Like so many trying to save money these days, we only took a short vacation. In an attempt to relax after Pittsburgh, we took the long way home through scenic Kentucky and found ourselves staying at a Shaker Village for a night. I can’t say it was very relaxing as I hit the bottom of my pool of resources the next morning when we were trying to load the car and broke down in tears, but so go vacations with three kids totally off their schedules. Still, it was a really nice place to stay and we got tickets to tour it the following day with our reservation which was fun.
My first encounter with Shakers (so called because they would “shake” in the spirit during worship) was in third grade on a field trip a few months after moving to New Hampshire. Everything in New England was still so foreign I remember thinking it was just one more really bizarre thing New England did. Like most cults in early America, this one started in England and came over to America in the 1780s. They started communities in New England before heading further west into Kentucky, Ohio and even Indiana. They believed in Christ’s eminent return and by living in communes believed they were preparing themselves for the millennial kingdom. Part of this preparation meant no marriage and no families. Men and boys lived separate from women and girls. Obviously this meant they weren’t going to grow very large and so relied on new converts to replace the ones who died. They also took in orphans and children whose families could not care for them. A self-sustaining group of people, in the 1800s they grew to memberships in the thousands. When I was in the third grade, there were still two old women Shakers living at that village. Today, though, they have all died off. A dozen of their villages are museums.
It was hard to explain this to the kids. I don’t think they got it at all, nor do I think they were interested. They also don’t yet relate “Shaker” to brooms, furniture, or the old song “ Tis the Gift to be Simple”. Someday they probably will and then they can say they actually stayed at a Shaker Village!
It was surprisingly nice. We had a two-room suite on the second floor of one of the old women’s dormitories. One room had a pair of twin beds with a bath and the other a king size bed with a bath. They were wonderfully air conditioned and quite simple with a couple of “Shaker” chairs, a desk, and a dresser. They also had pegs around every wall. Think of a chair rail on a wall only at the height of your head and with a pegs, spaced about every foot. I could hang anything! Had we stayed longer, there was also a community room with a huge fire place, nice chairs and couches, and tables for puzzles and games on the shelves in the building next door which had more rooms as did five or six other buildings on the 3,000 acres of land. If you ever need a place to stay just south of Lexington in Kentucky, you should look it up.
The next morning we roamed around a bit. There are trails you can hike, a creek bed that was all dried when we were there and a pond to fish in, but we just wandered a bit. We visited one building where their gatherings took place – a huge feat of Shaker architecture at four floors and a basement they used to cook and conduct school. It was astounding. The kids found it boring so we didn’t go into any of the other many buildings. Instead we made our way over to the “farm” where the animals are kept. Ellyson could have spent all day watching the chickens and turkeys. The other two went back and forth between the fowl and the other animals like goats, llamas and sheep. There were also cows and pigs as well as two large horses they got to meet and pet. After that we had lunch and they chased ducks around the orchard. It was quite amusing to watch them “herd” those ducks who couldn’t seem to run unless it was together in a tight pack.
We left to head home after that, stopping in Louisville to play at a splash pad along the Ohio River before making the drive home. Truly, a longer vacation with a little time to rest would have been nice but it was good to get away for a while.
Emry on the big swing near the building we stayed in.
Ethan and Emry at the front door of the building.
Ethan climbing one of many trees he found on the trip. All trees are tempting, but this one especially.
Ellyson and Ed watching the chickens and turkeys.
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