Germantown
Oct. 2nd, 2011 10:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mandie_rwThe weather on Saturday ended up being not bad at all! I wore my old standby, the block-print gown (which I like, but need to finish something else ON TIME, because I'm getting tired of it!) with a brown linen petticoat. I was glad to have a last-minute cloak though, as it did get chilly! Mitts would have been ideal. Or, you know, remembering to bring my gloves.
I got, literally, six pictures, because I'm the kind of person that forgets she's got a camera in her pocket ten minutes into the event! I fully intend to steal any and all pictures by my partners-in-crime,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
blackcat452, madamekat, and dragoneyes19!
The day started off well; while driving over to Germantown I managed to miss the entrance to the Vine St expressway (how?? was I asleep?) and then almost get squashed by an enormous truck carting an OVERSIZE! LOAD! And was therefore about twenty minutes later than I should have been, considering the time I left my house. Also, the people behind me on Lincoln Drive trying to go 50mph behind me were giving me heart palpitations...Curvy, hilly road, people! I'm a nervous driver anyway, and roads like that do not help!
Having survived the drive there (and, happily, back home, later), I met up with the aforementioned ladies on the grounds of Cliveden, and we immediately determined lunch was in order. Without a lot of variety available, lunch turned out to be hotdogs. Very appropriate for 1777! Pictures of us holding soda cans are probably going to eventually surface on the internet...
I mean, ones not posted by us!
Other lunchtime photos,including one of Jess finding a little something extra-special in her dress...
A needle! Yay! (And as we made cracks about that day...no, no, a SEWING needle! I know we're in Germantown, but...)
We then wandered about a bit with the aforementioned soda cans, which we kept trying to hide under the cloaks we were all carrying, whenever we noticed someone was taking a picture! Always a bit late... We checked out one vendor, and Robin bought a packet of pins - which came in useful later for containing escaping decolletage! I considered buying some hand-woven tape for garters, but it didn't thrill me enough to actually part with cash for it.
After that, we made our way over to the house (we tried to Get A Free Tour! but that was apparently for locals only. Sad) for a tour. Well, I think I got my $2 worth! We all learned many things, like the fact that there were no cellars Back Then, bright colors (specifically yellow) were expensive and therefore wearing/owning items of those colors meant you were wealthy, silk in the English colonies was all imported from France, that an Art Noveau-fashion-wearing woman in a portrait was from the 1920s, and (this will be important later) that the front doors to the house had no doorknobs because if you were rich, your servants always opened the doors from the inside!
We meant to take pictures of everyone outside the house, but the tour started after we got shots of Robin, and then forgot to go back for more.
The battle started after we finished the tour. We were up by the house, though, and it started in the street, so we were treated to a dreadfully monotone narration of what had happened during the battle. I spent my time pointing out various yellow items of clothing on some of the civilians around us, and gleefully exclaiming, "They must be rich!" There were at least two or three pairs of yellow stockings in evidence, so we definitely had some well-off characters in attendance! One Yellow-Stockings (with overstuffed pockets worn outside her dress...?) even wore two aprons - one in front, as you do -- and then one in back. ???
We were very badly behaved when the battle finally moved itself up our way onto the lawn. The British soldiers finally retreated into the house itself, and were shooting at the Americans from the windows of the second floor, while the Americans attempted to storm the front doors. It occurred to us that the Americans just wanted to be announced, but they couldn't get in because the British had shut the doors, and there were no doorknobs! So, you see, they had to charge the house! This sent us into lengthy giggle-fits, as you might imagine!
Plus, some of the "casualties" didn't appear to want to stay dead on the soggy ground, and spent the remainder of the battle sitting up. All American troops, I do believe...the British didn't appear to mind staying properly dead! We laughed immoderately at the sitting-up dead as well, of course. A lady in front of us kept turning round and giving us the stink-eye when we laughed, and eventually left, because I guess she didn't see any humor in droning narration, silly misinformation given by docents, and casualties that sat up and leaned on their muskets! Well - we did.
After the reenactment finished, we went and sat on a bench by the side exit, chatted, were asked questions by passers-by, and admired soldiers in well-fitting breeches! "Ogled" might actually be a better word...
And one man that took pictures of us was good enough to get our emails and send us copies of the pictures he took. Which is good, because otherwise we'd have no (or one?) picture of the four of us! Of course, three of us are wearing our cloaks by that point, so you can't see our dresses very well - but you know what mine looks like!
(All following photos taken by Ahamad Kenya)
After most of the soldiers had left (so there was no one to ogle!), we took ourselves off to Grumblethorpe (also in Germantown, but not within walking distance!) for their little Oktoberfest. They have a nice little garden, and chickens ("Oh, chickens! Fabulous! I love the country!") in the back, and we sat and chatted for a while longer. And there was (oh dear) one costumed woman I hadn't spotted at Cliveden, who, er, didn't seem to have understood that the pleats in the back of the dress aren't supposed to be a separate cape-like panel made of a different fabric than the dress!
We all wilted pretty fast, though, and though there were proposed plans for going out to dinner together, we eventually decided to call it a night and go our separate ways, to sit in sweatpants on our couches while watching telly and scarfing down Hot Pockets.
Possibly that was just me, though.
Anyway, lovely time, we must do it again soon! And next year we are SO dressing up! No one will know what to do with pocket hoops and a properly made sack!
I got, literally, six pictures, because I'm the kind of person that forgets she's got a camera in her pocket ten minutes into the event! I fully intend to steal any and all pictures by my partners-in-crime,
blackcat452, madamekat, and dragoneyes19!The day started off well; while driving over to Germantown I managed to miss the entrance to the Vine St expressway (how?? was I asleep?) and then almost get squashed by an enormous truck carting an OVERSIZE! LOAD! And was therefore about twenty minutes later than I should have been, considering the time I left my house. Also, the people behind me on Lincoln Drive trying to go 50mph behind me were giving me heart palpitations...Curvy, hilly road, people! I'm a nervous driver anyway, and roads like that do not help!
Having survived the drive there (and, happily, back home, later), I met up with the aforementioned ladies on the grounds of Cliveden, and we immediately determined lunch was in order. Without a lot of variety available, lunch turned out to be hotdogs. Very appropriate for 1777! Pictures of us holding soda cans are probably going to eventually surface on the internet...
I mean, ones not posted by us!
Other lunchtime photos,including one of Jess finding a little something extra-special in her dress...
A needle! Yay! (And as we made cracks about that day...no, no, a SEWING needle! I know we're in Germantown, but...)
We then wandered about a bit with the aforementioned soda cans, which we kept trying to hide under the cloaks we were all carrying, whenever we noticed someone was taking a picture! Always a bit late... We checked out one vendor, and Robin bought a packet of pins - which came in useful later for containing escaping decolletage! I considered buying some hand-woven tape for garters, but it didn't thrill me enough to actually part with cash for it.
After that, we made our way over to the house (we tried to Get A Free Tour! but that was apparently for locals only. Sad) for a tour. Well, I think I got my $2 worth! We all learned many things, like the fact that there were no cellars Back Then, bright colors (specifically yellow) were expensive and therefore wearing/owning items of those colors meant you were wealthy, silk in the English colonies was all imported from France, that an Art Noveau-fashion-wearing woman in a portrait was from the 1920s, and (this will be important later) that the front doors to the house had no doorknobs because if you were rich, your servants always opened the doors from the inside!
We meant to take pictures of everyone outside the house, but the tour started after we got shots of Robin, and then forgot to go back for more.
The battle started after we finished the tour. We were up by the house, though, and it started in the street, so we were treated to a dreadfully monotone narration of what had happened during the battle. I spent my time pointing out various yellow items of clothing on some of the civilians around us, and gleefully exclaiming, "They must be rich!" There were at least two or three pairs of yellow stockings in evidence, so we definitely had some well-off characters in attendance! One Yellow-Stockings (with overstuffed pockets worn outside her dress...?) even wore two aprons - one in front, as you do -- and then one in back. ???
We were very badly behaved when the battle finally moved itself up our way onto the lawn. The British soldiers finally retreated into the house itself, and were shooting at the Americans from the windows of the second floor, while the Americans attempted to storm the front doors. It occurred to us that the Americans just wanted to be announced, but they couldn't get in because the British had shut the doors, and there were no doorknobs! So, you see, they had to charge the house! This sent us into lengthy giggle-fits, as you might imagine!
Plus, some of the "casualties" didn't appear to want to stay dead on the soggy ground, and spent the remainder of the battle sitting up. All American troops, I do believe...the British didn't appear to mind staying properly dead! We laughed immoderately at the sitting-up dead as well, of course. A lady in front of us kept turning round and giving us the stink-eye when we laughed, and eventually left, because I guess she didn't see any humor in droning narration, silly misinformation given by docents, and casualties that sat up and leaned on their muskets! Well - we did.
After the reenactment finished, we went and sat on a bench by the side exit, chatted, were asked questions by passers-by, and admired soldiers in well-fitting breeches! "Ogled" might actually be a better word...
And one man that took pictures of us was good enough to get our emails and send us copies of the pictures he took. Which is good, because otherwise we'd have no (or one?) picture of the four of us! Of course, three of us are wearing our cloaks by that point, so you can't see our dresses very well - but you know what mine looks like!
(All following photos taken by Ahamad Kenya)
After most of the soldiers had left (so there was no one to ogle!), we took ourselves off to Grumblethorpe (also in Germantown, but not within walking distance!) for their little Oktoberfest. They have a nice little garden, and chickens ("Oh, chickens! Fabulous! I love the country!") in the back, and we sat and chatted for a while longer. And there was (oh dear) one costumed woman I hadn't spotted at Cliveden, who, er, didn't seem to have understood that the pleats in the back of the dress aren't supposed to be a separate cape-like panel made of a different fabric than the dress!
We all wilted pretty fast, though, and though there were proposed plans for going out to dinner together, we eventually decided to call it a night and go our separate ways, to sit in sweatpants on our couches while watching telly and scarfing down Hot Pockets.
Possibly that was just me, though.
Anyway, lovely time, we must do it again soon! And next year we are SO dressing up! No one will know what to do with pocket hoops and a properly made sack!
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Date: 2011-10-03 02:42 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2011-10-03 02:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-03 03:01 am (UTC)Oh, look there is evidence of my escaping feather! It did finally run off with Robin. I think it was trying to get to her the whole day, the cheeky hat trim.
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Date: 2011-10-03 03:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-03 02:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-04 04:31 am (UTC)*giggle*
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Date: 2011-10-03 04:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-04 04:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-03 05:44 am (UTC)Sounds like you had an amazing day - and you got to see a battle and some soldier to ogle over! Like the story of houses not having doorknobs.
I also followed the link and that house looks amazing on the pictures.
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Date: 2011-10-03 02:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-04 04:38 am (UTC)And the charging of the doorknob-less doors was really awful - we were snickering through the whole thing! It should have been some kind of Monty Python skit!
And the house at Cliveden is very pretty (nothing on its namesake, of course!) - just a "country retreat" for a very wealthy Loyalist family! The grounds are still nice, even now; it must have been really something back in the 18thc!
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Date: 2011-10-03 07:10 am (UTC)At least we've had something in common - Chickens!
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Date: 2011-10-04 04:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-03 10:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-04 04:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-03 02:21 pm (UTC)Fo'shizzle?
Anyway--it looks like it was fun. In fact, I know it was fun.
Exclaims: "I MISS EVENTS!" Bah, maybe I'll go to Mount Hope this year.
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Date: 2011-10-04 04:44 am (UTC)And when is Mount Hope? We kept hearing people mention it Saturday, but none of us know about it...are we missing something good?
PS: Clearly the dress in your icon? Made for the wife of a millionaire! *giggle* Couldn't resist...
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Date: 2011-10-04 01:56 pm (UTC)And to the ps--clearly! I can't even afford all that gold lace (for all it's nylon fakery) now!