The 1867 Boy in Me… Barefoot and with a Knife… OUCH!

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Today’s Blog Post
The 1867 Boy in Me… Barefoot and with a Knife… OUCH!
Today I will attempt to go back… away back to a time when things were very different. People were innocent and kids were free. Even though there was a ruckus we will act as if everything is okay… and everyone was more innocent than we are today.

I will be at Lang Pioneer Village for our Canadian Dominion Day. I will become the 1856 carpenter in the Hastie Carpenter Shop.

I am looking back and ahead at the same time as I tell this part of the story.

John A. MacDonald will be at the Celebration today of the newly declared country, Canada. He will be reading from a special proclamation for the brand new Canada.

However the Celebration will likely be disturbed by the Fenians who will do some damage and try to stop the activities. There will be guns and there will be some shouting and hollering, and some angry people.

Sheesh it sounds like Canada’s G20 of last week! Innocent bystanders will be ducking for cover and bullets will be flying. A giant Cannon will explode and long rifles will be blasting off with huge puff of smoke!

This is the G20 uprising of 1867! I can’t wait! It is rumoured some of the young men that work for me at the Carpenter shop are actually Fenians as well! Looks like I could lose my workers suddenly and sadly.

The Hastie Family came to the Lang Village in 1856. They started their new adventure in this new a remote land along with other people that helped carve a way out in this forested area of Ontario. The story of their existence in this part is amazing to read and tell. Today I will tell that story again – many times over. I will attempt to excite and stir the imagination of my guests to the carpenter shop.

Pause…
Last week as I worked in the Hastie Carpenter Shop I was speaking with one of the guests about being a boy in a village like this. I told him of my boyhood days and the freedom that I knew.

I was trusted with a pocket knife when I was 5 years old. The men around me taught me how to open it, sharpen it and cut with it. And inevitably get cut by it. Yep – I accidentally cut my hands and legs(and pants) with that wonderful knife. I created my first carving with the knife… and made some of my first stuff for appreciative grandparents and parents with that tool.

As I told the story over to the children that listened, there were moms that actually gasped as I explained using the knife so young! One mom – shook her head in disbelief that a parent would allow their kids to possibly hurt themselves!

The world was different – very different! Kids could go places by themselves and be trusted. They could climb trees, swim in the river and walk barefoot. No one set tight boundaries of where and what they did. Soft little feet toughened up and hands become part of the tools that every kid knew how to use.

The tough kids from the farm areas were never to be messed with in that their hands hurt when they hit you! It was like being hit by a hammer!

But then there was less pavement. At best the roads might have been gravel but still had a soft dirt side to it.

And in bare feet you could get closer to the water to catch the frogs… your steps were quieter by far.

My how things have changed for kids! Their every moment is planned. Their lives are absent of any danger and any possible poison that might hurt the darlings. Go near the river – you have got to be kidding! Own their own knife – no cotton pickin’ way!

In fact the funny side for me is the actual volunteer work that I do in the Hastie Carpenter is now supervised and overlooked by invisible scouts for safety issues – that I might get harmed by. No kidding the Safety Inspectors and Instructors have been there to look over the whole Pioneer Village. “They” are concerned that I will hurt myself using the tools. They think that I might cut myself with the tools… and worse yet some visitor might be cut by the tools – accidentally. God help us!

When the extreme of the Safety Concern finally hit home the deepest… it was expressed that my opening an upstairs door to the carpenter shop and telling people that was where the old timers placed their wood to dry out… it meant that I would open the doors… by myself… leaning out and pushing the door to the left and right… on the second floor… WITHOUT A SAFETY HARNESS ON… would be possibly dangerous… I could get hurt! And no one wants me to get hurt!

Good God in Heaven… how could Pioneers be so absolutely unsafe???!?

Well today at Lang Village there will be explosions. I will operate very dangerous machines. I will be cutting wood and doing dangerous stuff. And I will love it. Ladies that fuss about the stuff that they do… best not come into the shop… because it could be dangerous – very dangerous!

I love it! The boy in me tingles with excitement~! I can’t wait.

~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenian_raids