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Happening
at the Crossroads
August 4,
2008
by Coggin
Heeringa
At
The Historical Village at The Crossroads, visitors will
step into yesteryear during the Strawberry & Ice Cream Social
on Sunday , August 10 from 1:00-3:00 PM.
Each Sunday
afternoon, from June to October, the Door County Historical Society
opens the historic village for tours, but this weekend, the
society plans to invite the neighbors over....the neighbors being
residents and visitors of Door County.
Back in the 1800s, life
in rural Door County was lonely. People longed for company and would
seize on any excuse to gather at one of the crossroads villages for a
"social". Suppose the school needed a bell or the church was trying to
raise money for a piano. The women would plan a social.
Box
socials were popular. Each of the older girls and young women
would prepare a delicious picnic lunch and pack it in a decorated
box. The boxes would be auctioned off anonymously, and the highest
bidder would share his box lunch with the woman who prepared it.
It is quite likely a young lady might tip off her beau so he would bid
on her box. When a girl was popular, the young men would compete
, garnering a bigger "donation" for the project.
With an
ice cream social, the emphasis was on the social, though this was
the precursor of the countless fund raisers we now hold in Door County.
The idea was was that everyone in the community would gather at a
village and enjoy ice cream and each others company. In summer,
when strawberries were available, these gathering were especially
enjoyable.
The Strawberry & Ice Cream Social this
Sunday is a fund raiser with the money raised from the nominal cost
of ice cream will help society projects. But the real motivation
of the event is to give learners of all ages a chance to explore the
Village. Demonstrations on ice cream making will entertain the children
who will have a chance to help turn the crank of the ice cream churn.
As
a part of the Door County Library summer program "Catch the Reading
Bug", a "Bug Walk for Pre-Schoolers" will be held at 10:30 on Friday,
August 8.
A family program called "Learning from Little House"
will be offered at 10:00. Participants will meet at the Collins Center
but the program of readings and activities will take place in the
Warren House.
To prepare for the annual Perseid Meteor Shower,
Family Programs called "Comets and Meteors" will be offered on Saturday
and Tuesday at 1:00.
On Wednesday, August 13, the Door County
Environmental Council presents "Great Lakes Restoration: One Community
at a Time" Jamie Cross of the Alliance for the Great
Lakes will present an update on critical Great Lakes issues including
the Great Lakes Compact and invasive species. She also will introduce a
new toolkit that helps communities plan, fund and implement local
environmental. improvement projects.
Crossroads at Big Creek is
located at the intersection of Highway 42/57 and Michigan in Sturgeon
Bay. The Collins Learning Center and Wildlife Exhibit are open
1:00-3:00 daily and the Historical Village at the Crossroads is open
Sundays from 1:00-3:00.
Crossroads
at Big Creek is located at the intersection of Highway 42/57 and
Michigan in Sturgeon Bay. The trails are free and during summer, all
are open people and their keen-nosed pets (if the pets are on leash and
under control.) The Wisconsin Wildlife Exhibit in the Collins Learning
Center is open to the public 1:00-3:00 daily during the summer.
Many of
the Past News articles may be retrieved from this directory,
indexed and named in the following manner: 080101-news.htm
where
the first two numbers are the year, the second two the month and the
last two the date.
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