Freedom Festival

It's the 4th of July, and we headed to the Freedom Festival in Provo. We had not been before and really didn't know what to expect. It was larger than I had imagined and the crowds made it hard to navigate the sidewalks. Wayne had to be persuaded to go this time, (but he did go) and was a good baby sitter for Emerson as Amy and I went from booth to booth to look at the crafts, art, and "for sale" goodies. A stage was set up for the musical acts that played throughout the day, and since there were lots of food booths, Wayne could feel at home.

Glad we had the stroller and E's backpack leash.

On the way in there was a contraption that you could go on to simulate a trapeze. We never did see anyone that was able to do it. They all fell.


The times that I was at the stage, the musicians were not there. Instead there was a mime.
Not terribly impressive.....but are they ever? They try to get out of an imaginary box and do a sort of moonwalk. Ho hum!


There was a puppet show and E was interested for 10 minutes because of the blue Elmo look-alike, but that didn't last long either.

I liked the Colonial section of the park where people were dressed as, and were doing the chores
as the colonials did at the time. This was the candle maker. It takes 25 dippings to make a candle this size from beeswax.

In the women's tent, this wig was set up. I thought they had big hair in the 80's but this beats all. Can you imagine the heat, dirt and bugs that this hair-do would attract? I am quite sure it was a long time from wash to wash.

This was an ordinary soldier's tent.

One of the soldier's with his canon.

Now here is something I could have used when the kids were teenagers.

Why, oh why did they get rid of stocks?

A colonial lady

The wooden spoon maker must have needed a potty break as I never did see him, but his spoons were wonderful. You could see how he started out with just a block of wood and had to carve each one into a work of art. Now we can run into the dollar store for a set of 3.

The broom maker's outfit and glasses were so authentic that I felt like I had been in a time warp back to the 1700's. He makes his brooms the way they did back then with sorghum straw that he weaves together. It takes skill and an artistic knack to get a strong and handsome broom.

The finished products

Here was the blacksmith making some wrought iron pieces. It was a hot day and his booth was even more so. I'm sure he was glad to quit at the end of the day. It gave me a better appreciation of the real working conditions for those men at that time.

I am also very grateful that I wasn't there with them. Thank you God for allowing me to be born in the the 50's. No, not the 1750's or 1850's. The happy and carefree 1950's where my biggest worry was, "does the fork go on the left or the right?" Freedom....what a wonderful privilege.