I've given up trying to keep these numbered in the right order because I keep forgetting one, or adding one after the fact, so I shall now assign random numbers to what is left of our few staycations for the summer. (Did you see in the paper that "staycation" is now an official word in Webster?!)
On a hot summer day this July we headed up to Carnton Plantation in Franklin, TN. This was the site of the Battle of Franklin practically right on their front yard. Their "claim to fame" is two-fold about the Civil War. First of all, the house served as the largest field hospital in the area for the confederate army. Second of all, the family donated two acres of their land to serve as a Confederate Cemetery. There are over 1500 soldiers buried there in an orderly formation. Cool and interesting stuff! But I'm not writing about that, I'm writing about our trip!
We arrived in plenty of time of time to tour the grounds before our house tour. There was the typical smoke house, slaves quarters, spring house, etc. The spring house was where we had an interesting situation. As you may or may not know, spring houses served as the owners refrigerators and were located by a river/creek so the cool water could run through the bottom of the house. This then kept the food cooler in the heat of the summer. Well, at this spring house it was on the river, but it was hard to tell because there was beautiful green algae all over the top of it. Unfortunately Katie found where the land ended and the river started when she took one step too close and fell right in! Bless her heart, she was standing there, knee deep in the water and it surprised so much she just stood there crying her head off. Finally we got her out and headed back up to the visitors center restroom to see what we could do. She was totally drenched from her knees down. Unfortunately since my children are older now I don't keep "that box" with extra clothes in the car anymore, but I sure could have used it that day! There was nothing to dry her pants off with and nothing I could do to even try and remove the water from them enough to make them wearable without being horribly uncomfortable. Since they were jeans I knew they would take forever to dry, even in the heat, so I made the executive decision to just chop them off. Now, I know there are those out there reading this who might tsk tsk at that, but I made that decision based on, a) the jeans were not going to fit much longer anyhow b) I was more concerned about her than the jeans and c) I was not going to have our fun day ruined by her complaining all day long. Each mom would probably have made her own decision in that moment, but that was mine and the girls thought it was absolutely hysterical. I did, however, remind them that should they ever get any bright ideas of their own about chopping their clothes off they better come and ask me first!
After we got that taken care of, we had a wonderful day. They were great in the tour, even if it did get a little long on history. They were totally grossed out and cool with the blood stains still seen today on the floors. We walked through the cemetery and paid our respects, then headed to Pinkerton Park for a picnic and playground fun. That ended up in more mess with wet sand and yucky shoes. Alas, what is summer for?
We have just a few fun things left before school starts, but my oh my what an awesome summer this has been! I was thinking today (as I was writhing in pain with a migraine!) that of all my 40+ summers, this has definitely been the best one I can ever think of!
O:)
Melissa
