Street History

The History Lovers held a walking tour today in our area, since so many of the streets have been named for famous Germans from the 1500's.

This is very, very much my kind of thing. :-)

Eliza was at riding with Alistair, and Ian...well, Ian wasn't confident his beginner's German was up to the challenge....so that left LARS; who, in fact, was not all that enthusiastic to leave his Clone Wars video game, but I told him he was coming with me whether he wanted to or not. It's history, it's our region, it's fresh air and exercise on a beautiful day.

Mothers like these kinds of events.

The History Lovers did a really great job organizing this. In fact, there were musicians who played at each stop, and they gave an explanation about each song before they played. One was a folk song about the tithes the people would pay specifically to obtain salvation - a murky chapter, at best, in Roman Catholic history - and this is significant in that so much here is still driven by history relating to Martin Luther.

By the way, I LOVE all the connections these people draw between what Luther did-said-wrote and the history of the peasants in this area. There are things on TV about him all the time..... even though I can't make a direct comparison, I find there is a sort of "founding fathers" vibe that goes with Martin Luther's name in Germany.

;-)

Our knowledgable - and appropriately-clad - leader from LAST YEAR's walking tour was there to tell us about each name on the nine streets, and the role each one played in the locally famous "Farmer's Wars, " as well as contributing to the Reformation.

Lars' class visited a Farmer's War Museum last Spring, so I thought it was good that he and his friend could "review" what they learned about this period. The friend's mother is a like-minded woman, and she sent both him & his sister along with me as soon as I told her about the tour.

There were "peasant women" in the tour group passing around baskets of produce for everyone to taste along the way.

Lars and his friend thought this was the best part. Not bad for a Saturday afternoon....but when I was trying to get a close-up of my plum from the community basket, just LOOK at who showed up:

No matter where I go.... no matter how diverse or unique something is.... Star Wars & Legos will always come with me, if Lars is along.

Now, THERE'S a tour he'd like.

;-)