Yep, spent many hours on a bus with Mini-Snags and his 5th grade class on a field trip to American Village in Montevallo. Had never heard of it and no idea what it was about. Actually a pretty cool place. First off, beautiful country around there. American Village is a whole series of buildings around a complex where they teach about America in the 1700's and all the events surrounding our break from bloody old England. Appears to be geared towards just what happened yesterday, which was taking about 150 school kids through a series of reinactments. I think I liked it better than they did.
They divide the kids into groups and assign them as representatives of different states. The kids carry that flag everywhere they go and each building is of course, a different reinactment that they participate in. The workers there dress in the authentic apparel from that time and they stay in character the whole day, no matter what. I tried talking to one of them off to the side and he kept the British accent and stayed in character. They started by announcing the Stamp Tax on the front steps and getting the crowd riled up to oppose it. One building was set up as a big meeting hall where the kids would participate as delegates from different states and vote to break from England.
Another area had tents like an encampment and the host taught them how to reload and fire a musket, stand in line to march and fire etc. I know several of you on here are history buffs and into that type thing. I just thought it was really well done and worth the trip. PLus there were a lot of hot moms on the bus too, which never hurts.
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