By LILIANA HIRE | Special to the Palisadian-Post
Have you ever churned butter? Made a buzzsaw? Danced the Virginia Reel?
Well, fourth-graders at Marquez Charter Elementary have. On April 7, 2022, I mean 1862, the students and fourth grade teachers at Marquez were blasted back to the past to celebrate a one-of-a-kind day, Pioneer Day. On this day, students dressed up and acted like pioneers. They did many fun activities, such as turning cream into butter, practicing old-fashioned math on a slate (aka blackboard), with a bit of algebra and geometry, playing with buzzsaws and many more.
The day started for some young pioneers with a walk to school. Others just drove, or got a ride to a parking place near the school to walk from. For some kids who walked to school every day, the walk was easy. But for others, it was not. Orion Taffler walked to school all the way from the Highlands fire road to Marquez. I wonder, was it any fun?
“It was half fun and half not. It was fun with my friends but it was hot and the stick I used to carry my lunch hurt to hold after a while,” Orion said. Their walk took about 45 minutes, so I’m not surprised that it wasn’t the most fun. I’m actually quite surprised that he sort of liked it.
Obviously, to be a pioneer, you had to dress like one. For clothes, girls wore old-fashioned dresses, bonnets and aprons, and carried a basket of food to school for lunch. The boys wore overalls, jeans, suspenders, hats and bandannas, and carried their lunch on a stick in a handkerchief.
“I think the best dressed was my teacher, Ms. Chaides,” fourth-grader Kayla Granz said.
Some students agree with her, but, as always, some don’t. I, however, agree and think that Ms. Chaides went all out on becoming the strict teacher from Pioneer life.
Another fun activity was making butter. Kids in each class were split up into groups and we were given a jar full of whipping cream to shake. Each group consisted of three to five people. At first, the “butter” just looked like a great glob of goo, but as time wore on, the glob of goo turned into a large, yellowish ball, about the size of my fist. Around the ball was a liquid called buttermilk, which I don’t think anyone drank, although I wanted to. However, we did eat the butter and spread it on cornbread muffins, which we ate with dried spiced apples. (I preferred the dried apples, I’m not much of a fan of cornbread.)
“My favorite part was the taffy pull,” student Lila Minx said.
Honestly, I think that was probably also my favorite part as well. Pulling the marshmallow was icky, sticky and gooey, but I still liked it. Some other kids, especially boys, used all fingers on both hands to turn the marshmallow into taffy, but I just used two on each side, so I didn’t get as messy.
At the end of the day, we performed the Virginia Reel, a dance from the olden times. Everyone had to have a partner, but most people in my class were afraid to have a partner from the opposite gender, otherwise rumors could start popping up.
I was not one of them, but still had one of my friends as my partner.
Before that, though, we did a spelling and vocabulary test of words from that time, like felloe, calico, and molasses, as well as a poetry recital.
During math, we were the “teachers.” Three or four people were grouped together and one person was first “teacher.” The “teacher” then showed the group a math problem on their slate, or told them one. Then the other members solved that problem. Whoever was correct first, became the teacher.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and that’s the end of my story.
However hot the Virginia reel was, sticky the marshmallows were, and dusty the chalk was, I still wish we could celebrate Pioneer Day everyday. (Actually, maybe I’d get bored of it, so once a week or month is probably better.) Sadly, I could only celebrate for that one day, but maybe, 10 years from now, it will be another April 7th, and I will remember this day once again.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
