The pioneers didn’t have conveniences.
Instead, they had skills – forging their own nails on the anvil, making their own butter from fresh cream.
On Family Day, Feb. 17, members of the Innisfil Historical Society demonstrated some of those skills at the Knock Schoolhouse heritage site, inviting kids and their parents to try some old-time activities.
Visitors were invited to make their own butter, shaking cream in a jar until it separated, making just enough fresh butter to spread on a home-made tea biscuit or slice of fresh-baked bread.
Kids were invited to try their hand at neatly sewing a button on a piece of cloth – an important skill in pre-zipper days – or tying a knot in a piece of rope.
Brian Pratt demonstrated the right way to tie a bowline knot: do it right, and the knot is tough enough to hold a cow. Turn the line the wrong way, and the knot just falls apart.
“I started in Cubs,” said Pratt, “and then I sailed on The Bee (a tall ship), up in Penetang, and had to learn knots all over again.”
Over at another table, Bruce Somers brought in a collection of hand-forged, square-headed nails that he salvaged from antique furniture.
He also brought in a piece of lumber, hammer, and modern nails, and invited kids to try their hand at carpentry, the old-fashioned way – without a nailing gun.
Asked if it was harder to hammer a forged nail than a modern nail, Somers admitted, “I’ve never hammered them in. I’ve just taken them out!”
Historian Bill Kell suggested it would be much more difficult to work with the old hand-forged nails. “They are not sharp,” he pointed out, “and they are brittle.”
Bend them, and they will break – besides being time-consuming to produce, and replace.
Families crowded the Knock School House for the free Family Day afternoon, exploring the skills of yesteryear, as Innisfil prepares to celebrate its 200th Anniversary in 2020.
