New Smyrna Celebrates: Pastime Play
New Smyrna’s biggest birthday bash (yet!) happens this Saturday. The City, with assistance from the New Smyrna Museum of History, will celebrate 250 years of culture, history, and heritage. Visit Old Fort Park between 9am and 4pm to stroll through the past, enjoying New Smyrna as it is and as it was.
As I celebrate the history and archaeology of New
Smyrna, I “make”
a cake. Three centuries of local heritage provide the cake’s
ingredients. The City’s rich heritage provides tantalizing ingredients for cake
making. Each candle, when “lit,” will represent one story, as told through
archaeology, from each century. Smyrnea
Settlement sites ignited the 1700s candle. Coquina
sparked the 1800s candle. Children – their time spent playing and gaming – kindle
the 1900s.
Archaeologists are scientists and storytellers. By
collecting data through excavation, examining historical documents, and
collaborating with descendant communities, archaeologists act as scientists. As
they interpret the gathered information, archaeologists transform numbers and
facts into observation and inferences. Through interpretation, archaeologists
begin to understand – and share – stories about people in the past.
Archaeologists studies vary. Scientists make focus on
a region, time period, or cultural behaviors and practices (such as religion,
race, gender, age, or socioeconomic status). As archaeologists interpret
stories of the past, they broaden current knowledge and appreciation of all
aspects of the past. People often minimized or eliminated from historical
knowledge find their place, and their voice, through archaeology. New Smyrna
celebrates the voices of children in the city during the early 1900s. Although many
aspects of a child’s typical day may remain obscured, let’s investigate a site
that reminds us of the games children played.
Playtime is hot, sticky, sweaty summertime. Playtime
is screaming, hollering, exploring, and competing. Playtime is imaginative and unpredictable.
Playtime is freedom. Playtime amusements are plentiful and, oftentimes, played
through the ages. Kids in New Smyrna played many of the same games as children
(and adults) in 79 B.C.E. Rome, in 400 C.E. England,
in 1565 St. Augustine, and in the homes and classrooms of today.
Canal Street contained clues about children’s play.
Archaeologists monitored construction work on the west side of the road in
early 2010. The construction crew removed soil from the canal. Dump trucks moved
the soil from the street to an open field. There the archaeologists
scanned sand mountains for evidence of the past.
Among road rubble and modern debris, artifacts
awaited. The Smyrnea Settlement canal system (the product of Dr. Andrew
Turnbull’s vision) once served as a means of transporting agricultural goods. During
the past century, Turnbull’s canal served as a prime place to put trash. Archaeologists
discovered medicine bottles, alcohol bottles, a horseshoe, pipes, leather shoe
soles, spoon, and tools. Marbles and porcelain doll fragments – a testament to
children at play – were scattered among the other artifacts (see the sample below).
Context is critical to archaeologists. Knowing what
materials came from which specific location underlies interpretation. Context
at the canals revealed a mixed mess. Based on all artifact types,
archaeologists concluded that the trash dated to the very late 1800s and the
early 1900s. The glass marbles discovered during the project date to the 1900s.
(Clay marbles, also called commies, were first produced, and more popular, in
the late 1800s.) M.F. Christensen began to mass produce glass marbles in 1915. A
game, enjoyed by adults and children for hundreds of years, found its niche in
the hands of children playing.
May you find this slice of cake indulgent and
delectable. If “lighting” the third (and final) candle kindled your curiosity,
consider attending New Smyrna Beach’s 250th celebration. The park will feature
areas that highlight New Smyrna during the 1700, 1800, and 1900s. An Archaeology Discovery Station will be
present in each century. Explore archaeology of the 1900s. Visit The Games They Played to test your play
skills and be competitive. Rediscover the childhood that kids experienced then
and experience now.
Savor your final cake slice. Return to enjoy past
servings if you please. Please join myself, the New Smyrna Museum of History,
the City of New Smyrna Beach, and friends in the community on Saturday, June 16th.
Make our 250th “cake” more than digital – make it real.
Text and images by Sarah Bennett, New Smyrna Museum of History
Stroll Through History
and the 250th logos produced by Shok Idea Group