Hi there, I think we’ve met before. I’m Alex, one of your (awesome) Pilgrim Bloggers. And there was a lot to say about the conclusion of the 2012 season here at Plimoth Plantation – too much for one person actually. Lucky for me, I’m not the only Pilgrim Blogger we’ve got – there’s also the world famous Sally! So instead of making you wade through two posts about the end of season – the horror! – we thought we would write one. Together. Like so:
Ready? Let’s go!
HI SALLY!!! (<—That’s me, Alex. I’m purple!)
HELLO! (<— That’s Sally! She’s blue!)
It’s Alex!! This was a really good year at the Plantation wasn’t it?
I have to agree, it was an incredible year. I would list my highlights, but I fear I’ll be writing forever and our readers might doze off. So, let’s talk about how we totally showed this season what’s what by finishing with a bang. You know, like this:
KAPOW!!!!! That sounds about right! As much fun times as we had with our coworkers and visitors this year, I am looking forward to having a few months respite from the 17th Century. I mean, look what I can do now:
Can’t do that in 1627!
Yes, it’s true, I’m enjoying days spent inside with central heat, wearing my long lost “normal people” clothes and doing some Christmas shopping. Anyway, back to the point of this blog (yes, there is one). After a fantastic Thanksgiving, and on one of the busiest weekends in the museum’s recent memory, we took our end-of-season momentum and ran with it by throwing a wedding for Jane Cook and Experience Mitchell.
This was all your idea, wasn’t it, Alex?
It was! Because unlike my bright yellow nails, there is something about me that is distinctly 17th Century – I have very long hair! And since I’ve started working at the Plantation it’s been my dream to wear my Historically Accurate Hair down for all to see in the Village (maybe I should start to dream bigger?). For modesty and cleanliness, in the 17th Century women usually wore their hair up and covered – but an exception to this often was often on one’s wedding day. Let’s have a comparison, shall we?
Here’s me and the bride from Pieter Bruegel’s The Wedding Dance (1566):
Pretty much the same person.
That’s right! Your hair was an absolute highlight of the day. I think that now would be a good time to explain to our readers the significance of mine and Alex’s relationship…Not only are we your intrepid team of Pilgrim Bloggers, we also had the privilege to spend the second half of this season as Pilgrim Roomies! We were both cast out of Standish house, and enjoyed many hours of cooking, gardening and general housewife-liness. As it turned out on Saturday, I was scheduled to be on my lunch at the exact time the wedding would be taking place. So being the Blogaholic that I am, I brought a quick change of clothes into the woods and disguised myself Super-man style so that I could document my Roomie’s big day. It goes without saying (between Alex and I, anyway) that such documentation is so compelling that it should be made into a video to share on the blog for all to enjoy:
I think I would be remiss here if I didn’t give a huge thank you to my coworker Doug, who not only gamely agreed to play Experience Mitchell for the day, but played him with aplomb. And if you wonder what it’s like to juggle fake 17th century spouses with real 21st century spouses, you should read Sally’s blogs on the subject (They made her famous! She’s in the Wall Street Journal!)
Hey, Alex, I have a joke for you:
What’s grey and sadder than a scorpion’s tail??
I don’t know Sally – what’s grey and sadder than a scorpion’s tail?!!!
It’s the only thing that’s sadder than the last day of a happy Pilgrim’s season….Village Clean-Up Day in the snow, of course! It’s dirty work, it’s tiring and it’s SAD. Sad as a scorpion’s tail (to coin a new phrase, do you think it’ll catch on?).
Absolutely. The English language has been waiting for a phrase as wonderfully descriptive as that. Anyway, back to Clean-Up Day! After the museum has closed to the public for the year, we Interpreters clean out Mayflower II and the houses in the English Village taking all our reproduction artifacts to a nice, safe, happy and warm place for the winter where they can be cleaned and cataloged. This year, Clean-Up Day happened to be rainy/sleety/snowy, cold and cloudy – not ideal cleaning weather. Nevertheless, the weather seemed to understand our mood, because just like moving out of your dorm room at the end of your freshman year of college, it’s a bittersweet time; you know you’ll be back in the same place next year and most of your friends will be back too but that doesn’t mean you aren’t a little sad to see something you enjoyed so much come to a close:
However, we Interpreters are a plucky bunch…so here’s my list of four things we actually enjoyed about clean-up day:
1) Wearing jeans to work.
2) Using the secret electricity in select Pilgrim houses to blast “popular” music.
3) Saying things we usually can’t say to each other in the Village.
4) Surprise dance parties!
Can you think of any more, Alex?
How about watching handsome manly men do manly man things, like this:
You carry that chest off Mayflower II Danny and Tom!
And hey, Michael, Justin and Rick – you guys load up the truck to take those artifacts away from the Village, okay?
Or, um, coffee break first?
And let’s not forget that Clean-Up Day isn’t all heavy lifting. As proof, here’s Erica being the most hardcore Pilgrim Lady around and getting ready to do something much more terrifying than lifting a few boxes: cleaning off a season’s worth of dust, grime and schoolkid germs.
Don’t worry, we all survived. Even if we had to dress up like we were living in a post-apocalyptic wilderness to do it:
Me, Jess and Doug really gave it to that dust. Pilgrim Superheroes?
It’s official. We have packed up our pipkins, taken down our trammels, locked up our muskets and sent our petticoats to the dry cleaner. Plimoth Plantation’s 2012 season is over, done but not quite fully dusted because our floors are made of dirt.
So even if our houses are empty:
And our ship’s hatches battened:
We go away knowing that even if our place in history is small, we are amongst good company:
On the bright side, I have great news. I made another video! That is good, right?
Enjoy!
LOVE,
Alex & Sally
Thanks for all your dedication and great work for another year. It’s great to see you all having fun together!
[...] Well, it’s officially the end of the 2012 Pilgrimming season, and I celebrated my first day of freedom with a three hour stretch at the unemployment office. HOORAY! Now don’t get me wrong, I understand that for most (normal) people, being unemployed, or even underemployed is not a thing to rejoice. But for me, I was expecting it. I was prepared for it, and most importantly, I have the best husband ever, who has a proper, grown-up job and makes sensible financial decisions. What I wasn’t prepared for, however, was how my friend/colleague and I wrangled ourselves at least partial employment for the off-season! It’s a great story, although here is not the place to tell it. However, I can tell you that it ends in me being unemployed for the month of December (allowing plenty of time for Christmas parties, shopping and a trip to England), and employed four days a week throughout January and February doing work that I am EXCEEDING excited about! It’s IDEAL! [...]