On a warm sunny day, we drove east to the Ukrainian village living museum. I'm a sucker for the living museums as I love to watch Laura get into the act and play along with the actors. But before we actually went into the Village, we were afforded a rare opportunity
We started our visit in the egg room where we
reviewed the most recognizable product from the Ukraine. The very
sparkling, brightly decorated egg. Within this room were gathered
more decorated eggs then I had ever seen in one place. Above each
display, attached to the wall, was a picture of the design and an
explanation as to its history. A product, started hundreds of
years ago, when the people had little in the way of producing
gifts. Chicken eggs would be sucked empty and then carefully
painted in great detail with a variety of brightly colored paints
and wax. It is an art form that was taken to its pinnacle by a
Russian craftsman named Faberge when he encrusted diamonds and
other precious stones into his designs which were presented to
the Czars before the Revolution. The
museum has quite a large collection of eggs,
some out of wood or stone, which were painted in the traditional
patterns from various parts of the Ukraine. The patterns are not
haphazard, but come from ancient religious influence. They can be
broken into six different design groups. Christian, Solar,
Animal, Plant, Geometric, and Meandering (an unbroken line). This
last group often employs a design called "gypsy road."
It was legend that the devil while visiting the house, looking
for victims, would wander down the never ending road, and thus
lose his opportunity to take a soul. A kind of good luck charm
sometimes found in a basket by the door.
Soon we were off to the center of a re-created 1928 farm town,
with actors 
milling about doing what Ukrainians would be
doing on an August afternoon. A model T Ford lumbered by, kicking
up dust in its path. Near the railroad tracks stood one of the
most common sights in central Canada. A grain elevator. These
three or four story windowless, square, monolith-like structures
dot the horizons as seen from roads within sight of any railroad
tracks. With brightly colored names painted in huge letters, high
on their sides, they often stand alone without movement or
activities.
On many a drive across Canada I had wondered what went on inside
these staid buildings and now had a chance to find out. As we
walked in, a young man with a defined accent to his English,
explained that the grain elevator was only used during the short
harvesting season. Wagons loaded with grain would pull into the
weigh station attached to the side of the elevator building. The
wagons would be weighed, then the grain would be dumped into a
basement room through a door in the floor at the back of the
weighing platform. The wagon would be weighed empty, and the
farmer would be paid the difference in weight. A scoop elevator
on a continuous belt, powered by a one cylinder gas engine, would
lift the grain from the basement, to the top of the elevator
tower room and dump it. When the room was sufficiently filled
with grain, a box car would stop and the grain would be
gravity-fed down a funnel into the car.
<<<<< Back
Next
>>>>>