Dan Antion

OSV Twofer – #1LinerWeds

Sheep and roosters.

Sunday was Father’s Day, and our daughter Faith took me to breakfast and then to Old Sturbridge Village. OSV was having a Father’s Day event – Baseball, Beer and BBQ – which seemed interesting. Mainly, it was a chance to spend some time together and see some of the exhibits that aren’t open when we attend the Christmas by Candlelight event every December.

We tend to establish traditions easily in this family. Christmas by Candlelight, for example now includes dinner at The Thai Place. That started because OSV’s GPS location is the lot where school buses drop off students, not where mature adults enter the grounds. The Thai Place is directly across from the mature adult access road. The description of this event led to the first one-liner. The ‘Beer’ portion of the event allowed you to buy full glasses of beer from one of six breweries or assemble six two-ounce glasses in a flight of beers. I told Faith:

“This will be the second Father’s Day that involves a flight of beers – that might make it a tradition.”

She agreed.

We toured the standard stops in the village, and we also visited the sawmill, the grist mill, the blacksmith and the cabinet making exhibit. We also toured the cabinet shop. It’s a new exhibit, complete with a cabinetmaker working with traditional tools, and there are plans for a Cabinet Shop to be built using period materials and methods, in the near future.

One of the things we decided to do, was to take the river cruise on the Quinebaug River (the river that feeds the water-powered saw mill, grist mill and carding mill at OSV). The cruise is fairly short, but it provides some interesting views of the area and some of the wildlife. As we boarded the boat, we walked past racks of life preservers, but none were handed out. We noticed later that they only give them to children. Once on-board, we received our instructions in the event of an emergency:

“There are life jackets in the benches along the sides. If you end up in the water without a life jacket, stand up.”

The river is barely 3′ 0″(0.9m) deep.

Despite an on-again-off-again light rain, Faith and I had a wonderful day. I had a sample of Narragansett Lager in my flight. Narragansett is an old faithful kind of beer that once enjoyed a 65% market share in New England. You may remember that Captain Quint crushed a ‘gansett can in Jaws. Then, as happened to a number of steady brews in the 1980s, a Midwest brewery (Falstaff, later acquired by Pabst) bought the brand, changed the recipe and made it awful.

In 2005, The Pabst Brewing Company (never synonymous with fine beer) put Falstaff out of it’s misery but sold Narragansett back to a New England owner. That guy hired a retired brew master from the 1960s to help set up a new brewery and restore the original recipe. The beer is now brewed in Rochester, New York (near where Genesee Beer is brewed) and Narragansett is once again winning awards. After sampling several beers, I purchased a 12-ounce pour of Narragansett Lager.

This post is part of Linda G. Hill’s fun weekly series One-Liner Wednesday. If you have a one-liner and would like to join in on the fun. You can follow this link to participate and to see the one-liners from the other participants.

Today’s gallery features some images from Old Sturbridge Village.

Sheep and roosters.
This must be Maddie’s cousin. Laying down to eat is something Maddie does all the time.
The business end of the sawmill. The saw reciprocated (up and down), driven by a cam on the water wheel. Water powered the saw and possible the sled that pulls the log through the blade.
This is an active milling station in the grist mill.
This is the other milling station, that is open for inspection.
The walking path crosses the Quinebaug River via that covered bridge. It used to be farther up river, but it broke loose during the 1955 flood and the restored it at this location.
The Blacksmith Shop at Old Sturbridge Village.
A Father’s Day toast. Faith’s Porter and my Lager
The life vests we weren’t issued.
These are Painted Turtles (the name comes from the colors on their underside).
There’s a short waterfall as the river turns. The river is also diverted under the covered bridge into a holding pond from which the three water-powered mills draw their power.
We learned that the roots of the lily pads (which extend all the way to and into the bottom) were harvested and prepared like potatoes.
Water lilies are blooming.
Another look at the Painted Turtles
There’s our ride. The style is in keeping with the period, but it has an engine.
The Blacksmith explained that he would have mainly repaired tools. By the 1830s, tools and farm implements were being mass-produced in mills in Connecticut and western Massachusetts.
Looking down on the scale model of the proposed cabinet maker’s shop. I think I could work in there.

74 comments

  2. Hi Dan – so glad the beer is back in production … never tamper with a good thing. Looks to be a delightful Father-daughter day out … lots of interesting things for Dad to look at, while Faith I’m sure enjoyed your historical take on the various exhibitions/machinery – and knowing you weren’t going to have a challenge in the depth of water – love the instructions!! Thoroughly enjoyed joining you both – cheers Hilary

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    • Thanks Hilary. We visit this place once or twice a year. In some ways, it’s a static setting, but in other ways, it’s always different. The people performing period tasks always make it interesting. We had a great time. I’ll never understand why someone would change a recipe that was enjoying so much success.

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  3. How wonderful, Dan, to share the day with your daughter. I’ve been to Old Sturbridge Village many times with my kids, but never the cruise on the Quinebaug River. I must do that when I visit the area again! As always, beautiful photography!

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    • Thanks Gwen. It’s a very short/simple cruise but the woman piloting the boat was funny and gave us a lot of information. It also reminds us of how rivers like this formed the economy of this region.

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  5. That’s a wonderful way to enjoy Father’s Day – spending time with Faith, taking a boat ride, and drinking BEER. I’m glad that someone was wise enough to take a formerly awesome beer and return it to its natural state. Nice post and photos, Dan.

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  7. Looks like an awesome Father’s Day! I hope OSV becomes a tradition for you and your daughter. The story about Narragansett beer is interesting. Glad to hear that “gansett is drinkable again. We will be coming up your way for the 4th of July, but a little bit further east. My sister has a house in Pocasset (the Cape) and has a big party every 4th of July.

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  8. I love the look of rough hew wood. And I love the instruction from the boat: “If you end up in the water without a life jacket, stand up.” hahaha . I could spend time of those waterways . . .

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    • I’m glad you enjoyed this, Pam. At several points during the cruise, we could see the river bottom. It’s worth noting that there are several flood control dams along this river. I would think that in the 1830’s flooding was a problem.

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  10. Belated happy Father’s Day, Dan. Good to know you and Faith had a truly wonderful day together and daughter and father. Loved your gallery. You’ve inspired me to keep looking for the unique places for me to go to with my camera.

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  11. “If you end up in the water without a life jacket, stand up.” Good to know. I can’t swim!! Sounds like you and Faith had a really special Father’s Day together. Great pictures of the mill, but my favorites are of Maddie’s cousin (😂) and the painted turtles.

    That little boat could have joined Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn in “The African Queen”! Lol.
    🐾Ginger 🐾

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    • Oh my goodness, Ginger – I was trying to think what that boat reminded me of – The African Queen! – THANK YOU!

      The woman piloting the boat said that on hot sunny days, there might be two dozen turtles on that branch. That would be a site to see. Maddie’s cousin just made me laugh. Laying down and eating, seems like the laziest thing, but I guess it works.

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  13. What a great place! I love that lazy sheep. lol! Yeah, Faith, Porter FTW. But a good lager sounds about right for a warm late spring. Those turtles–Dan, THE TURTLES!! Great pictures of the painted turtles. :)

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  16. Sounds like another great tradition Dan. What’s a great tradition without good beer? As a matter if fact, hubby’s father worked for over 40 years at the Falstaff brewery in Galveston. He headed up machine maintenance and repair. Hope your week finishes out great.

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  17. What a great Father’s day. Thank you for sharing. I wondered what happened to Narragansett. In college, we would drink it when in New England (Which was frequent). Then when I grew up it seemed to disappear. I also remember Falstaff and never liked it. Thanks, Dan.

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  18. “Stand up.” Gotta love safety instructions with a sense of humour.

    Also gotta love a reason for tradition. Cheers, Dan!

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    • Thanks Teagan. The rain on the way home was heavy, but Faith is pretty good at driving through it. She seems to get that segment a lot. It was a very good day.

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  21. What a lovely day despite some rain! I guess the rain was sorta kinda trying to cooperate by saving the worst for Faith’s drive home?

    The covered bridge, the boat you rode in, and the image of the river with all those lovely reflections are my favorites. The sheep laying down to eat made me chuckle. Sometimes Diva Dog would do that.

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    • Thanks Deborah. Faith and I agreed that if it had started raining like that, we would have ran to the car. Fortunately, it started about 10 minutes after we left for home.

      I really enjoyed the boat ride. Short and sweet, but it gave us a chance to see somethings we wouldn’t otherwise ever see.

      Maddie likes to lay under a chair next to her bowls. She’ll be sleeping, and then we’ll hear her munching..

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  22. Hahaha! That seriously cracked me up!
    I like this place when you visit it in the winter, but oh, these sunny shots make it even better. What a great place (and tradition)!

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  23. Great how you spent Fathers Day. Our family is opposite. Traditions do not stick (except for celebrating the grands’ birthdays ). One time our adult kids brought us to the Yard House – kind of pricey, but they had something interesting to you – inside it looks like a huge barn, and they had 19 kinds of beer, all coming down from the top, in pipes that were visible. I don’t like beer myself, but that was very impressive.

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    • 19 beers flowing in a barn…and that didn’t stick? I’m confused 😐

      This was a very good day. I’m not saying we’ll be back for Father’s Day, but there should be a flight of beers involved next year.

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          • Don’t know what’s going on but I began with my comment on your Thurs. Doors, and I made 2 typos and wanted to correct it, and then my comment got “stuck” -I could not delete any letter. Strange! So I comment from here. Nice you had that day to visit what is closed for Christmas. I love the blacksmith shop, even though the windows are broken. My goodness: handtools! Glad you and Faith had a pleasant day:)

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            • Thanks for being persistent. Hand tools and a craftsman using them. It was so fun to watch. I had never been to the blacksmith shop when it was I operation.

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  24. It looks like you had an ideal Father’s Day! Apropos of nothing… there is a Narragansett Street just a few blocks away from the street I grew up on. I was always glad that I lived on a street that was quicker to write and easier to spell. Of course, there probably isn’t a beer named after my easy-to-spell street, so there’s that.

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  28. What a most excellent Father’s Day, ready-made for you. I have a retired beer master visiting soon (my uncle), too bad we probably can’t get that beer here in Italy for him to taste. I can just feel how that cabinet-maker’s room warms your heart.

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