Much better

[altivo]

Last night's storms split and went to the north and south of us. Hardly a drop of rain here, just a quick splatter, and no high winds, though Gary and Rob did drive back here with the storm front on their tail and dust-raising winds for the first half of the trip.

Today was beautiful, except for gusty winds. Blue skies all day, temperatures just slightly warmer than normal indoor air, and humidity greatly reduced.

As planned, we went to the "Day at Petersen Farm" over near Ringwood. I joined with the spinning guild demonstrating spinning techniques while Gary and Rob performed 19th century music beside the horse barn.

The crowd was larger by several hundred visitors over last year's event, but we received far fewer of the really "off-base" questions than last year. Most people seemed to have at least some idea of what we were doing and what the purpose was. Many are badly confused about the distinctions between spinning, weaving, sewing, knitting, etc. but at least they have some vague notion that it all has to do with making clothing and that the raw fiber comes from animal hairs or plants.

I did have one older man who expressed shock that I was sitting there with the women "knitting" as he put it. Actually, I was doing Tunisian crochet at the time, something none of the women in the group know how to do, but that's a fine point. He was immediately corrected by the women in the group and then apologized to me. I told him I wasn't offended and was used to hearing it, but in fact I have been the county fair judge for knitting and crochet for several years now and am a knitting instructor. He didn't seem to know what to make of that, especially after I said that I've been doing this stuff for nearly half a century.

Since this year is the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth, of course, there were many things focused on that. They had a Lincoln impersonator walking around, and I must admit he really did have a striking facial resemblance to the 16th President, though he wasn't quite tall enough. He gave several presentations on the farmhouse porch in which he told anecdotes and stories in Lincoln's voice, and though I didn't get to hear him, I imagine he was pretty good.

We were all amused when there was an announcement that anyone interested could come to the farmhouse kitchen to "see a woman bake a cherry pie using lard." I don't think the lard itself was the novelty, but just the idea of making pastry from flour and shortening would be. Once we discussed it, we agreed that the vast majority of people in this country today would have no idea how to do that, simple as it might be. Sad, really.

Comments

[bladehorse.livejournal.com]

Funny that lard makes the flakiest pasteries, yet everyone is scared to death that they'll get cholesterall from like 1 pie or somthing. And OMG You eat eggs too.. Yup :))
I swear ppl are so out of reality anymore, that if it came down to surviving. Id say about at least 70% would not make it. Either theyd die of dehydration (Inability to pull water from a hand dug well) or starve because they dont have preformed beef in plastic anymore. And Mending, and making clothes??? OMG Like gag me with a spoon! wHERES MY ARMANI SUIT!!!

[jmaynard.livejournal.com]

What did the Lincoln impersonator use for a voice? The historical accounts I've seen all said that his voice was fairly high pitched and carried very well; which would be important for a politician in the days before amplified sound; the modern portrayals tend to have his voice as fairly deep.

Mmmm, pie

[quickcasey.livejournal.com]

Pies can come from other sources than state approved pie factories?

Re: Mmmm, pie

[quoting-mungo.livejournal.com]

Crazy talk! They come from the pie mines! Or possibly atmospheric dust. I'm not sure if pie classes as bread or cake.


-Alexandra

[schnee.livejournal.com]

Even if you had been knitting, why would he have been shocked by that? o.o

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes. I don't know if it's a collapse of the education system or a complete social disconnect, but the way people of all ages are isolated from the realities of survival today is just incredible to me. No idea how to find or prepare food, clothing, shelter, or anything else. Totally dependent on fragile social structures to provide for their needs, without even understanding how dependent they are, let alone how those structures work.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

His natural voice was fairly high pitched. I've read the descriptions of Lincoln's speaking voice and they don't really give me much of an idea what it was really like, other than that he was probably a tenor.

Re: Mmmm, pie

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It's worse than that. An increasing number of people think that "pie" means one of those deep-fried things they sell at McDonald's.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Far too many Americans are still locked into rigid notions of sex roles and occupations. Women do this, men do that, and crossover is not normal. Cooking, sewing, and other domestic arts are strictly the woman's realm. Mechanics, building, and things like truck driving are strictly reserved to men in their thinking. This guy was obviously still stuck in that mode. He wasn't the only one and never is. I always hear a few comments like that when I do one of these events.

The distinction between knitting and crochet was something he couldn't have made on his own in any case, and I doubt he knows nutmeg from ginger or how to iron his own shirt.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

*noddles* Mmm. Interesting, I actually would be able to do all those things - tell knitting and crocheting apart, at least (if not doing either myself), tell nutmeg and ginger apart (by the looks; I'm less sure I could identify either in a blind taste trial), and how to iron things (something I can neither do well nor enjoy doing, but I *can* do it if necessary).

I wonder if not knowing what crocheting is makes him a crochety old guy. ^.~

Re: Mmmm, pie

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Neither one. Pie is the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle. That's why pies are round and not square. ;p

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I'm the one who gets crotchety over this. And I think I could fool you in telling which sample was knit and which was crochet, because I've been able to do with with experienced knitters. Nutmeg and ginger are different in texture and color, but they smell and taste even more differently.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

You probably could fool me, yes.

But it was just a joke - crotchety. Crochety. Crochet. ^_~

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes, I did get the joke. Actually, those are the same word, even though spelled "crotchety" in the first instance. It's from French: croche which was a hook or crook (including both the Shepherd's crook and the bishop's crozier.) ;p

Obviously, crochet is just "hooked" in French, referring to the way the stuff is made. I'm not sure how "hook or crook" got connected with grumpy old people, but maybe by association with the fact that they often carry canes around?

[schnee.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure, either - Wiktionary claims it's from "crotchet in the 16th century sense of a whim or a fancy", though, and Merriam-Webster also gives a similar definition for "crotchet", among others, and also says that the word is from the 14th century and derives from "Middle English crochet, from Anglo-French crochet, croket".

[altivo.livejournal.com]

"Crotchet" is also the quarter note in music notation, because when written by hand in a hurry, someone thought it looked like a hook. The meaning of a whim or fancy also refers to the hook, as a sudden turn in direction.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

Interesting, I didn't know that bit about quarter notes. (But then, I'm not familiar with most musical terms in English.)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

That's all right. Most native speakers of English know nothing about music at all, beyond "I like that" or "I don't like that." Probably lots of musicians who can read music to at least some degree don't know the technical terms such as "breve" or "crotchet" or "quaver." Printers pay more attention to those than even the musicians do. ;p

[schnee.livejournal.com]

Heh. I actually know what a breve is, myself. ^.~ And the term still amuses me a lot, too (it probably made sense in its historic context, but these days, it's mostly amusing).

Of course, I did have piano lessons for several years when I was young and also played trumpet and trombone later on in a semi-liturgic setting for a while; and I had a pretty dedicated music teacher in school towards the end who really cared about music. Without all that, I probably wouldn't know that much about it all.

[marzolan.livejournal.com]

I knew there was something about Lincoln I liked...

[rustitobuck.livejournal.com]

Once upon a time, I used to make bread, biscuits, and pie crusts. I've made whole apple pies by hand, with apples picked from the orchard. Pancakes, from scratch. Belgian waffles.

Now it's just cookies at Christmas.

Sigh.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Heh. Don't sigh, go bake something. I should think your kids would eat it all.

[shiningriver.livejournal.com]

Praise the lard! Amen.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Hmm I think it's the original survival traits have now been transferred to other kinds of "modern" survival traits such as dealing with traffic (though a lot of people still don't get this) and living in the modern world.

Kind of like how the hunter gatherer experience has been replaced with shopping for things.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The thing that really bothers me about that is that so many people are completely dependent. If for any reason the supermarket or fast food place were unavailable, they would literally starve. And the side effect is that they also have no understanding of proper nutrition. America is seeing a huge epidemic of nutrition-related diseases now because proper nutrition hasn't been taught for a couple of generations.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*snerk* I still prefer vegetable shortening, not that it's any more healthy probably but I like the texture and taste better. I do add a little butter when making pie crust.