Colonial Williamsburg

Today I was with the Colonial group- they, not surprisingly, spend several days in CW. As I have been there numerous times and have shared probably too many pictures of it here I didn't bother with pictures today- sorry if this disappoints.

They are trying something new at CW- when they take you on house tours the interpreters (the costumed people) are 'in the moment.' So instead of basically lecturing the tour group on the history of the house they told us what day it was- July 12, 1776- and pretended it was that day throughout the tour. The girl at the Governor's Palace was really cute- she was supposed to be a servant, I missed the beginning of her talk because I was dealing with some student issues but I think she was acting like we were other servants there for the day to help with a ball they were hosting that night. She acted like she was sneaking us around the house because the family was out and we were in rooms servants wouldn't normally be allowed. Unfortunately the students weren't as into it as she was- they were all very polite but I think the whole thing made everyone a little self conscious. I also felt kind of bad for the poor couple that was stuck in a group with us.

The tour of the Capitol was also 'in the moment' but it seemed closer to other tours I have taken of it- the interpreter there told us all about what had been happening in the last year.

We also went to the Wren Chapel and listened to a sermon by Reverend Camm (he was the President of WIlliam & Mary at the time of the Revolution and was a Loyalist- he was ousted from the college and returned to England in 1777) and then had the opportunity to ask him questions in the classroom. I guess he was also 'in the moment' because one of the students asked him about something Lord Dunmore wrote (I couldn't actually hear the question) there was a long pause and the Rev answered that he hadn't written that yet. This got a laugh. It was kind of fun to listen to him talk- the interpreter has clearly been playing this role for a long time and enjoyed debating independence with the audience. I was a little surprised by how many people were at his talk- since it really was like a sermon.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the whole 'in the moment' thing- but I must say, regardless of how you feel about interpreters at these different sites you have to admit that they are teaching people a lot about history- and it's rather surprising that so many people spend their summer vacation learning about history.