owned land about a mile from the former site of Scott Beanâs Camp Harmony. Concession stands sell items from a list of family member favorites published by the American Hammond Association: cucumber spears served with a cup of ranch dressing;
Dora the Explorer
Popsicles in any color except green; slices of chicken cordon bleu from the recipe in
The
Joy of Cooking
, which Alexandra made on request for birthdays and other special occasions. Popcorn sprinkled with garlic salt. Fresh plums. Chocolate chip cookies baked from rolls of refrigerated dough.
While more serious reenactors give meticulous consideration to each element of their attire (taking care, for example, to know which patterns of Hanna Andersson pajamas Tilly and Iris wore in the winter of 2007 and which patterns the company did not introduce until 2008), plenty of festival attendees take a more casual approach. Most visitors make an effort to reproduce the general style of the familyâs clothes within a given period, without worrying too much about whether Tilly wore the fuchsia-and-teal-striped long johns that Christmas, or the lavender-and-ocean-blue ones.
The climax of the weekend-long festival is a show entitled âThe Other Hammonds,â presented at the bonfire on Saturday night. One by one, festivalgoers stand up, against the backdrop of night hush and fire crackle, and present a story of how things might have gone a different way for the family. How one different decision or divergent circumstance might have changed everything. Picking apart the seams of the story and finding a new way to stitch it back together.
chapter 12
Iris
June 6, 2012: New Hampshire
Itâs the night of our fourth day here (which is Wednesday, I think), and Iâm hanging out with Tilly, Candy, and Ryan in Town Square, which is what we call the grassy area between the guest cabins and the dining hall. Itâs after dinner, around seven thirty or eight, and the little kidsâCharlotte and Haydenâhave already gone inside to go to bed, but the rest of us are allowed to stay out until nine thirty.
This is our basic daily schedule: every day, we have a meeting after breakfast and make up a project list and job chart for the day. Then we have Morning Block (where we work on our projects), lunch, and free time, and then Afternoon Block until dinner. At night, thereâs more free time, or sometimes something like Moonlight Swim or a sing-along.
Ryan and Tilly are playing some gameânot really a game, more like theyâre acting out a storyâwhere the Simpsons go to visit the biggest statues in the world. Candy and I are both sitting on the ground, and we both have books on our laps so we can write. Iâm making a map of the camp, and sheâs writing a letter to her dad (who it turns out isnât really Rick).
Iâve already done a rough pencil sketch of the different areas, and now Iâm starting to fill in the names that weâve come up with. The staff cabins are called Springfield, and the guest cabins are Shelbyville (those were both Ryan). For the little office building, we used Tillyâs idea of Beantown. The dining hall is the Great Hall, after
Harry Potter
; Candy and I both picked that out. The beach is Rehoboth, because thatâs a place weâve all been on vacation, and Tilly and I named the lake the Sea of Knowledge, after
The Phantom Tollbooth
.
I pick up a purple marker and start coloring in a big block-letter
H
at the top of the page, the first letter in Harmony. Candy looks over from her paper and watches.
âSo what are you saying to your dad?â I ask her.
She shrugs. âI told him about baking bread and putting together the incubator for the baby chicks.â The eggs are supposed to arrive tomorrow. Weâre also getting a full-grown chicken, which Scott is picking up on Saturday. âHe didnât really think we should come here,â she says. âSo Iâm just telling him
Dora the Explorer
Popsicles in any color except green; slices of chicken cordon bleu from the recipe in
The
Joy of Cooking
, which Alexandra made on request for birthdays and other special occasions. Popcorn sprinkled with garlic salt. Fresh plums. Chocolate chip cookies baked from rolls of refrigerated dough.
While more serious reenactors give meticulous consideration to each element of their attire (taking care, for example, to know which patterns of Hanna Andersson pajamas Tilly and Iris wore in the winter of 2007 and which patterns the company did not introduce until 2008), plenty of festival attendees take a more casual approach. Most visitors make an effort to reproduce the general style of the familyâs clothes within a given period, without worrying too much about whether Tilly wore the fuchsia-and-teal-striped long johns that Christmas, or the lavender-and-ocean-blue ones.
The climax of the weekend-long festival is a show entitled âThe Other Hammonds,â presented at the bonfire on Saturday night. One by one, festivalgoers stand up, against the backdrop of night hush and fire crackle, and present a story of how things might have gone a different way for the family. How one different decision or divergent circumstance might have changed everything. Picking apart the seams of the story and finding a new way to stitch it back together.
chapter 12
Iris
June 6, 2012: New Hampshire
Itâs the night of our fourth day here (which is Wednesday, I think), and Iâm hanging out with Tilly, Candy, and Ryan in Town Square, which is what we call the grassy area between the guest cabins and the dining hall. Itâs after dinner, around seven thirty or eight, and the little kidsâCharlotte and Haydenâhave already gone inside to go to bed, but the rest of us are allowed to stay out until nine thirty.
This is our basic daily schedule: every day, we have a meeting after breakfast and make up a project list and job chart for the day. Then we have Morning Block (where we work on our projects), lunch, and free time, and then Afternoon Block until dinner. At night, thereâs more free time, or sometimes something like Moonlight Swim or a sing-along.
Ryan and Tilly are playing some gameânot really a game, more like theyâre acting out a storyâwhere the Simpsons go to visit the biggest statues in the world. Candy and I are both sitting on the ground, and we both have books on our laps so we can write. Iâm making a map of the camp, and sheâs writing a letter to her dad (who it turns out isnât really Rick).
Iâve already done a rough pencil sketch of the different areas, and now Iâm starting to fill in the names that weâve come up with. The staff cabins are called Springfield, and the guest cabins are Shelbyville (those were both Ryan). For the little office building, we used Tillyâs idea of Beantown. The dining hall is the Great Hall, after
Harry Potter
; Candy and I both picked that out. The beach is Rehoboth, because thatâs a place weâve all been on vacation, and Tilly and I named the lake the Sea of Knowledge, after
The Phantom Tollbooth
.
I pick up a purple marker and start coloring in a big block-letter
H
at the top of the page, the first letter in Harmony. Candy looks over from her paper and watches.
âSo what are you saying to your dad?â I ask her.
She shrugs. âI told him about baking bread and putting together the incubator for the baby chicks.â The eggs are supposed to arrive tomorrow. Weâre also getting a full-grown chicken, which Scott is picking up on Saturday. âHe didnât really think we should come here,â she says. âSo Iâm just telling him