he does comes out the
correct shape. I’d hate to think how mine would turn out.
The schoolhouse was from 1816. The "teacher" there looked
pretty bored, so I made a point of asking her a few questions. Like who came up
with the dunce cap. It was named for Johannes Duns Scotus, a 13th
century friar and philosopher who was brilliant in his time. He liked to wear a
conical hat, which symbolized wizardry and wizards, who were smart. He had
thousands of followers at one time, known as Dunsmen or Dunces, but his
teachings lost favor during the Renaissance, and the hat came to symbolize stupidity.
Thus, the dunce cap became the dreaded accessory to schoolchildren in
classrooms far and wide.
Continuing on my way, I toured several houses on the
property, most of them built elsewhere. My favorite building was the meeting
house. I sat on one of the benches (pews? Or is that a Catholic thing?) and
closed my eyes, trying to imagine the people who had been there and the topics
under discussion. Did they keep it civil? Or was there shouting and
shenanigans?
I lunched al fresco, me and my chicken salad. I bailed when a
persistent yellow jacket invaded my space. One more walk around, and I reluctantly called
it a day.
So much we take for granted in our modern world. It was nice
to take a step back and slow down the pace for a day and restore the soul.
But no, I would not want to go back to a time when 11 people
lived in a cabin the size of our bathroom at work. And I am too attached to
indoor plumbing to think the past was all romance.
Still, it was nice to be off the grid for just a little
while.
