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Deborah Taylor takes a quick break and steps outside
Mark Taylor home-schools his children and, as part
Sara Taylor, 19, (right) and sister Deborah Taylor, 11, talk while performing a colonial re-enactment in the kitchen building at Kenmore as a group of students from the Commonwealth Government School watch the cooking scene unfold.
Re-enactors Joshua Taylor (left), 15, and his sister Sara, 19, work with Commonwealth Governor's School student Sean Hamlin, 15, to prepare food during a cooking demonstration at Kenmore last week. |
By CATHY DYSON
Mark Taylor and his children slaved over an open hearth for hours, showing how food was cooked in the 1770s when people couldn't zip open a frozen dinner and zap it in the microwave.
Even after guests left the steamy Kenmore kitchen, the Taylors acted like they were still in another era.
Sara, 19, and Joshua, 15, continued to banter in Old English as they scrubbed iron cookware and emptied sea salt that had been displayed in an oyster shell.
The two called out their characters' names and spoke just as they had when Joshua explained earlier how to debone a chicken.
"Do you wish me to do that?" he asked his sister.
"No, I've already begun," she answered, reaching for a bowl she said "was as clean as the soul of an infant."
The Taylors' research on 18th-century customs often spills over into their modern conversations.
"We don't lapse into our characters. I think we just lapse into proper English," Sara said. "It's done wonders for our language skills."
The family, which includes 11-year-old Deborah, became interested
Their art is called first-person 18th-century historic interpretation, said Susan Bailey, an executive assistant at Kenmore, who helped start the program.
Participants aren't given a script, but they are required to research a generic character--such as an indentured servant from Scotland--and find out about his life.
Then, the young re-enactors come up with a name and take on the persona, with all the 18th-century trappings.
The Taylors are particularly good at it, Bailey said.
"You can give them the seed of an idea, and it blooms in their mind," she said. "I love to stand back and watch them. It's phenomenal."
The Taylors do most of their re-enacting--which always includes cooking--in Kenmore's kitchen, a separate building outside the 1770s Fredericksburg mansion, which was home to George Washington's sister, Betty, and her husband, Fielding Lewis. About a dozen times a year, they rustle up squirrel stew or meat pies, carrot pudding or onion soup.
They rarely cook the same recipe, a word that, in Washington's time, was pronounced like receipt, without the "t."
"We get bored ever so quickly," Sara said.
The re-enacting suits several parts of the family's life. Mark, the former Spotsylvania County attorney, and his wife, Francesca, own The Spotsy Spot, a restaurant and catering business at Spotsylvania Courthouse.
They operate in a 19th-century farmhouse they renovated.
History has always been a favorite subject of the two, who home-school their children. When Mark and Francesca married, they visited Williamsburg, and he proudly showed off the Colonial paradise.
Francesca was born in her grandmother's 400-year-old house in Sicily. She looked around Duke of Gloucester Street and asked, "Where's the old stuff?"
Despite her reaction, Mark still believes 18th-century America is a wonderful period to study and portray.
"We all, as a family, treasure the learning opportunities the kids have had" with the group, he said. "George Washington, being who he is, is singularly iconic and, it would seem to me, desperately needed in our present day."
Cathy Dyson: 540/374-5425
Email: cdyson@freelancestar.com
| Mark Taylor is Peter Mueller, a Prussian forced to fight for Frederick the Great. He ran away to Spotswood's mines, then convinced the workers he could cook when it got too cold outside. Sara Taylor is Katharyne Davey, a girl who was kidnapped at age 11 from the docks in Wales and pressed into service. Joshua Taylor is Mathias McCormick, an assistant cook and fire boy who became an indentured servant after his family's farm failed in Scotland. Deborah Taylor is Hannah, the daughter of Peter Mueller and, much to her chagrin, the one who's supposed to wash all the dishes her family members dirty. |
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The Taylors cooked in Kenmore's kitchen last week for visitors from the Commonwealth Governor's School; 14 rising sophomores and juniors ate chicken pudding, kale salad and trifle the Taylors prepared.
The portrayals drew rave "It's so authentic," said Travis Wakeman, who gobbled Some of the drinks weren't as popular. "That first drink we had, the one called Fly? That tasted like rotten eggs and vinegar," said Emily Garlington. |
| WHAT: George Washington's Young Friends WHO: For those ages 12 through 19 interested in 18th-century history WHEN: Group meets every Thursday at 4 p.m. at Ferry Farm Baptist Church MORE INFORMATION: George Washington Foundation at 540/373-3381 |
