Those Crazy Shakers

One of the day trips I did while back home was to head to the Berkshires to visit the Norman Rockwell museum. I had no idea how prolific an illustrator and artist he was. I really enjoyed the museum, but alas...no photos allowed so all I have is this picture of his favorite work studio.

NORMAN ROCKWELL'S STUDIO

The whole time I was there I kept thinking how lovely it would be to move to the Berkshires. It's quasi rural and in the summer it's got lovely green hills, flowers everywhere and just has a nice rustic community feel to it. So besides wanting to live on Maui, Alaska, Cusco (Peru), in Italy, Hanover (NH), I guess you can add the Berkshires.

At the Rockwell museum they had discounts if you went to other area attractions. So nerdy me picked the Shaker village. As a religion major I know...

absolutely nothing about Shakers other than they apparently shake during their religious ceremonies. Well I learned a lot.

First, Shakers were really into being efficient. So they are not to be confused with the Amish as they embrace technology. An example of their love of being efficient is that they are credited with inventing the flat broom. Betcha didn't know that, didya?

NO, WE AREN'T IN SALEM...WE'RE IN SHAKER TOWN!

And they invented a script so as not to waste ink when writing. That's why some fonts have a dot at some point in their letters... Although I will say as an educator that I am pretty shocked they only went to school for 3 months out of a year!

SHAKER SCHOOL

Second, Shakers don't have sex. If you are married and convert to become a Shaker, your marriage is dissolved and you become "brother and sister"...huh...go figure. They believed in equality between gender and races, but the "brothers" and "sisters" were kept pretty separate. Despite their puritanical views on sex, they dormed together. But the buildings were basically split right down the middle - men on one side and women on the other. They were designed so that men and women would have no reason to touch each other, even in passing through a hallway.

Sometimes they had rocking meetings in their dorm in the evenings...they'd sing, enjoy refreshments like lemonade and popcorn....and of course make sure they were at least five feet apart from each other:

MEN ON ONE SIDE, WOMEN ON THE OTHER...THOSE CRAZY PARTY ANIMALS

Some other fun pictures from our trip:

MY MOTHER MILKING A FAKE COW :)

MY SISTER GETTING READY TO THREAD SOME WOOL (AS LEARNED FROM A MR. ROGERS EPISODE)

A NEAT ROUND BARN

SHAKER GRAFFITI

The lamp oil was stored in this cabinet. However, one resident kept spilling a little oil every time their filled their lamp. Finally a Shaker woman got so fed up with this waste (That efficiency thing coming in to play again) she wrote a note in the cabinet that essentially says, quit wasting oil. If you can't do it right...leave your lamp and I will do it for you!

THE INFIRMARY'S ADULT CRADLE...APPARENTLY TO "COMFORT" THE ILL AND FEEBLE

SO MY QUESTION FOR THIS SHAKER COMMUNAL (?!?!?!) TOILET IS...UH WHAT'S THE CORN FOR???

ME CONTEMPLATING CONVERTING...AND THINKING, "SHEESH, A MUUMUU IS MORE FLATTERING"