The Berger Family Album

Massachussetts

The Masts Of The U.S.S. Constitution

The Loom Room At Lowell

Jo wrote:

We spent two incredible days...the first at Lowell, Massachusetts...home to the beginnings of the industrial revolution in America. It is a nineteenth century factory town with giant textile mills whose smokestacks punctuate the skyline. The Merrimack River flows through the town with Pawtucket Falls (a drop of 32 feet) providing the incentive for the location of the mills. The river was harnessed to run great turbines to drive the flywheels that ran the huge rooms of mechanized harness looms that wove the cloth that supplied all of America with readily available, affordable cotton goods.

We toured a restored mill and the weaving rooms are unbelievable...50-60 harness looms attached via pulleys and leather belts to overhead shafts suspended along the ceiling which connect to the flywheels and water turbines in the basement. The rhythmic chopping of the looms is deafening and the working conditions for the young mill girls who came in off the surrounding new england farms were horrible. They worked from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. with brief breaks. The windows were sealed to keep humidity in the mill so the cotton would stay more pliable and the ends would lie down. Originally, the mill owners tried to create a wholesome environment but as competition increased and more mills were built, the owners cut workers wages and lengthened hours. Children worked in the mills as well...it is the very birth of the labor movement and the change from an agrarian to an industrialized society.

We took a Park Service tour in a boat that traveled along the Pawtucket Canal out to the Merrimack River. We were the only ones on the tour so it was out own private ride. We got to go through a wooden lock on the canal, rise up to the river level, and proceed out into the open water. Once we traveled up the Merrimack we stopped and tested the water for the level of oxygen, the ph, the clarity, the temperature, and discussed the major cleanup effort which has been in place to clean up what was once one of the most polluted rivers in the country. All of the effluent from the dyes and chemicals used in the textile mills, as well as the sewage from the mill dormitories and the town did major damage to the river environment. Now, the river is rated as a class "b" river..."a" is the best and "e" is the worst. It was great and probably one of the best NPS tour experience we have had.

Walden Pond

Jo wrote:

In stark contrast to our experiences at Lowell, we stopped yesterday at Walden Pond. It was too good to pass by...Thoreau's small, one-room house is no longer there but they have a replica and the stillness of the pond was a marvelous counterpoint to the frenetic, organized movement of the loom rooms. It is no wonder Thoreau sought transcendence through simplicity and nature with the monumental shifts that were occuring in the towns around him. Quality of life in colonial times was high...productive farms, the specialization of skilled artisans who took pride in their work, developed a reputation, had an individualized identity ... once production was mechanized, each person became a laborer, a pair of hands, to perform a task efficiently without distinction. It is no wonder we have come to a time in our culture where everything is slap dash and generally lacking in craftsmanship.

Plimoth Plantation - A Great Living History Center

Ed wrote:

Today we drove to Plimouth Plantation and immersed ourselves into a delightful adventure. The Plimouth Museum took us in and didn't turn us loose until we had gained a feeling for -- a love of -- the ways of living in the 17th Century..

Learning by observing and querying is almost as potent as learning by doing. The opportunity provided here to watch and listen to a character reenacting daily chores in a recreated environment from another time, is priceless. We savored our time with Miles Standish, the Governor, the Smith, and the woman of the house. Nate sat near the forge for two hours, learning about working metal, charred wood, and survival in other times. We became aware that there are a few things that make our lives more pleasant than theirs. It is amazing how few. We became acutely aware that we live in times where community, self-sufficiency, and a sense of interdependence are lacking.