President's Day celebration

We enjoyed last year's event at the Mount Vernon Memorial Park so much that we decided to take it in again this year. Edward was also excited about it as a place to take some of his cub scouts including Tim. I think Jake enjoyed it just as much.

One of the first things we saw was a pair of goats - a nanny goat and her little kid. The ladies taking care of the goats were using the goats' hair to make knitting wool.


Close to this exhibit was the exhibit for the driving of the golden spike at Promontory Point, Utah in 1869. An actor representing California governor Leland Stanford presided over the event but it was the little boys like Tim who drove the representative spikes in.

Next we met an actor representing James Marshall who found gold while building a sawmill for John Sutter. This discovery started the Gold Rush of 1847. Besides showing us some of representative gold nuggets and a gold $20 coin (now worth over $900), he talked about how quickly the placer or surface gold was depleted so that 5 years after the gold rush began it was over.


A fife and drum corps was on the grounds to greet and entertain us. Judging from the uniforms, we had representatives from every war that American's fought in from the Revolutionary War to World War I. But today they all beat the same rhythm and played the same tune. I think there must be a moral in that somewhere.

We were delighted to see this group of a boy and his two sisters dressed in period costume. We asked if they had a presentation and the mother told us they weren't. They just wanted to feel more a part of the whole day. She said she had ordered the outfits. And the boy pointed out that she had also ordered them to wear them today.

The muzzle loading gunmen assembled outside the chapel to display their arms and answer questions that people might have about range, accuracy, and firing speed.

Then they proceeded to fire blank wads causing some smoke and enough noise to startle those who weren't looking.

I'm not sure how this Studebaker fit into the celebration or even why I should be patting it since neither I or my family have ever owned a Studebaker. This was a nice example of the breed.

We were all getting tired by now so it was nice to get in under the shade to watch this Snake Oil Salesman/Magician. He had a couple of acts that were new to me such as a drawing pad upon which he draws a face. As he does so the face becomes animated. He's also a ventriloquist so the animated face starts talking to him and commenting on his drawing skills or choices. His act was perfectly suited for cub scout age kids (7 to 12).

Fortunately, that was about half of his audience. You can see our grandkids in the front rows of this audience shot.
Finally, perhaps to distract us or show us that there was more to see, a cyclist kept riding past us showing off his balancing skill.

The only thing that seemed a little strange was that no food or drink was offered for sale. Several people came better prepared than we were and spread blankets on the lawn and enjoyed their own little picnic. Grandma and I left for Tugboat #7 and a couple of servings of fish & chips.