9/9/2011




We took showers and drove back to Camping World. One part was in but the other wasn’t. We hoped it would be in sometime today but it was shipped today and will be in on Monday. While they were putting the part in we drove about 10 miles away to the Canterbury Shaker Village which dates from 1792. At its peak in the mid 1800s the village had about 300 Shaker members. The members were called brothers and sisters. The last member of the community was a sister, and she died in 1992 at 96 years of age. We went on a tour of the buildings but interior photography was not allowed.
Shakers are a celibate religious order and they depended on converts and orphans for membership. They led a very austere life style and were very inventive. Among their inventions were the cloths pin, the flat sided broom, and seed packets. There are only three shakers left in the U.S. in a village in Maine -- one brother and two sisters. The men and women were kept separate and used separate doors to enter buildings. The children were kept in a separate building also. No moms, no dads, men and women were equal and no racism. It was a commune society and everyone gave up their property when joining. They made money by selling brooms, clothes, baskets, and food. They also patented a washing machine. They were called “Shakers” because of the dancing and singing they did while worshiping.
We went to the VFW in Concord for dinner. We had meatball subs with potato salad, spaghetti salad, slaw and dessert.

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