Montevallo and "The American Village"

I have such a fun day to share with you today!!! We had our first......well, first for us.........."senior outing", "senior activity", "senior excursion".........whatever.......and I'm to see that they happen!!!! This one did! And I enlisted some help from a very willing sister who talked to the right people and .....well, you'll see.

We went to a rather small town called Montevallo about 30 minutes from Hoover--where the office is. Some years ago, a man who has had a love for American history all his life has made his dream happen! He has created a place called "The American Village". They have re-created several well-known buildings from American history.......

We started out at .........I don't remember the name of the building, but it looked authentic.....and there a woman who would probably have been something like a field nurse during the Revolutionary war was there, in costume and demeanor........ and she never broke it! She was good. She taught us about some of the more grisly things associated with warfare in those days..........

Left to right: Elder and Sister Glenn, Elder Hansen is behind me and Sister Hansen is to my left, Roger behind me; the docent; Sister and Elder Newman, Sister and Elder Millyard

You will recognize the Liberty Bell.......it's a full-size replica. And then we were all sworn into the Continental Army.......a pledge to defend the United States of America.......there was no Constitution yet..........and we learned how to fire a musket! Well........he gave us broomsticks to practice with.

Here he is showing us how the first and second regiments should be spaced--Roger is the first regiment or line, and since we should all fire at the same time the muskets in the second regiment need to be that far ahead of the first regiment........ I don't know if that made any sense or not. But then he taught us the importance of the drum and fife corps..........the drums were how the officer sent out his orders, because they could be heard..........

A scaled down replica of Mt. Vernon where we were taught through the eyes of none other than Thomas Jefferson. It was very interesting..........how he might have felt and what he might have thought when given the job of writing the Declaration of Independence......... And they had an exact replica of the "rising sun chair" in which George Washington sat during the Constitutional Convention when they were taking votes that would be binding. I should have taken a picture of that, but I hope some day I will see the real one! The next two are just of the grounds.......it was so pretty.

On the steps of "Mt. Vernon"

Right next to and really a part of "Mt. Vernon" was a building housing the replica of the Oval Office. The only untrue part of it is the ceiling which is not domed. It would have cost an additional $100,000 to do that, so they opted not to........... This was my favorite wall..........it's "creamier" than it looks in the picture..........a very pretty room....... I've never seen the real one of this either.....

  My "commander and chief"

I had a call this morning from the people at the Village warning that a big thunder storm was forecast for their area today and maybe we would want to reschedule.......well, we couldn't do that.......we just hoped we would finish before the storm got there. And we did!........kind of. We were just coming out of the "Oval Office" and were going to go to the Chapel where they have a Veterans' Memorial when a man came up on a golf cart and told us the storm was about ten miles away and if we went inside a building, we would have to stay there until the storm had passed. We decided we would go to our cars with the possibility of returning in the afternoon.........well, we just got to the place where we had reservations to eat--thanks to Sis. Hansen and her contact at the Chamber of Commerce--we all walked in without our umbrellas.........and then it started to rain. And I mean RAIN!!!! This was a "2-whale" storm!! This picture of Roger on the porch does not do it justice.

But look at this!!!! Crazy!!!

This is on the campus of the University of Montevallo. It is the only liberal arts college in the state of Alabama. About 3200 students. And employs about 3500 people! I was going to look online to see what the tuition is. Our guide wouldn't tell us! We waited till there was a little let-up in the rain, then we got in a van and Steve, the Chamber of Commerce guy, drove us around Montevallo and really gave us a good tour. I don't have any other pictures because the van had "murals" all over it and the rain filled up the little holes we were supposed to be able to see out of. But it was okay.We had a good time anyway. And he was so generous to drive us............

He also took us to "the" National Cemetery. I didn't even know there was a National Cemetery there!! And I learned that Alabama now has two!! It's a "new" cemetery........no Civil War graves here.......... There were a couple of Antebellum buildings on campus.......it was a girls' school then. He thinks maybe that's why it was spared where the University of Alabama was completely destroyed.........it had a cadet school.

The rain stopped completely as we were driving back.......and then the mist started rising through the trees. Can I just say I. Love. That!!!!!! The pictures don't really do it justice.........sorry............