Strolling Through Time

We spent an afternoon at Historic Pensacola Village.  It’s a group of homes in “Old Pensacola” right near the water.  It is interesting how one house may be a part of the village and open for tours while the next building is a lawyer’s office.  Actually, I guess that’s pretty nice to see how older homes are still in use.

There were two museums in the village along with numerous homes and a church.  I liked the wicker seats on this bus.  I’ve never seen that material being used in a bus before, but I guess it was popular for several years.  Cool looking.

OK, I know the high wheel bike (or penny-farthing) isn’t anything special but as a short person I’m always amazed how you get on a bike with a seat that is this high.   It turns out mounting the bike wasn’t as dangerous as riding it.  If you hit a rock or rut, you could flip over the front wheel hitting your head on the ground.  This is where “taking a header” was first used.

We got a good story with this bed.  The base of the bed used to be made of rope instead of slats.  As the ropes sagged, they would be tightened. The mattress was made of organic materials like Spanish moss.  Bugs would live in the mattresses and would be periodically killed by cleaning with boiling water or using sulfur fumes.   The phrase “Sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite” came from this.

Living in this era (1820’s) doesn’t sound reassuring.  This piece of beautiful wood work is chained from the ceiling.  It’s designed to hold bread and other food so that rats wouldn’t be able to get the food.  The cage the guide is holding was used to trap rats.  I definitely wouldn’t want to be a child during this time.  One of your jobs was to kill the rats and then skin it so the fur could be sold.  Yuck!

Historic Pensacola Village featured different eras.  This home displayed items from the 1920’s.  Love the look of the refrigerator!