Field Day of the Past (or future) Revisited

By guest author: Shelly

I don't really mean to hijack Bill's blog. I am not looking for any credit for breaking this amazing story. I am just someone (for reasons we will not go into) that CAN break this story.

I spotted it at the Field Day of the Past that Bill recently wrote about. Most people did not even give it a second thought. Most people assumed that it was part of the festivities. I can assure you it was not.

About 11a.m. Sadie and I were walking around and all of sudden, BOOM, I saw HER. She looked innocent enough. Hell, she looked like she could be anyone's grandmother. But,in reality, she was a TIME TRAVELER. I made a comment about her to Sadie. I spotted her right away (never mind how). She was an older lady dressed in 1800's clothes. She was sitting down at some kind of display knitting. I don't even know what else the display was about. Her clothing looked to me to be from around 1880. Most of the other stuff at the event was from the early 1900's. So, it struck me as odd that SHE was from 1880. For her, it would have been a Field Day of the Future.

Believe me, the time traveler part of this story is not even the weirdest part. How would a time traveler from 1880 be calmly sitting down while vehicles drove past, and people walked by dressed in practically nothing by her standards? How would she see a plane fly across the sky and not literally crap on herself?

There is a very simple reason for this. This is the weirdest part. She was not from the past. She was from the FUTURE!! How would someone from 1880 be able to time travel? That is just crazy!! No, this gal was from 1880, but it was via the future. I can not go into any more details. Just for breaking this story, I am probably going to be visited by alien-human hybrids that will anal probe me like there is no tomorrow. And, unlike some people, I will not enjoy it very much!!

But, the true story has to be told. I had thought about the New York Times or The Washington Post, but in the future, their circulations pale in comparison to Bill's blog. Bill's blog is usually read by 18 to 20 million people a day (again, don't ask).

The former and future Shelly

Field Day of the Past

Early morning is my favorite time of day. Like many parts of the country, our summer here in Virginia was wretchedly hot. Even the pre-dawn hours brought little relief from the heat. Lately, though, our mornings have been cool and the air feels light. It is a pleasure to be up before the sun.

On Sunday, I picked Robespierre up at 7:30 and we headed a few miles west to Goochland County. Our destination was the annual Field Day of the Past. The event actually runs for three full days, and our friend Sam is one of the coordinators.

Field Day of the Past is like an old-time county fair. It features historical displays and exhibits, re-enactments, tractor and truck pulls, small engine displays, arts and crafts, flea market, antique and modern construction equipment demonstrations, and a log cabin with ongoing heritage craft demonstrations.

Permanent exhibits and structures include a working United States post office, a 1930's grocery store and garage, fire lookout tower, blacksmith shop, wood wright shop, ice house, gold mining equipment, Pullman railroad car and engine buildings.

There are also farm animals, antique cars & trucks, and carnival rides. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, and we had great fun roaming the 50+ acres. Robespierre & I arrived there first, but soon we were joined by Morris, and then we met up with Sadie & Sheldon at the Short Pump Garage.

We really had a wonderful time. It was similar in some ways to our state fair, but without the sleaze factor. You are invited to roam through this post just as we explored the grounds of Field Day of the Past. I'll provide a bit of commentary & explanation, but I'm devoting most of the space to images of the late summer event.

The Dream Camper has its own bathroom in tow. It's there to the left with the deer head hanging off the side. Below, Robespierre chats with Sheriff Britches.












Our next stop requires some explanation. This shed is the sorghum mill, and we got to taste the sorghum syrup that was made right there. Sugar cane does not grow well in this area, so sorghum was grown, pressed, and cooked into a syrup for use as an everyday sweetener in the old days. I love the taste!

The green liquid running from the press (below) was mashed from stalks of sorghum. The stalks were fed by hand into the press, which was operated by a belt connected to a farm tractor. The juice from the sorghum cane is then cooked over a fire until a thick syrup is achieved. Exhibits like this really made me appreciate the simplicity of making food in older times.


Our day was a visual feast. I have been fascinated with old automobiles since the time I was a kid, so I took lots of pictures of the antique cars & trucks. I remember my dad talking about his Aunt Liza's (the one who lived in the huge, creepy house) preference for Packards. The one below appears to be a Roadster, probably built in 1930 - possibly 1929.




Below is the cab of a small mail delivery van, with a single wheel in the front and two in the back.


The next picture needs a description, also. This is a James River batteau. Batteaux were essential river conveyances during colonial times & later, able to navigate the James River with their shallow-draft, flat-bottomed hulls. The flat bottoms provided stability and the capability of hauling heavy loads of goods.



I loved this unrestored truck, inside & out.





Little wooden ice cream spoons!





1957!















Pig Races!

1957!







1956 Ford Sunliner...don't you love that name?

Robespierre liked this lawnmower.


The huffing, chugging, clanking, hissing machine below operated the sawmill blade that turned huge tree trunks into smooth, wooden planks. I'll never look at lumber at Home Depot with the same insouciance. Seeing a tree turned into building planks so quickly made me wonder how we can ever grow them fast enough.


That's the end of our tour. You can run off & take a turn on the ferris wheel if you like, but remember you just ate that funnel cake and a cone of homemade ice cream so don't even think about those rides that make you sick everytime you talk me into buying you a ticket. If you do, you're riding home in the back of the pick-up truck.

The Village of Dashed Dreams

Westover Church, circa 1730
I had a wonderful Labor Day weekend, and I hope you did, too. I had four days away from the office, and I threatened myself with public lashing every time I was tempted to go there "just to catch a few things up during the off-hours." A few of us had kicked around the idea of going to Hillsville for their annual Labor Day Flea Market & Gun Show, but our collective good sense prevailed. For one thing, it was a last minute idea (which would not have deterred us), but then Robespierre's knee "swole up" to the size of a grapefruit and we didn't have time to rent him a scooter.

Still, just think of the pictures I could have taken! The flea market, one of the largest east of the Mississippi, would have been a giant, outdoor People of Walmart photo extravaganza. Brenda even designed a Bingo card to take with me with items like Beanie Babies, Funnel Cakes, knives & ammo, boxes of 8-track tapes, and (my favorite) Sno-Cone machine surrounded by bees. Oh, well, perhaps next year.

Cemetery at Westover Church
Sheldon called me and asked if I would be interested in a Bill-style road trip on Sunday, which means there's a firm departure point, but everything else is up for grabs. Sheldon, Sadie & I headed east on Route 5, the Plantation Route, first making a stop at Country Style Donuts.

Route 5 parallels the north bank of the James River, passing by old plantations such as Shirley, Berkeley, Edgewood, Westover, Evelynton, Belle Air, Sherwood Forest, and Weyanoke. A rural oasis between Richmond and Williamsburg, this landscape was the first westward expansion of English-speaking America. The two-lane highway curves and winds through gently rolling countryside, alternating expanses of fields with stretches of trees that arch over the road. Our first stop was at Westover Church, which sits at the end of a dirt lane that crosses a field (currently soybeans).

There were several very friendly parishioners outside waiting for church to start, and they urged us to take a look inside. Westover Parish was established in 1613 on Westover Plantation, and our hosts told us that the church was moved to the current spot because the Byrd family grew tired of feeling obligated to feed churchgoers on their plantation by 1730.

Our next stop was River's Rest, a resort on the Chickahominy River that was hell to find. After a wrong turn, Sheldon & I got into a giggle fit. Sadie was bewildered by our silliness, but we can be like two 8-year-old boys when we're together. Once we extricated ourselves from the backwoods, we blundered our way to River's Rest, which turned out to be a well-maintained marina with a tidy motel, pool, and riverside restaurant.

River's Rest Marina on the Chickahominy River
We continued on to Jamestown, where we caught the ferry to the south bank of the James, disembarked at Scotland, and drove a few miles to Surry Courthouse.

Gulls at the Jamestown Ferry
After eating lunch and exploring the county seat, I asked Sheldon to drive a few miles east. I was curious to see if an old friend, an abandoned house in the country, was still standing up to the combined forces of gravity and invasive vines. The last time I saw it was in March of 2009, and it looked like this:

It's still there, and it looks about the same structurally. In the photo above, taken at the end of the winter season, the vines were hanging on but dormant. Here's how it looked this Labor Day weekend, after the vines flourished over the summer:

Incredible, isn't it? Here's a closer look...


I was a high school hooligan when I first found this house, and you can read about my criminal past by clicking here.

Sheldon & Sadie found a small family cemetery off to the side of the property, and I finally located the owner of the house, Ruth Dearth. My assumption that she had died and the house then abandoned was true. She lived a long life in this old homestead.

We traveled west on Route 10 to return home. This road is the southern counterpart to Route 5, but is not quite as pretty. Still, it's rural, so there are certain charms. One diversion was a side trip to Claremont.

Claremont is not on the way to anywhere. You need to make a determined effort to get there. It's not a town you're going to find by passing through, because it's at the end of the road, pal. If you don't find what you're looking for in Claremont, you've gotta backtrack to return to a highway that has lines painted on it. And your chances of finding something are slim, because there's only one old convenience store that still hangs an open sign on the door.

I kinda like Claremont.

Shopping district in downtown Claremont

...don't forget these stores!
Claremont is located on bluffs above the river. The James is wide and navigable here, and Claremont was a port town with a busy wharf during the late 1600's & 1700's. With our system of modern roadways, it's easy to forget that rivers were once the safest, most reliable means of transporting goods to colonial frontier settlements.

Two satellite dishes connect this house with the larger world
Claremont had high hopes of becoming a boom town in the 1880's when it became the eastern terminus of the Atlantic & Danville Railway. An old map shows hundreds of building lots planned for streets that do not exist today. At least two hotels were built. Unfortunately for Claremont, the rail line was narrow-gauge, which was discontinued in favor of standard-gauge. The A&D Railway elected to connect its lines to Portsmouth in the Tidewater region. Claremont's hopes of becoming a commercial center were dashed.

Claremont Public Library

Coming Soon!
This building was once the survey office, and faces a small traffic circle, not that there's much traffic to control these days. The hopeful Coming Soon! sign has been on this charming structure for at least two years. I hope something comes there soon. It's hard to visit Claremont without seeing its potential as a viable riverfront resort community. Just down from the bluffs, along the banks of the James, there is a string of nice, modern cottages and a boat landing. Perhaps one day Claremont's potential will be realized.

Another defunct commercial building, with a fenced junkyard in the back
If you go to Claremont, you'll see that some homes are occupied. Many, however, are not. We counted at least five old houses in a row that were abandoned & overgrown on our way into town. Today, Claremont sleeps, but I hope it still dreams.

A granite marker in the little circle in downtown Claremont