Month: January 2014

“All sorts and conditions of women”

On By kittycalashIn Clothing, History, Laundry, Living History, Reenacting, Research

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Ever on the track of laundresses and working women, I came upon The Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of Modern Painting, Volume 1 (of 4), by Richard Muther. I was rewarded with  a laundress and a cook holding a spider. Daniel Chodowiecki, a German artist, seems to have been as drawn to the common people as Paul Sandby. The caveat of course is that is he German, so details may not always be correct for American interpretations (pinner aprons, for example).

Still, we have the classic washtub-on-a-table set up, and the laundress is barefoot, which makes very good sense, though my feet hurt just from thinking about standing barefoot on the stubble of the field at Saratoga.

Encampment of the Loyalists at Johnstown, a New Settlement, on the Banks of the River St. Lawrence in Canada, taken June 6th 1784, James Peachey.
Encampment of the Loyalists at Johnstown, a New Settlement, on the Banks of the River St. Lawrence in Canada, taken June 6th 1784, James Peachey.

Laundresses come with style, too, though I am asking myself, “Is that a fabulous hat, or is your head just in front of some balled-up, sleeping livestock?” Was is discernible is that her hair is down, and she is leaning on the washtub. The tent seams are also clearly visible, and she does have the iconic washtub on a table set up.

Encampment of the Loyalists at Johnstown, a New Settlement, on the Banks of the River St. Lawrence in Canada, taken June 6th 1784. James Peachey
Encampment of the Loyalists at Johnstown, a New Settlement, on the Banks of the River St. Lawrence in Canada, taken June 6th 1784. James Peachey

In another detail of the same image, we have a woman who is clearly wearing a black bonnet, tending a kettle on a fire. Here’s yet another piece of evidence for the three sticks-two kettles-no matches set up, and for the tinned kettles being left to get black on the outside.

What is she wearing on her body? There’s a white (or a least white-grounded) kerchief, and what looks like a grey or drab petticoat. But is that a short gown, jacket or bed gown? I’d say jacket, mostly because of the fit, but it’s hard to say at this distance. Whatever word you care to use, she’s wearing a reddish-brown garment fitted to her torso that appears to have a side-back seam.

Once again, tent seams are visible. This tent, just like the one in the other detail, also has some large off-white item thrown over the end. Could it be a blanket, out to air in the sun?

I do also appreciate the short blue jacket/white trousers of the man or boy to the left of the woman, since I know a guy who possesses those clothes and prefers trousers to breeches. He appears to be drinking from a cup as he carries a kettle, presumably of fresh water.

Encampment of the Loyalists at Johnstown, a New Settlement, on the Banks of the River St. Lawrence in Canada, taken June 6th 1784, James Peachey.
Encampment of the Loyalists at Johnstown, a New Settlement, on the Banks of the River St. Lawrence in Canada, taken June 6th 1784, James Peachey.

The entire view of the Loyalists’ camp is here, with a zoomable image. The drawing is full of details applicable to camp life interpretations, from women’s bonnets to fishing rods.

As I contemplate the troublesome Bridget Mahoney, I find the detail below of a solder and a woman rather pleasing.

Does she solemnly swear she is up to no good?
Does she solemnly swear she is up to no good?

Wintery Mix

On By kittycalashIn making things4 Comments
Frozen lavender cleaning solution

Yes, it has been cold here.

Pewter buttons on plush

The buttons came from Roy Najecki earlier this week, which was exciting. They aren’t for the plush breeches currently under construction, but rather for the green wool frock coat I’m making for Mr S to wear with the breeches. And, luckily, there is enough plush for me to screw up and recut select portions of the breeches should I need to. That’s always a relief, and not a luxury I always have. The pockets won’t be plush, though– or he’d always have a hand stuck!

Swim Kittens & The Slippery Seal

On By kittycalashIn swimming3 Comments
Warming up, the Slippery Seal in lane 3 (count from the bottom)

The Young Mr has an alternate identity which he has long maintained: the Slippery Seal. When the Seal was much younger, his grandfather lived nearby in a house with a pool; as a result, the Seal spent every possible moment between the ages of 2 and 5 in the water. Eventually we learned to put him in a flotation device and removed him only to warm him up and feed him. He’s the same way, still, at the beach. He doesn’t go to the beach: he goes to the water, and will swim in the ocean in October if you let him.

Despite swim lessons, despite swimming at summer camp, despite my imprecations and pleading, the Seal refused to try out for the local (as in two blocks away) TigerSharks swim team until invited last summer. Now he swims at least twice a week after school, and competes in meets around the state. He loves it, even when he struggles.

A KittenShark finishes her butterfly lap

The meets take hours, as some teams are twice the size (or more) of the TigerSharks dozen-plus kids. On Sunday, the TigerSharks swam against the Barracudas and the Penguins. Both the Barracudas and the TigerSharks have a number of team members in the under-8 category, that is, kids as young as 6 and 7. And zOMG, are they cute. We call them the Swim Kittens or the KittenSharks, because there is hardly a splash when six of them go off the blocks and start paddling. The first time he saw this, Mr S said, “It’s like someone threw an armful of kittens into the water.” The big boys go in like Great Danes, kerSPLASH! and rumble down the lanes.

The cutest thing we saw at yesterday’s meet was a swim kitten on the Barracuda team carrying her Little Mermaid doll. This swimmer was clearly in her first year of competing, swimming very slowly and deliberately, and then clutching her totem Little Mermaid when out of the water and on her mother’s lap. This level of adorableness helps us get through the three-plus hours of other people’s kids swimming, while the Slippery Seal waits for his 30 seconds in the water.

The Penguins coach encourages a swimmer in lane one.

Every team has a different style. The Fox Point team’s coach is Australian, and silently coaches swimmers with hand and head gestures alone. It reminded me of shepherding. One Cumberland team had a real screamer of a coach, but the Cumberland-Lincoln Penguins coach used a lot of hand gestures and rhythmic calls. The TigerSharks coach gives the kids thumbs-up signals, and yells things like, “You got it!” on their last lap or final yards. Older kids give each other a lot of high-fives, but the Swim Kittens alternate between hopping up and down and hugging each other.

The Slippery Seal was very nervous at yesterday’s meet; it was his first away meet, and he was as terrified as he’d been before the very first meet. When he gets really anxious, his asthma kicks in, and he started his notorious Seal Cough. Still, he made it through his first event (breaststroke) just fine, coming in second. He scratched from his next event, the freestyle, because he was using his inhaler, but his team mates told him he could have taken first in it. We spent the hour and half before his final event convincing him he could get through the waiting, into the water, and make it through all four laps of the backstroke.

This took some doing. There was coughing on his part, and pep-talking on our part, and on the part of the 12-year-old team captain (Abby) and the coaches. But he did it: he finished and came in third. And when it was over, I cried, surprised at how tense it had been.

After the last turn, Slippery Seal heads for the finish.

At his first meet, the Slippery Seal inhaled water and stopped swimming, with a booming cough that silenced the entire pool. At his second meet, he stopped swimming because he thought he was going to have an asthma attack (he didn’t). He sees a specialist for the asthma and has a therapist for the anxiety, but nothing can teach him he can really do this but doing it. I think he learned that on Sunday– and that he can have his own Swim Kitten Cheer Squad. Sometimes it’s hard to accept that people want you on their team, and want you to succeed, and have more faith in you than you do yourself.