This post documents my experience on October 4, 2009.
This was almost my Festival Hiatus Weekend……almost.
I really had nothing scheduled and I may have mentioned it as such to a coworker, because she later gave me a rather thorough list of Ohio Festivals for the month of October.
Finding the one in Wooster rather feasible, I decided to take a drive to the Colonial Williamsburg Festival at the Pine Tree Barn furniture store (festival name explained further down).
The drive was a nice one with scattered clouds (getting thicker as I got there) and bits of sunshine.
It was that cooler, crisper autumn weather, but I was prepared with two jackets in the car – a lighter and heavier one.
When I arrived at the festival, I put on my lighter jacket and headed into the crowd. I noticed it was set up like a camp with various stations and tents to check out.
.
The first station had some guns and various items a soldier would carry. The rifles there went up to my shoulder when standing on the ground.
Next to him was a multi-purpose campfire.
Notice that ash-covered pot…
…there were apples cooking under the lid.
The man sitting on the log had a ladle of molten lead cooking on the fire, which he poured into the mold…
…released a bearing…
…and then cut off the extra off.
There were plenty of bullets.
I also checked out the apothecary…
…who had homemade pills in the metal bowl…
… the blacksmith…
…the Indian trader…
…the candle maker…
…the lace maker, an entertaining French character who taught how the lace was woven as well as the importance of counting in French…
(plus a better pic of all the pins and such)
…banner makers who used canvas and acrylic…
…and a farmer who also had Alpacas (perhaps not that historically accurate to the times since they first came in 1984 from Chile…but I don’t think Kettle Corn was big then either and they had a booth as well).
There were traces of a medicine show…
…and soldiers…
…and a beautiful backdrop.
From station to station I went, asking some rather intelligent questions (“What remedies of the times do you find practiced in modern medicine?”) and tons of stupid ones (“Ah Red Haw is short for Red Hathorn, the tree…that’s interesting…so does Hee Haw have any possible similar origins with trees as well?”). As part of my defense, you’ll notice the backdrop pics above being rather dark and seemingly cool. I did get my heavier jacket after 10 minutes. And I sometimes felt I had to say SOMETHING to keep the people talking (for whatever reason). So my brain would wander off and my mouth would translate before my brain could cross-check the info and stop it.
In the end, I just moved on after they looked at me with glassy eyes. Maybe it was just their colonial character?
Maybe not…I would have further difficulty in the Pine Tree Barn store. But let’s get back to things…
Apart from the main store, there were two buildings with various vendors with interesting crafts.
I thought these were wild.
And this.
Inside the actual furniture store, the feng shui was something to be studied.
I walked to the front threshold, where you were faced with a door to the right and a door to the left…both seeming like doors I shouldn’t be entering (no glass pane in the door, no EXIT/ENTER or OPEN or WELCOME).
So I took a breath and headed for the left door, which opened easily enough.
And I was amazed. There was stuff everywhere…much different than any ordinary furniture store.
The ceilings were tall and short staircases seemed to rise and sink everywhere (a very slight slight reminder of Harry Potter and The Name of the Rose).
I took the first staircase down (there were 3 levels)…
…and found myself greeted my early Christmas cheer…
.
..and then more Christmas cheer…
Many of the room layouts were pretty cool. And I really liked this Jane Goodall Suite…/
And they did have Halloween stuff upstairs…
…along with Colonial Williamsburg furniture (hence the name of the festival).
And, as you see below, there was even a restaurant on the ground floor.
The menu listed corn chowder and some tasty-sounding pies. But, alas, they wouldn’t allow take-out during the festival weekend, so I felt best to just move on. I wasn’t that hungry for a sandwich and the pies would haven been for family back home to taste.
So I got in the car and headed back to Ashland and stopped at Grandpa’s Cheese Barn for some various cheeses (Maple Cheddar, Ohio Cheddar, Smoked Swiss, Ohio Swiss) and a WONDERFUL white chocolate chip cherry cookie.
I think I’ll stop for another cookie next week too!