Pioneer Week offers summer fun

Kay McNeil

Published Monday, May 5, 2008

It’s almost summertime again. And that means summer camp time. So it’s time to step back into the days of the Mississippi frontier as Historic Jefferson College offers its annual “Pioneer Week — The Way It Was” during the week of June 9-13.

During that week youngsters 8 to 12 years old will learn to do things as they were done 200 years ago. This educational program gives today’s youth an opportunity to get hands-on experience of how the children of pioneer Mississippi actually lived.

Activities include food preparation, crafts demonstrations, musical entertainment and old games and toys.

Pioneers who settled in the Mississippi wilderness brought with them the skills needed to make the tools, furniture, clothes and everything else necessary for survival in a hostile environment. Through the years those skills were passed down from the parents to the children. Pioneer children learned many skills simply because a knowledge of them was essential for daily living.

Our present-day pioneers will learn new skills as they watch local crafts people demonstrate their craft. After observing they will have time to practice what they have learned. Some of the demonstrations will include weaving, quilting, bread making, butter-churning, building a frontier campfire, archery, pottery making, story telling, the games of jacks and marbles.

Providing food for the family was one of the main priorities of the early pioneer family. Our young pioneers will knead bread and churn butter in an old churn. The pioneers will eat stew with wooden spoons as they enjoy the freshly baked bread with fresh, creamy, sweet butter. They will go fishing. And learn about the skills it took to catch their own food back then.

They will also learn some of the many ways that the pioneers imitated Indian ways in order to survive on the frontier.

The youngsters will spend time in a primitive camp where they will learn how fires were started with flint and steel and how to throw a tomahawk. An experienced teacher will give a black powder gun demonstration.

Other activities during the week include making lye soap and washing clothes with lye soap on a scrub board.

Members of a pioneer family worked hard and endured many hardships to survive on the frontier, but they did not spend all of their time working. They made time to enjoy life and have fun. Since music, games and stories were an important part of their daily lives, the week will end with these activities.

Pioneers will meet daily, 9 a.m. to noon. The registration fee is $10.

Pre-registration with fee is required by June 1 with enrollment limited to 20.

Call 601 442-2901 for more information.

Kay McNeil is a historian and event coordinator at Historic Jefferson College.