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Published: September 20th 2015
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Roscoe Village
Lulu sings along Come on down! We're open on Sunday. Perfecto! We began our adventure in Roscoe Village, Coshocton, Ohio. A quaint little town with various specialty shops and historical buildings to test your will power again. I managed to only buy a couple small lovelies. Entertainment was provided along the cobblestone pathway. Lulu managed to check everything out.
At the end of town was the piece de resistance. We bought our tickets to board the Ohio Erie Canal Boat. What an experience! What a trip! Don't worry, you won't get seasick aboard this wooden ship. As described in their brochure: "Set aboard the Monticello III and you’ll feel like you are actually gliding right into Ohio history! Relax and enjoy the natural beauty of the canal as it once was. Watch the hoggee lead the huge team of draft horses as they pull the canal boat gently along its way. As you listen to old canal tales from the captain describing 1800s life on the canal, you’ll feel like you actually have stepped back in time to the 1830s!" The person who led and cared for the animals that pulled the canal boat was called the "Hoggee". It is dervied from the English
word hogler, meaning low-class field worker. They were usually 14 year old, orphan boys. Their life span was 16 years old. Why? When the original canal boats carried passengers, their "business" was done in a bucket. When full, this bucket of waste was thrown towards the wall of the canal below the towpath. Some excrement went into the water but much went onto the towpath. The bare-footed hoggee ambled along through the horse and human poop for miles every day. A cut or sore on your foot=infection=death. When the boats needed to be turned around, the goal was to get first in line. To do this, the hoggees fought one another....another toll on their health. If the hoggee was losing, the Captain would jump in to help. The main channel of the canal was to be no less than 40 feet wide at the surface and 26 wide at the bottom with sloping sides; it was to be a minimum of 4 feet in depth. On one of the banks was to be a towpath 10 feet wide. The banks were lined with clay to make them as waterproof as possible. When they brought in the clay, it had to
be tamped down. Local farmers were hired to bring their flocks of sheep to do this job. They ran the sheep back and forth until the clay was tight and smooth. Five thousand men were at work during peak construction of the Ohio Canals, ultimately many thousands more, for casualties were very high. At one time it was estimated six deaths per mile. Initially Ohio farmers and townsmen were hired to build the canal but were later replaced by German and Irish immigrants who had worked on the Erie Canal in New York. Villages of rough-built shacks sprang up along the canal route. The city of Akron arose from these shanties which housed the Irish workers. Standard wages of laborers during the early years was 30 cents a day plus board and lodging - supplemented by a daily ration of whiskey to ward off the cold-shaking delirium called "the ague" or "the shakes" - known today as malaria. Later wages rose to $26 per month plus board when workers became harder to find. I'm glad I wasn't a canal builder. We throughly enjoyed this classic, historical experience. Highly recommend it if you are ever in this area. Lulu was beside
Canal Boat Ride
Hoggee and Horses herself. She wanted to wear a life jacket but we couldn't find one that fit.
I collect baskets (400+): Sally Patchin baskets (of local history) and a few sweet grass baskets (Gullahs baskets). To see the largest basket in the world was like a dream come true. We were in the right area. Just like the biggest ball of string, we located the largest basket at the Longaberger Cooperate Headquarters. Actually, the whole building is a basket. Big? It was mega monster size! Just a short distance away was the Longaberger Homestead Visitor Center. On the massive grounds was the largest apple basket. I was in my glory. I don't collect these Longaberger baskets (I have just a couple)....thank heavens. They are very pricey and in one of their stores, they had various clothing and multiple accessories all with the Longaberger name. It was fun strolling through their enormous shops....unending. Lulu thought she had died and gone to heaven in this place. Another festive and fun but drop dead day. I think I slept on the floor in the RV being too tired to move one inch further. ??????......Put on your barn boots for tomorrow's agenda. Catch you then!
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