We spent a very comfortable night in Northampton, MA last evening. The beds were just wonderful -- gets tiring changing hotels/motels almost every night.
Headed down to Mark Twain Museum in Hartford, CT this morning. On the way we passed the National Basketball Hall of Fame. Cool building - no time to stop.
Mom started out by getting chided by one of the museum employees for getting too close to this 100-year-old gentleman!
What an amazing house Twain lived in! It reveals lots about his life and his writing.
When it was built it was located in the exclusive Nook Farm section of the city. It was so exclusive that only the rich and famous were invited to live there -- and you had to be invited and approved! Twain was neighbors with Harriet Beecher Stowe and her husband. She was in the later years of her life, while he was just about to launch into his great writing career. He wrote his greatest novels -- Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Prince and the Pauper, and Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court at this home in his third story billiard room and study.
The Stowe family was actually instrumental in getting the Clemens family accepted into the Nook Farm community. Twain had traveled along with Harriet's famous preacher brother when he organized a trip to the Holy Land for his rich New York parishioners. Twain went along to document this journey of the rich and famous -- it was later turned into his early best seller: Innocents Abroad.
Twain married late and married into money. His wife was fabulously wealthy as an heiress to the Standard Oil Langdons. While she was raised in wealth and needed to teach Clemens the ways of the rich, she never really succeeded - but did her best. She was also extremely religious, while he was less so -- to say the least. The mansion boasted all the latest gadgets - two telephones, seven flush toilets, central heating, wall stencils designed by Tiffany, wall-to-wall carpeting, and so much more. They had 7-9 servants on the estate at all times. It was located on a river on about 7 acres. However, the river was routed underground years ago so that more building could occur - so while the river is still there, you can't see it! Their butler George was a freed slave from Maryland. One day he knocked on the door and asked to wash the windows -- they hired him to be the butler and he stayed with them for 17 years.
The Clemens spent money like water. They held opulent dinner parties 3-5 times a week. They spent $150 a week on food. The house was filled with the finest furniture from around the world. The "angel" bed that Twain and his wife slept in cost $200 -- which was the average annual salary of a worker in those days. In todays world, that bed would cost $20,000!
We also walked over to the Harriet Beecher Stowe home -- it was actually her retirement home. She had written her classic Uncle Tom's Cabin before moving to this neighborhood.
From there we drove up to the Ballard Puppet Museum in Storrs, CT. It is part of the program of the University of Connecticut. I was particularly looking forward to this because this is one of the few accredited puppet programs in the U.S.
While driving up to the museum, Joyce saw a coyote loping across the lawn! The museum itself is about the size of a small ranch house with 3-4 rooms for exhibits and a gift shop. The exhibits that were featured were masks and Victorian toy theatres.
Check out these cool photos on my Picasa web album!
More exciting than the puppet museum, though, was meeting one of the performers we have seen many times at I-fest -- Judy Buch. She is an amazing puppeteer and ventriloquist. She had been at an elementary school as artist in residence and the teacher she worked with brought her to the museum. We noticed there were 2 other guests at the museum when we entered. When they turned around, Joyce's draw almost dropped and she approached them and asked, "You're Judy Buch?!" She was so nice and gracious to us. We talked puppetry for 15-20 minutes before she had to get on her way.
Cass - this photo is for you!
Tomorrow church and maybe Concord!
STRANGE HAPPENINGS OF THE DAY!
Tried to eat breakfast at a McDonalds that didn't exist -- we pulled over after seeing the Golden Arches, but the restaurant was demolished for rebuilding with a sign that said "See you in September!" Maybe not. We went about 10 miles down the road to another McD's, but it took them like an hour to serve us! Joyce did get a free McLatte out of it in the end.
Amherst here is pronounced without the "h" sound. Also Holyoke is pronounced kind of without the "y."
Would you believe school is still in session out here... makes it nice for our tours, but glad we're not still in school in Wisconsin!
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