I've asked Ashley to write about the summer camp program, but I realize I have not shared our experiences with visiting the site. Last year when we picked up Ashley she was ready to go home. We were planning on making the 9 hour drive that same day. This meant Don and I did not have a chance to explore the village.
This year we made a point of arriving earlier on drop off day and explored the place. As most of our friends and family know, we tend to visit a lot of historic sites. This is one of the best ones we have ever visited. Yes, that is saying a lot.
The Village is made up of a collection of buildings rescued during the St. Lawrence Seaway project. The building are from a variety of places and have been assembled to represent an English village in 1866 Canada -- the year before they became a country. UCV opened in 1961.
During quiet times the docents can be found working on projects -- baking, cooking, sewing, quilting, etc. It takes them a long time to finish any project because they don't have a lot of downtime.
Their summer camp program grew out of a desire to show what children would be during that time -- attending school, learning trades, fishing, etc. Even in Canada you can't hire small children to work, so instead they charge their parents and call it camp. ;) No complaints. Ashley loves it.
Each one of the interpreters adds their on knowledge to their parts. We spoke with the shoemaker who told us at that time shoes were starting to be mass produced, so he was not needed as much. He said the tinsmith was making too much money. We spoke with the tinsmith who told us his wares were needed because in those days "tin was the plastic of its day."
Now as I'm looking through their website and clicking on each individual building I'm realizing I did not visit everything. It is a good thing she wants to return next summer.
She wore a different dress on Tuesday and Wednesday and a third dress on Thursday and Friday. As you can tell from her post, she loved it.
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