Students become part of history

By Nanette Craig
Item Correspondent

May 03, 2008 12:58 am

— School groups from around Walker County came by the busload Friday to the usually quiet Sam Houston Memorial Museum grounds to learn about history and to have fun while doing it.
Approximately 4,000 youngsters from 43 schools, joined by parents and teachers, were at the opening day of the 21st General Sam Houston Folk Festival.
The three-day festival continues today. Gates are open from 9 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Admission for adults is $7; ages 5–12, $3; and groups of 15 or more is $3.
As the students waited in line after stepping off the bus, excited voices could be heard saying, “Oh, let’s go over there first, no wait, let’s see that.”
The smell of kettle corn being stirred in a vat while it popped, the hum of the cotton candy machine and the sight of historically dressed volunteers greeted visitors.
Becky Fowler, a parent from the Anderson-Shiro school, said her son, B.J,. and his friends were very excited about coming to the festival and couldn’t wait to get there.
Fowler was in charge of three fourth-grade students, each of them hot after a long day at the festival.
“They sat through two stories the storytellers told,” said Fowler.
She also said they liked the glass blowing demonstration and all had to buy rubber band guns to take back.
The Walker County Timber Growers had a two-man crosscut saw set up and the kids were able to try their hand at sawing logs.
“It was a lot harder than it looked,” said B.J.
His friend Sam McClosky agreed.
McClosky said after visiting the festival, he realized people did a whole lot more work then than they do now.
“It seems a lot harder then,” he said.
A favorite exhibit was in the blacksmith shop watching blacksmith Tom Lundquist take steel and make it into nails, a knot and to the amazement of the kids, baby unicorn horseshoes.
“I didn’t know there were really unicorns,” exclaimed some of the students.
Lundquist explained how steel was used in the pioneer days and demonstrated the process of forging the steel.
A student asked him why he had to wear long pants, long sleeve shirts and a hat.
“I have to wear these clothes to protect me from the heat,” he said.
Lundquist, like many other vendors, had souvenirs priced where the kids could buy a little something to take home.
“Most of the vendors do have a specialty item that many of the children can afford to buy,” said festival school day coordinator Cherie Meroney.
She said the best thing about the festival was that it brought history to life for the children.
The most heard noise throughout the day was the sound of cannon and gunfire bellowing across the grounds.
“Fire in the hole” could be heard, and before visitors left, they all knew when they heard that expression shouted, they needed to cover their ears.
Davy Crockett, aka Lester Reinecker of the Cane Island Volunteers from Katy, encouraged the kids to go into the museum and look at things that belonged to Sam Houston.
“It’s a chance to see history jump out of the pages of books,” said Reinecker about the festival.
Dan Martinez, a volunteer with the Raven Rangers, said he was surprised at how much the students know about history and how interested they are in history.
“This is the best day to be out here,” he said.
Trinity fourth-grade teacher Melissa Henderson said they enjoy coming to the festival every year.
“It’s a great history lesson and it’s good for them to see how the world was before. It’s an enrichment for the kids,” said Henderson.
She said on the way to the festival she was asking the students if they had ever been to the museum and one of them told her they only came over to Huntsville to shop.
For a number of children, this is the only time they get to venture out and go to a festival such as this.
The wonderment of seeing something they have only experienced through history lessons in school makes for a memory they will share with others long after this day becomes part of history.

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