Thursday (Continued!)
So after spending at least twice the amount of time we
anticipated at the Oneida Mansion House and meeting a current resident here are
a few thoughts to mull over..
Since children were not anticipated and all men and women
were married how did they avoid pregnancy? “Men were in charge and
instructed to withdraw prior to climax” now that sounds like an
accident waiting to happen but remember it is a closed group so males had
to, master this process or face denial by ALL the perfectionist ladies.
Men had no willing partner and courtship was a competition that never ended, and
if a man were to fail, partners were limited to those ladies that were beyond
childbirth years. Statistics regarding
childbirth between founding,( 1848) and the starting of Stripculture in 1869 reveal that few “mistakes”
from this practice happened.
Special Love was not supposed to happen to Perfectionist and
almost all children were from couples joining the group living in the Mansion
House or men who needed additional training! Any way children were always
considered to be community property and raised by all. Biological parents were
not given special “rights” in child rearing and while children were taught who
their biological parents were, they were not expected or encouraged to have
special feelings for each other. This continued unchanged under Stripculture
as over 60 new children were added to the Mansion House Perfectionist family.
While it was thought that the children brought in by “joiners”
and born of Stripculture would be strong perfectionists, the generation did
not inherit the zeal of their parents! In 1881 the complex marriage was officially
ended and members of the community were free to enter traditional monogamous
marriage or stay unmarried. All the parents and children were provide income
and stock from the company that was founded at the end of the Perfectionist
practice!
Well we had our first dinner at the campground cafe! It was
GREAT! 20 hot wings any sauce, 18” XL Pizza with Pep and Sausage, a picture of
Labatts Blue beer $28. We both said that is to much food for us but the waitress convinced us that we could take the leftovers home and it would even be better the next day! I probably looked really happy in this photo Deb took- I
was! And for the next two days we had Pizza and wings for leftover dinner! The café
is really neat and we found out that they have a special Sunday Brunch too!
Friday a
As mentioned earlier this part of NY was a busy area filled
with religious and civil activist and anti slavery and women’s suffrage
leaders! One leader who touched all of these areas was Harriet Tubman.
Having
escaped Maryland to the freedom of New York, she had to leave her family behind.
She made many trips into slave areas to rescue family members and others and
during this time became one of the most hunted abolitionist and human rights
activist. She settled in Auburn NY in 1859, built a home for herself and then a
home for rescued and escaped slaves. During the Civil war she traveled into the
South to spy for the North and several times escaped Confederate attempts to
trap her.
At one point she took over leadership of a Union force of “colored”
militia and successfully lead an attack of a Confederate fort in South Carolina.
although her husband was a Presbyterian Minister, Ms Tubman founded to AME
churches in Auburn and became an active member in one! She was recognized as a
leader of the woman’s movement by the women's leader at Seneca Falls about 25
miles West of Auburn NY. In my and Debs opinion the National Park Service could
put some additional funds into this site! Wings and Pizza for dinner!
Saturday :
Weather man said sunny today so we filled up the JEEP and
decided to head into this huge area known as the ADIRONDACK MOUNTAINS! There is
no official entry point as it is not like a Park like Rocky Mountains NP, nor
is there much signage ! It is expensive based on the gasoline prices we
observed( 3.19 a gallon for regular) and the wages offered to work there $22 an
hour for a gas station mini mart! This part of NY looked so much wealthier than
the North Central part we had been driving thru and the culture was distinctively
different from the older somewhat weathered homes we had grown accustomed to
seeing on the back roads! We didn't take many pictures of the area for some reason but we did get a good picture of the chairs!
Cody bounced around on the endless curved roads, Jake tried
to teach him and finally he did get the idea to lay low! The temps dropped to
52 degree from almost 80 and the RAIN came! We took only a few photos, I guess
you could say we weren’t too impressed or were not the Adirondack style folk in
our Jeep! Maybe we needed a Grand Cherokee rather than a Wrangler, or maybe it
was just a bad day! Deb always takes the pups to the dog park on their evening walk and this was no exception. Both dogs got to play till they were exhausted!
Pizza and Wings day # 3! Still delicious wings!
Sunday
We were warned early to not be late for breakfast brunch on
Sunday! This campground café is really good! Ill give you the menu but :
OJ, fresh doughnuts, coffee, fresh fruit, eggs, cereal,
fried potatoes, sausage, biscuit and gravy (homemade), ham, pancakes, French toast,
but the killer was FRESH Blueberry pancakes! $ 7.00
We spotted more scattered Amish living in his area along the
inland lakes area and farming .We caught a photo of a big farm implement being pulled down the highway
by horse! Just the contrast!
The rest of the day was a wine cooler and writing this Blog! oh and a game of backgammon and Farkle..
Monday
Thought I would catch you up on Monday since Sunday was so
restful! We took a drive up north to the St Lawrence Seaway and some of the
coastal towns on the USA side like Alexandria Bay! In hindsight we should have taken our passports
so we could cross over into Canada and maybe even drive to Ottawa the Capital
of Canada which is just up the road a piece! Maybe another day ......who knows.
The views along the St. Lawrence Seaway were stunning and
we drove though the area of “A Thousand Islands” which is really much more than
1,000 and many have homes or a home on them ! Of particular interest is the Boldt Castle on Heart Island, which was built by George Boldt for his wife Louise. However she died quite
unexpectedly and he dismissed the 700 workers who had completed 80%, including
reshaping the island into the shape of a heart, and abandoned the project never
to set foot on the island again. Some seventy years later an historical society
acquired it and has been finishing the project and offering tours!
Queen Elizabeth and President Dwight D. Eisenhower jointly
dedicated the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway as a joint Canada-USA project
in 1955 and this opened up to the world the bounty of the Canada and USA along the
Great Lakes all the way to Minnesota ! Grain, Iron ore, coal, and finished
machinery now flows daily from our shared heartland all the way into the Atlantic
Ocean! An amazing series of Dams and Locks makes it possible for this freight to move into and out
of the Central USA and heartland of Canada to anywhere needed in the world!
Just as an illustration, Deb found a chart that shows that 8
Locks are required to lower a ship from Lake Erie, at 574 feet above sea level,
to Lake Ontario which sits just 246 feet above sea level and leads to the
Atlantic Ocean. Add to this challenge getting around Niagara Falls and you can
see that there was a lot more than just digging a trench involved in the St,
Lawrence Seaway! I think it is said that the Great Lakes, represent 20% of the
Fresh Water on Earth!
And right as we are driving westward along the great
waterway I pick up the sound of a familiar “Clop, clop, clop and along this picturesque
water way isolated highway, two Amish girls and their buggy bring the 18th
and 21st centuries into split screen view!
Dolores
2019-08-14
So interesting! Almost like being there! Thanks.
Kris
2019-08-14
Interesting 'stuff.'' Great pictures... cool castles. Pizza looks delicious!!