Issue date: 10/2/06 Section: Online Exclusives

Megan Nass a historical administration graduate student; makes a broom handle at the Fall Frolic at the Lincoln Log Cabin Saturday. Nass and other Eastern students participated in the event that took place Saturday and Sunday. (Nora Maberry/The Daily Eastern News)

Click here to view our slideshow of the event!

A small village of tents extended along a hollow at the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historical Site. Wood smoke curled up from behind the small village where people are dressed in 19th Century outfits and display the crafts and trades of the time.

Under one such tent Sharon Schruer extended a broom to two little girls to show them how it's wrapped. She is dressed in a long denim dress with a floral pattern. A white apron is tied around her waist and a matching bonnet is secured around her neck.

The two girls are visiting the 2006 Harvest Frolic and Trades Fair.

Schruer, a historical administration graduate student, and other

students in the program explained to visitors how to make home made brooms.

"I love bringing history alive especially for kids," Schruer said.

The students arrived under their cloth tent at 9:30 a.m. to learn how to make the brooms before the crowds arrived at 10. In class with History Professor Debra Ried, they had read the history and making behind the brooms but still needed hands on experience, if they were going to educate visitors.

First, handles are cut from small saplings and tree branches. Then students stripped the bark with a draw knife. Next, the handle is placed into the broom making machine, which is a wooden contraption that holds the handle and broom straw in place while the user works the machine to wrap the two together.

Eastern's Historical Administration students were one of 24 vendors

displaying a trade or craft at Saturday and Sunday's festival. Other crafts included woodworking, embroidery, leatherwork and pottery.

John Graves of Greenup was attracted to pottery because of its history.

"It's one of the few things that is relatively unchanged in our world," he said.

Potters today still get their clay from the earth, just like potters 10,000 years ago, he said. He brought more than 200 of his and his assistant's pieces of pottery to the festival. Pieces ranged from coffee cups and bowls to lanterns and vases.

"We love it here," Graves said about the festival.

He and Jacob Venatta, his assistant, attend five to six shows a year and both said the Harvest Frolic was their favorite.

People remember us, Graves said. They come back and collect the pottery."

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