If you are from Central New York, you probably know what the title of this blog means. It's a lyric from the Erie Canal song. If you were traveling in a packet boat on the Erie Canal, you had to duck down when you went under a bridge.
I used it as my lead in today as that's where I spent my day. Well, okay, not ON the Erie Canal, but working at a local history museum, The Erie Canal Village, in Rome, New York.
I worked there about 10 years ago. It ranks up there as my favorite job.
This was the place I honed my 19th century skills. Or, as my son Josh once said "Mom, they can't hurt us if they turn off our power!".
The Village is a recreation of a small town set along the Erie Canal. In it's heyday, there were many, many small towns like this. Each had the basics. A tavern, a blacksmith shop, a general store, a church and a schoolhouse. At the ECV, all of these buildings are present. It is set on land where the canal was first created. On this land are two versions of the Erie Canal. The original one, better known as Clinton's Ditch, and the "enlarged" Erie Canal. It was enlarged when folks discovered that the first one they had built was not wide or deep enough for all of the traffic it held. Nowadays, some folks will tell you that the Barge Canal is the Erie Canal, but they would be sadly mistaken.
All of the buildings on this site were moved there from other places, to recreate a typical canal village in the mid 1800's.
The Village is a seasonal operation. They open Mid-May and close for the season after Labor Day. (With the exception of a few weekend events in October.)
In preparation for this years opening, I went to volunteer to help get the place cleaned and polished up for the 2010 season.
Melody Milewski, the site manager, threw me the building keys and told me to pick a building. I chose one of my favorites, the Settlers House. It's the oldest building in the Village, built in 1807. Back when they did a Christmas program, I spent quite a few cold December nights, warmed by the hearth fire and the smell of fresh pine boughs. This building has none of our modern conveniences. No electricity, no bathroom, no running water. Talk about "living off the grid"! But when you spend 8 hours a day, "living" this way, it changes you. It forces you to slow down and appreciate a different way of life. Would I want to go back to that way of living on a permanent basis? That's a tough question. I appreciate things like hot water when I turn on the tap, or flipping a switch and having the lights come on. A furnace is a wonderful thing too.
Yet, there is something to be said for taking a bucket and fetching your water. For going out to the chicken coop to gather eggs to make your cake. For the joy of spinning your own flax into linen to then weave into cloth.
Does this make me an oddity? Probably! But it wasn't that long ago when our forefathers (and foremothers) were doing just that.
Luckily for me, I can travel back in time and enjoy the simpler way of lifewhenever I wish. (Then head home and microwave dinner!)
If you'd like more information about the Village, visit their website: www.eriecanalvillage.net.
Maybe I'll see you there!
