Visiting Old Sturbridge Village During a Pandemic

I’m pretty sure this blog does not need another post about Old Sturbridge Village and yet, here we are. In my defense, I absolutely love the Village and there are not a lot of places we can go during a pandemic. Last Sunday we decided that we all needed a bit of family fun and escape from reality. Life has been getting us down for obvious reasons and Old Sturbridge Village is the perfect escape from the current world.

The Village has taken a lot of precautions for visitors and we felt quite safe while visiting. We had to book our tickets ahead of time. They are limiting entry and staggering arrival times. Every employee we saw was wearing a mask and all visitors were required to wear them when social distancing was not possible. The buildings were mostly open but only one person or group was allowed in at a time. This was very nice, not only for safety reasons but because it meant visitors were able to interact more with the interpreters. We had a number of very nice conversations about such things as shoemaking, running a store, and braiding straw for hats.

It was an absolutely lovely day. The weather was ridiculously mild for November (my daughter wore shorts) and the skies were a gorgeous blue. It has been a while since we have had a day out as a family and we loved that the kids still wanted to come and thoroughly enjoyed themselves even though they are 15 and 20 and we are boring parents!

My son’s favorite buildings have always been the tinsmith’s shop and the blacksmith’s shop. I think he would happily spend the whole day rotating between those two shops. One interesting piece of information we picked up is that the Wilder family who owned the blacksmith shop was related to Almanzo Wilder from the Little House books. I have been visiting Old Sturbridge Village my whole life and never knew that.

Sturbridge Village was quiet and peaceful; two prime requirements in our lives these days. We wandered in and out of buildings, leaned against fences and stared at animals, and discussed which house we would live in if we could choose. In case you were wondering the correct answer is the Freeman Farm. My husband and I watched the kids enjoy themselves and reminisced about all our visits to Sturbridge Village with them. Kids grow up too fast and doing things like this brings back glimpses of our little kids. I love it.

We have been to Old Sturbridge Village many, many times over the years. I have been visiting since I was a little child and then we took our little children. Sturbridge Village never changes and that is a large part of its charm. You walk through the doors and you step into a different time. It is a quieter time, a slower time, a time with its own problems but it is definitely a place that brings peace and comfort during these difficult times.

I have written about Sturbridge Village a lot. You can see a few of the other posts here, here, and here. I could tell you that this is the last post about the Village I will write but we all know that isn’t true. Sturbridge Village is one of my “holds upon happiness” and I am glad I am able to share it with you.