Plimoth Plantation

     
     

 

The Fort at Plimoth Plantation

For the past few years now members of my family have been going back to Plimoth Plantation every fall right before Thanksgiving. Some years our visits have been colder than others, but it's the cold days that, I think, give you some small idea what the original settlers endured.

For me personally, visiting Plimoth Plantation isn't just the experience of walking through a recreation of the 1629 Plantation. There is also the added nostalgia of my childhood memories from my visits back in the early 1960's. The visitor center is much improved and the Native American village has been added, but the English village is still very much how I remember it from years ago. The fact that some of my ancestors came over on the original Mayflower gives even more meaning to the visit.

Those English 'Pilgrims' sailed thousands of miles from their familiar countryside to live in a strange land with a much different climate and landscape. Even with their cannon and stockade walls they certainly must have realized how precarious a situation they were in. If it wasn't for their diplomacy, the timing of their arrival and the aid of some Native Americans they would not have survived the experience.

(Re-posted, with some edits, from another of my Blogs).