FOG'S ROAD TRIP --WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN’ GOING ON

Civil War Cadets Assembling at Mt. Pleasant Shakertown

This stop on FOG's road trip was at the Shaker Village in Mount Pleasant, Kentucky. 

Unfortunately there is not a lot of "shaking" going on these days since the Kentucky Shakers are extinct.  The pictures are of a preserved Shaker village in Kentucky during a recent Civil war re-enactment with crafts demonstrations and people in period costumes.  The cadets are from West Virginia and spent the night in tents, much as troops may have done 150 years ago.

Due to rainy weather, Mr. FOG missed the Mt. Pleasant Shaker town Civil War re-enactments, but he went the following day and the Civil War people were still around and in costume. He is glad he waited, the better weather made for better pictures.

FOG visits his sister a couple of times a year and stays about a week or so.  Usually he is rushed getting there and back.This time it was about the journey and he made a road trip out of the visit, stopping at various locations along the way.It was a fun way to get to Chicago and back.  Adopting a  hobo/vagabond mindset, caused FOG’s blood pressure to go down throughout the road trip.

Early morning around the campfire

 

Home now, Mr. FOG was again remiss in keeping you informed about his road trip adventures as they happened.  So just pretend he is still on the road trip and writing this daily and dutifully every night.  Sorry Ellen and Jim that I did not call you while I was in Chicago.

 

 

An earlier Blog covered FOG’s visit to Cumberland Gap National Historic Park.  The next major point of interest, still in Kentucky, is Mt. Pleasant, a restored Shaker village, not far from Lexington. 

You may want to listen to Jerry Lee’s famous song, WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN’ GOING ON to make up for the lack of Shakers. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yRdDnrB5kM

Jerry Lee and the Shakers could not be further apart.  “Shaking” for Lee and others of that era, and perhaps you are one, was something like “don’t come a knockin if the van is rockin”.  The Shakers on the other hand were a celibate religious group and shaking was a religious experience when they felt the presence of the supreme being, and they shook.

Inside a Shaker Workshop

 

Unfortunately a religion based on celibacy may be like a house built on sand, and will not last.  Catholics do have some things right. 

If celibate, where do new baby Shakers come from?  Well it used to be the orphanages, but modern orphanages do not give children to the Shakers.    Also the Shaker  monastic lifestyle of hard work and celibacy does not compete well with today’s lifestyle. 

Girls in Period Costume

The Shakers once had many such villages as the one at Mt. Pleasant Kentucky, and now have only two or three surviving members in one last surviving settlement in Bethel, Maine.  Brothers lived together and Sisters lived together.  Even during church services they sat apart.  Perhaps celibacy did help the Shakers in their religious development and arts and crafts for which they are famous.  However, dependent on orphans for new members, the Shakers, absent a miracle, are extinct.  Thankfully, Mt. Pleasant and other Shaker villages still are preserved to help show us the Shaker way of life even after they are gone.

http://www.shakervillageky.org/