News

October 12, 2009

How-tos of long ago

Fire starting, butter churning demonstrated at Heritage Day, which also includes storytelling.

CAMILLE FIOTI Times Leader Correspondent

KINGSTON TWP. -- Sunday’s seasonable, biting winds were perfect for mastering the art of primitive fire starting at Frances Slocum State Park’s Heritage Day.

Dressed in period clothing of the Revolutionary War era, Gary Ent and his wife, Virginia, of Columbia County, taught attendees the flint-against-metal fire-starting process. Gary, who also participates in Revolutionary War re-enactments, has been teaching the 18th-century fire-starting skill at events such as Sunday’s for nearly 30 years.

“I love this time period,” he said.

Other demonstrations from the early days included butter making, beekeeping, apple cider making, quilting, broom making, blacksmithing and log cutting.

Nine-year-old Aleecia Pease of Norristown and her sister Kate heard about Heritage Day while camping in the Poconos during the weekend. Churning butter was just one of the skills the girls learned at the event.

“You just pour cream into a little jar, you shake it up and you have butter!” said Aleecia. “Then they let us put it on crackers and eat it,” Kate chimed in.

The sisters also learned the technique of log cutting. Grabbing opposite ends of a crosscut saw, Aleecia and Kate pushed and pulled across a log until a perfectly round slice fell to their feet.

“This tree’s about 20 years old!” Aleecia said excitedly after counting the rings in the slice.

Louise Foulkrod, of Troy, Pa., along with her sisters, Donna Atwood, also of Troy, and Margaret Winder, of Owego, N.Y., headed up the log-cutting demonstrations. Following in their father Ernest Foulkrod’s footsteps, the sisters have been teaching log cutting at festivals throughout the state and New York for nearly 20 years.

“Dad taught us how to file saws, and how to use a cross cut saw,” said Foulkrod. “He was an old-time lumberman.” Louise said she and her sisters have a brother, but he was never interested in the craft.

Dressed as a frontiersman, storyteller and writer John Moore of Northumberland animatedly told the story of the kidnapping of and search for Frances Slocum to a captive crowd under the pavilion.

Moore wrote and published the book “Pioneers, Prisoners and Peace Pipes,” his fourth book about the Pennsylvania Frontier. He specializes in telling stories about American Indians, European settlers and the wilderness in which they lived.

Boy Scouts from Troop 155 of Trucksville served up a variety of homemade foods while singer Don Shappelle of Wilkes-Barre provided the entertainment with traditional folk music.

Shappelle performs for the park’s outdoor amphitheater concerts in the summer.

“They do a great job at events here,” he said. “It’s a wonderful place. This is quite a gem in this area.”

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