Daily Life, Wednesday, 5/28/14 - Friday, 5/30/14

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Today was a slow day.  Chuck worked at the Virginia City Depot, but the train is still broke down so there wasn’t much action there.  At 11:00 a.m. he went to the gold panning operation and helped out because there were two elementary school group tours here today from West Yellowstone.  Chuck said they spent money in the gift shop and they all paid in change.  Cindy could relate to that because she saw the children at Nevada City and they all came in bearing baggies full of coins.  It took a while to count all that change when we made our deposits.  The children were all in fourth or fifth grade, and it was the cutest thing when the teacher showed them how to dance an old fashioned waltz and they danced to a tune played by an old player piano.   

We got off work early due to slow traffic, and when we got home we were met with bored inn mates.  We all took a walk around town and then returned home and played Mexican Train. 

Thursday, May 29, 2014

The weather today turned cold and we wore our jackets all day.  Chuck worked at the Gypsy Arcade and he saw about two hundred school children again today.  Cindy worked at the Virginia City Depot, but since the train is still broke down she was pretty bored.  We both got off at 3:30 p.m. and went home and washed the sheets and towels.   

Today is Cindy’s birthday, so Chuck and the inn mates took her out to eat Pizza in Ennis.  Here’s a rundown on the inn mates:

Connor is 19 and will be a sophomore next year at University of Montana, West in Dillon, Montana.  He is a history major and hails from Helena, the capital of Montana.  There were about 300 students in his high school graduating class. 

Daniel is 25 and will be a senior next year at Emporia State in Emporia, Kansas.  He grew up in DeSoto, Kansas, and there were about 120 in his graduating class.  He is a Social Science major with an emphasis in history and geography.  One of his teachers knew about the living history program here and encouraged him to accept an intern position for the summer.  He is the only one of the inn mates that is not getting paid, and he had to spend a lot of his own money to buy period appropriate dress as that is what he wears every day.  He also had to pay the university to receive credit hours and must send periodic updates to his teacher.  On his first day on the job, he was thrust into the blacksmith shop and hammered hot metal for the entire day.  He said that wasn’t exactly what he was expecting.  He has been escorting school children through Virginia City for the last two days.   

Jaimi is 20 and will be a senior next year at University of Montana, West in Dillon, Montana.  She is working on a history/teaching double major.  Her family home is in Cusick, Washington about an hour from Spokane.  She had 23 kids in her graduating class.  That number is about the norm for small town Montana as we read in the paper about three graduating classes in this vicinity and they ranged from 14 to 33 kids in each.   

Libby is 20 and will be a junior next year at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana.  She is in the chemical engineering program, is an only child, and also hails from Helena.  She was a cheerleader in high school and her goal in life is to climb the highest point in every state in the nation.  This is Libby’s second year working in Virginia City, so she is able to answer a lot of our questions.  She has been on vacation this past week attending a wedding and climbing a mountain in Colorado.  We expect her back tomorrow.   

After returning to the Bonanza Inn, Duel came over and taught us to play some 1800’s poker type games.  We played Whiskey and Brag.  None of us knows the first thing about poker, so Cindy was really surprised when she beat everyone and won $142 in pretend money.  It must have been her lucky day.  Either that, or Duel let her win because it is her birthday.   

 

All these kids are really smart, and we have already learned to love them.  We seem to have fallen into the role of house parents, and we are having a grand time both on and off the job. 

 

Friday, May 30, 2014

 The sun shone brightly today, and it wasn’t as cold today as yesterday.  Chuck worked at the gold panning operation and Cindy worked at the Nevada City museum.   There are eleven buildings to be locked up at night in Nevada City in addition to shutting up the chickens in the chicken coop.  Cindy had to crawl around under a low fence in order to herd the chickens in their pen tonight.  Even the chickens are authentic interpreters as they are supposedly some breed that lived in the 1800's.  We got off work at 5:30 p.m. and ate a quick sandwich when we got home.   

At 7:00 p.m. we set off walking with the inn mates to the old Virginia City brewery building.  This building was a brewery from 1863 until prohibition.  The brewery building is now used as a live theater building.  The Montana Heritage Commission gave us all free passes to get into the show, so we decided to check it out tonight. 

The inside of the building is still very rustic, and part of the old brewing equipment is still in place beside the stage that was built for the performers.  There were about a hundred old straight backed chairs spread around for the audience and a bar in the back corner. The show was hailed as modern adult comedy and it lasted about two hours.  Parts of it were entertaining, but we were glad we didn’t have to pay for the tickets. 

Back Row - Libby and Jaimi

Connor, Daniel, Cindy, Chuck