PIONEER VILLAGE ON STEROIDS

Saturday, September 14

It was still cloudy and cool this morning when we got up.  The weatherman says that cooler weather should be here for the next 7 days - highs in the 60's & 70's.  Hopefully the rain will stay away for a while - it has rained here for 3 days straight.  After a breakfast of toquitos, juice and coffee we rode out to the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory for a tour.  

I've heard VTBF advertised on WBAP for years and was pleased to finally see it.  The tour was fun but the girl who led the tour talked so fast she that you had to really listen to keep up.  All her stories about bearmaking were "BEARable."  

               

                                        

          

They employ about 180 people most of the year, but seasonally they employ over 1000.  Valentines Day is their busiest time of year.  The Vermont Teddy Bear is the only teddy bear made entirely in the U.S. The bears eyes, moveable joints, fur and stuffing are all made in the USA - Daine Sawyer would approve.  Most others come from China.  She told us that you wouldn't find a Build-a-Bear store in Vermont due to a gentlemen's agreement.  Even Build-a-Bear stuff comes from China.

Following the tour we had the opportunity to visit the gift shop - are you surprised?  

           

The cheapest bear costs $59 before you put any clothes on it.  And everyone knows that bears need clothes or they would be "emBEARassed." Those are only 2 of the many plays of the "bear" that we heard.

Following our visit to the VTBF we went to the Shelburne Museum. I told Jenna that this museum was a Pioneer Village on steroids. On 45 acres Electra Havemeyer Webb's collection of American Folkart and memorabilia is displayed in buildings and homes that have been brought in to the museum site from all over New England.

         

A round barn represented how farmers were able to efficiently feed and milk up to 60 cows at a time. The 3 level barn is accessable from the gound on every level. Farmers would haul hay into the top level, drive the cattle into the middle level where hay was dropped down to them and they were milked. After feeding and milking, the cattle were put out to pasture and the manuere they left behind was pushed into wagons on the bottom level and hauled out to fertilize the crops.  The barns currently hold an extensive display of sleighs and carriages used during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries.

          

          

         

          

                         Grandparent's at play

A 1900's carousel flanked a huge horsehoe shaped Circus Building containing a 525' long miniature circus parade.

         

          

If this display were life sized it would be over 2 miles long. A railroad station housed a steam locamotive retired from service in 1956 along side a railroad depot from the early 1900's. The steamship SS Ticonderoga, a side paddle steamship, has been moved from Lake Champlain to be on permanent display. A light house moved from Lake Champlain stood next to the Ticonderoga.

        

        

Buildings respresenting a blacksmith's shop, a print shop, a weaving shop, an apothecary, a one-room schoolhouse, a doctor's office, a general store, a barber shop and others are completed with all the supplies and equipment you would find in such establishments in the early years of our country's                  

                                                  

                                       

                                             Community Meeting Hall

 

                One room school house.

                              Jenna's in jail!

history. There was even a two lane covered bridge with a footpath that dates to 1845.

Collections of glassware, quilting, art and Americana in general are displayed in homes which adequately represent their time period. A large home which represents furnished rooms from the New York CIty home of museum founder Electra Havemeyer Webb is loaded with original Impressionist and pre-Impressionist art, bronzes and Vermont landscapes. Original works of art from Monet, Degas, and Mary Cassatt and others were displayed. An armed guard was on duty to be sure none of the artwork was touched.

We spent about 5 hours walking from building to building and viewing this extenive collection. This was a neat way to see so much history in an immaculately groomed setting. Apple trees loaded with apples were everywhere on the grounds as were gardens and floral arrangements. The sun came out during our visit and the clear blue sky only complemented what we were seeing.

        

        

All in all, both of our visits were well worth the time. Tonight we have a travel briefing for our trip to Montreal on Monday, and then we are having a pot luck dinner. Tomorrow we visit Shelburne Farms and go for a sunset cruise on Lake Champlain. More about that later. Until then, Happy Trails.