Tish-tosh don't forget the Piss-pot

Last week I talked about Prospecting on a Mountain and I am going to admit my weirdness and tell you something that pleased me. It was more on the view of a historian then the actual view I saw. Here is the problem we often have with a particular kind of museums. In museums that depict life we have to question ourselves, one who are the people we are trying to represent, and in trying to create a home or life experience how far is too far. For me when it comes to the daily life topics we often don’t go far enough or even put it out there for people to think about. This means when I saw a chamber pot in more than one room I may have had a complete joyful moment.

Jan Steen, Women getting ready for bed, note the chamber pot in right corner

That is right I got excited over seeing the piss-pot. Here is the thing though, when we talk about daily life, we talk about food, laundry, drinks, daily tasks, and other little bits of history. However unless, the bathroom plays into a story it often gets left out but it would very much be part of every home or hotel. I was even more excited to see that not only was there no indoor plumbing in the upstairs sections of the hotel. To top it off they had a variety, not only in shape but also type.

They had one like this one, unfortunately there was too many of us for me to get a picture of it

Even the best moments have had interpretivly was those wierd connection, birthing in an unknown place with people I didn’t know.  I personally have never had to do it but when I was playing a woman who had, I connected with a woman who had done just that, a military wife. I was asked by a child what the pot was under my bed, I told him and then asked him to check it and see if my "son" had cleaned it out that morning.  The little boy got so grossed out ran out of my house and his father looked at me laughing. He told me "That is the most realistic and best thing that has ever happened thank you. "

Ok so I might be a little weird but let us point out if there wasn’t a pot of any kinds. You are either going to become very constipated or things are going to get a little gross. So to any museums trying to make me feel at home, remind me I will need to go the bathroom, place a piss-pot under the bed or even just the room. The moments when I have made the most connections with people over history is when I was connecting them to day-to-day lives. Talking about trash, chores, poop, food and hardships makes the history not only more real but it creates a personal connection that you can’t get anywhere else.

The Romans were the first to create an idea of indoor plumbing.

Off Prospecting

Last week I took off, well at least from blogging, since my mother came down and we shared Clam Chowder made from the clams I dug a few weeks back. Other than the fact I burned the pork it turned out pretty good, or at least that is what my Grandma, my mom’s friend, my mom and later my dad assured me. A few days later however I was standing at the top of Mt. Holyoke in Hadley, Massachusetts at Skinner State Park for one of my jobs. The summit building was built in the early 1800s when people were starting to become fascinated with prospecting. No not gold searching but view searching.

Looking down over the Connecticut River Valley 

As for prospecting it gave quite the view. It was a tourist idea, to get people out and when you reached the top the mountain, you would be provided with drinks of water. This summit house grew over the years, a tram was added, and for 25 cents you could ride to the view. This gave easier access to even the handicap who couldn't see the view before. The business grew and then additions were added, a hotel and today it is part of the D.C.R (Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation). Looking out over the view I was a little homesick as I saw the mountain I grew up with off shadowing in the distance. It is amazing to think that the River that wound around in quite snake like fashion. I would love to have seen how it looked throughout the years from when the Natives wondered the land, to the building and expansion of the summit house.

I would love to build a house right here

We often think of vacationing as such a modern idea but even the Kings and Queens in England were known to go on little journeys and travels to second homes to “get away”. By the 19^th Century, especially with the invention of the train, it became a bit more available for the Middleclass. By the mid-1800s with the Transcendentalist movement which was not only led by but inspired by writers like Henry David Thoreau (who was a known visitor to the Summit house), the idea of spending life communing with nature was being seen as a grand idea. I would like to point out only 200 years before the Natives had been doing just that in these areas. They of course walked it. By the time the 1800s though trains were not only made travel easier but quicker this allowed people to get out and see parts otherwise unseen to the average person. By the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s this expands to not only all over the United States but for the wealthy the word. Just as soon as Horses were forgotten for far off travelers, trains were over looked by the automobile. In the 1920s trailers became available so you could live in comfort with out depending on hotels. This idea of prospecting for knowledge and connections is nothing new. It is something that connects us all.

I clearly need a vacation now though since I have decided to write a blog on vacations.

A not so simple image

What is your least favorite task to do around your home? That is a sign of living a guess, unwanted tasks meant to keep you humble maybe, but unwanted none the less. Some of these tasks to help us stay healthy and can be almost soothing at times. When sewing there is always an unwanted consequence, laundry. I hate doing laundry but I love the outcomes, clean clothing and the look of it hanging to dry on the line. The simple image strangely is almost relaxing and a wink into time and I love that.

Norman Rockwell mid 20th century, all those task we dislike but must do

The invention of the washing machine diffidently made the task of easier but none the less it is still an almost unwanted task. Can you imagine the task before, dragging great basins, soap/lye(fine ash), sticks, battledores, never mind the laundry and perhaps chairs and something to do while you wait all the way to your laundry spot. You then need to fetch water which is why you dragged everything to the water, for it is much easier to carry everything to the water then the water to the laundry. You also need to get a fire started, boil the water. Meanwhile your largest basin you place your laundry a layer at a time, placing the clothing and then lye all the way to the top. The boiling water was then poured over top and when it came in contact with the lye it would form soap. You then would stir it, drain the water and do it again. Eventually you would take them to benches beat the cloth with wooden paddles called battledores before rinsing it in clean water and wringing it out. It would then be laid flat on the grass to beach in the sun. An all-day daunting task with a-lot of waiting, Waiting for the water to boil, waiting for the lye to sink into the clothing, waiting for it to dry. There are also images of people laying the clothing out on a green grassy knoll to bleach in the sun. Eventually the laundry was taken from the ground and hung on the line. The process changes, washboards replace stirring sticks and battledores and different soaps with more ideas of how to get rid of stains become available.

1582; A German Scene of women doing laundry. Washing and Beating with Battledores, laying it on the ground to bleach and hanging it

I have washed clothing in this method, the rinsing part is particularly enjoyable on a hot day, as you stand in cool water raising the cloth up and down, and splashing yourself in the process. Today there is not really a part as cooling to do. The image though of clothing hanging on the line is romantic, a glimpse perhaps to what is often thought of as a simpler time. Nothing was simple about it, but it was does make an amazing image.

The washing machine made the work a little easier to bare but these old style machines are a far cry from what sits in the laundry room today.

you got to go dig those holes

I didn’t post yesterday because instead I was actually had an adventure for the first time in forever. I went clamming on the Cape. I donned my swimming suit and drove down to visit a friend who had a permit (yes just like fishing and hunting you need one). This is definitely one of those things on my bucket list that I have been wanting to do. Some people want to jump out of airplanes, some want to go clamming, and others want to try both. I am in the both category but one is a start.

 

Once you find the holes you have to jump on them to make them spit.

We started by pumping out the dingy we were going to use to get there but as in adventure fashion not all went as planned. We headed out and the motor junked out halfway to our destination. We then turned around and started rowing back to the marina. It was quite the work out that only got worse when the oarlock on one of the oars snapped off. Now here we were sitting in the middle of the channel drifting but I am determined to get to the clams and to do that we need to get back to the marina and move to plan b. So I started canoeing the row boat. Both of us having bad backs though praying on our minds and neither of us wanted to spend today curled on the couch crying in pain. A phone call later and her father was going to send someone from the marina. A bit of frustration from both of us and me really wanting to get to the clams and refusal to be rescued like some damsel in distress, I somehow got the motor restarted and drove as quick as I could to the dock. It died out just before we got there but was close enough to the docks now that we could at least push the last 50 feet to the dock and tie up.

Next you got to dig

So adventure block number 1, 2, and 3 over. Time for plan b. We went back to her house and after a cider we got the kayak and with a little help from her dad we were directly across from where we were going to go clamming. Thirty seconds later we were pulling up on the island beach and the real work was about to begin. I was so relaxed digging in the ground for those clams. The first step was to find little holes in the sand and stomp near them and if they squirted you dug, and dug. Seriously there is a lot of digging involved. We started with gloves to help keep our hands from turning black from the sand. We eventually gave up the gloves and cared less about getting dirty. Growing your food is fun but I was so excited about finding yummy food. You would get all excited as you felt around in the sand and water as your fingers grazed the hard shell of the clam only to discover all you had found was a rock. Then you would stick your hands down deeper, pushing and pulling the sand until your fingers and hands graze something hard again. This time you pull out a clam, big round and looking beautiful. Unfortunately, some of them had soft shells and we damaged the shells in the process. Other ones we pulled out were too small but an hour later we found a half of a basket of clams, three quahogs and one razor and were paddling across the channel to the beach and dinner.

"You got to go dig those holes, diggin' aaa holes, diggin' uuhh holes diggin'"

 

An hour later a half of a basket of clams

After cleaning them in pepper, (breadcrumbs work better but it was what we had), we steamed them in beer and water with sweat potatoes, kielbasa, onions. I usually steam them by themselves but this might be my new way to cook them. We worked hard, the food was yummy and so worth the effort. We have already planned to do it again and I am looking forward to it. Though we already plan to skip the dingy and start with the kayak.

Quahog

Razor clam