(no subject)
Frid. 1 April 1814
April came in like a Lamb - warm & pleasant - W.S. Attended a conferance at Capt. Miles' -
Thurs. 1 April 2010
Warm and pleasant. Spoke to many students on the issue of slavery today at the Freeman Farm. It is wonderful to watch them understand the other social issues tied into slavery, and to learn to argue against it in ways other than saying "Slavery is morally wrong."
Today was also for April Fooling, which there are records of some participating in during the 1830s. In past years, plastic flamingos have sat on the common, a candy bar on the shelf of the historic store, stir fry cooked up in a hanging skillet over the fire, and the blacksmith dropping a horseshoe in some water, and upon retrieving it, finding it to have shrunk considerably. I don't know yet what others did, I don't think this year was shocking. One co-worker did bring in some goose eggs from his farm at home, for us to put in the chicken roost as though the chickens had laid these eggs that are three times the size of normal eggs. There were some in the house too, and if anyone questioned it we explained how our chickens are raised well and fed this brilliant feed, and don't they just lay the best eggs? Once we had sufficient shocked faces, we would call out "April Fools!" We had a good trick in choir too. We agreed to begin singing poorly while rehearsing the first song of the night during the third line. What resulted was not the train wreck we envisioned; instead it was just slightly wrong for most of the piece. The director would stop us and say things like "Basses, are you singing an octave lower? Tenors, do you need to go over your part again?" All was flatly denied, until we saw her becoming genuinely flustered, at which point the soprano who arranged the whole thing called out "April Fools!" The director was very pleased when we sang it perfectly the next time!
April came in like a Lamb - warm & pleasant - W.S. Attended a conferance at Capt. Miles' -
Thurs. 1 April 2010
Warm and pleasant. Spoke to many students on the issue of slavery today at the Freeman Farm. It is wonderful to watch them understand the other social issues tied into slavery, and to learn to argue against it in ways other than saying "Slavery is morally wrong."
Today was also for April Fooling, which there are records of some participating in during the 1830s. In past years, plastic flamingos have sat on the common, a candy bar on the shelf of the historic store, stir fry cooked up in a hanging skillet over the fire, and the blacksmith dropping a horseshoe in some water, and upon retrieving it, finding it to have shrunk considerably. I don't know yet what others did, I don't think this year was shocking. One co-worker did bring in some goose eggs from his farm at home, for us to put in the chicken roost as though the chickens had laid these eggs that are three times the size of normal eggs. There were some in the house too, and if anyone questioned it we explained how our chickens are raised well and fed this brilliant feed, and don't they just lay the best eggs? Once we had sufficient shocked faces, we would call out "April Fools!" We had a good trick in choir too. We agreed to begin singing poorly while rehearsing the first song of the night during the third line. What resulted was not the train wreck we envisioned; instead it was just slightly wrong for most of the piece. The director would stop us and say things like "Basses, are you singing an octave lower? Tenors, do you need to go over your part again?" All was flatly denied, until we saw her becoming genuinely flustered, at which point the soprano who arranged the whole thing called out "April Fools!" The director was very pleased when we sang it perfectly the next time!