Love Brewster #2

March 21, 1621

Today a tall strong native covered in deerskin clothing came out of the woods in a very heroic manner and said in clear English "Welcome Englishmen." His name is Samoset and he say that they have been watching us and know of our struggles. He also has offered to help us grow crops, hunt and fish. He left and soon returned with their chieftain and 61 other natives. The chief's name is Massasoit and there is a native who has been been kidnapped by the English, taken back to England and then returned speaking English very well. He says his name is Squanto and he is very kind, especially to the children, myself included. Massasoit and John Carver, who has been elected governor, signed a treaty of peace between the two sides.



October 15, 1621

Today has been christened the First Thanksgiving in order to give thanks to the Earth and the natives for their help in supplying our colony with foodstuffs and living supplies. This celebration will take three days and we will all stuff ourselves with good food. Only the important figures of our colony and the tribe of natives will sit at the table while everyone else will sit on the ground. Lately, I have seen little of Mother as she is spending most of her time cooking and helping with the preparedness of the feast. If Wrestling are exploring or playing and we see Mother approaching us, we use some sneaking and hiding techniques that the Squanto taught us to hide so will not have to work in the kitchens. I will do any work except for in the kitchen.



March 27, 1623

I am so excited at how much our colony has flourished since we came to this world! Today another ship came in today carrying many people but "there was not so much as biscuit-cake, neither had they any bedding... nor pot, or pan" as William Bradford put it. Oh, William Bradford is the new governor since John Carver sadwhat sad? -Skyler ~ 12/18/09 9:31 AM and unexpected death. He was such a good leader and knew what was right for our colony. So far William Bradford has shown some good signs in such a way that we know he has some potential in running this settlement. There is very bad news that was brought with the ship; the Puritans back in England are really having a hard time practicing our holy religion. Some of the people on this ship are very well educated and quite a bit more wealthy. Their leader, named John Winthrop, is a lawyer and grew up on a manor with servants.





great information included in this and the little side things like squanto showing you how to hide was also good, may'be add a little more about how you feel about things like john carver dieing -Skyler ~ 12/18/09 9:32 AM

Love Brewster #1

Journal of Love Brewster
September 6, 1620
Today we departed from England with Mother, Father and my two brothers, John and Wrestling, and my two sisters, Fear and Patience. We left because we were outcasts, scrum as some might say. The Church of England is of Christian faith and we are Puritans. The Puritans and the Christians are opposites and we do not like the church and their beliefs. We are all huddled together to keep warm. Mother and Father are so very sure the best for us is in this new land or Virginny as my brother Wrestling and I like to call it. Even though we were so unwelcome, I still miss Holland which was my home my home up until now and my only friend Ollie. I am smashed between John and Fear who really is quite fearful of this New World. I have only seen the deck as we boarded the ship and I am very interested in sailing and navigation. Down where our living quarters are, there is very small space for all of the people we have upon the ship. It is quite smelly and we will soon know each other quite well. I can't wait to arrive in the New World and start our fulfillment to God. Our family has been entrusted to the care and well being of an orphan by the name of Mary More. She is quite nice and seems to have won over the love of our parents very quickly. There is not much to do in the hull so Wrestling and I have taken up thumb wars and wrestling. We spend most of our time doing these two activities and some of the others below are getting quite frustrated at our constant sporting. One of the sea-men seems to have befriended me and and promised Wrestling and I a tour of the decks. He might even let us meet the captain. I am quite hopeful because this could be a highlight of this other wise boring voyage, I predict.

September 27, 1620
It has been three weeks and the sea-man, whose name is John Alden, still has not taken Wrestling and I on the tour. Mother says that she doubts the possibilities of two kids going up on the decks when there is many serviceable people down with us. It is very disgusting in our living quarters for the people who have had seasickness have been vomiting their which makes me nauseous. We are navigating off the map of a fellow named John Smith who was present in the founding of the Jamestown colony. From what my parents told me, there has been a compact made for the rules that we must follow once we arrive in Virginia. Recently a small baby was born with the name of Peregrine so we will have one more mouth to feed.

December 22, 1620
About four hours ago we landed in a cape but it is not Virginia. We are going to call it New England. There has been much rejoicing but some are sulking because they had their hearts set on going to Virginia. I am happy because we have been sailing around with land in sight the whole time and I think everyone was anxious to land but we are finally here. Wrestling and I are so excited, soon we will fashion sporting equipment for our pleasure.

February 17, 1621
The harsh winter is starting to disappear and spring is coming soon. Over half of the people on the Mayflower have died in the past three months. There are more graves than there are houses. Mary came quite close to dying and the whole family was quite worried about here. Even though she is not related to us by blood, she is very helpful. She is feeling better now and we have rejoiced. Luckily no one in our family has died.

Love Brewster #3

August 12, 1630

So far this summer, about 1000 more Puritans have arrived in the New World. Now we have a much bigger settlement of only Puritans. I feel that many more shall come overseas to our lovely and flourishing colony. Wrestling and I are now going on hunts with the natives and our people. Wrestling and I are some of the few people who know how to hunt in the natives way and also the traditional way with a musket. I still do not see why the Catholic Church dislikes us so much. All we do is do good things, we read the Bible, we help each other and we are all very steady with our practice. But I am glad that we came to New England because we are always hearing how bad the treatment to our people are back home and how much more freedom there is here.

There is another religion finding it's way to Virginia and it's freedom. They are called the "Friends" but we call them Quakers. They are a cursed sect. They believe that it is not necessary to see God through a minister or a priest, but they can see God from within themselves and everyone can too! It is quite disgraceful and a shame that they believe in something as silly as that. Soon we will gather and vote to select a new governor and a new council. We need a council and although it is quite similar to the Parliament, we do not like that form of government.

Paleolithic Snapshot

Galen
11/5/09
Paleolithic Snapshot

   
    We were out hunting mammoth to feed our starving village.   After trudging through for what seemed hours, we caught a glimpse of mammoth through a clump of trees about 20 yards ahead.   we ran swiftly to the trees and crawled to the edge of the clump. My breath made small clouds in the air so we all silently rejoiced "We might be able to finally feed our poor and famished village.  We all chose a straggler the we thought would be the easiest kill.  I couldn't wait to eat the fire warmed mammoth, but I had to wait for the take down.  On the count of three we all threw our spears at the great animal.  Even though mine flew wide to the right, enough spears struck the mammoth and after a couple of sagging steps it stumbled and fell.  Then it sighed a great sigh, quivered and lay dead.  We jumped for joy and hugged each other we had killed the mammoth and save our village. I couldn't wait to go the bed with a bellyful of mammoth steaks.                                                                                                                         

 

History Response

    I like this article because it focus' on the peoples food sources.  I thought the part about the atlatl was very cool because I am interested in prehistoric technology and I had never heard about it.  In this article there isn't very much to disagree but one thing I do disagree is that the author sometimes says the same thing a couple times.  I didn't know that they used wheels for children's toys but not for real use.  I think that could be short-selling the Native Americans.  Maybe?  I also didn't know how many species died out form over-hunting.

Snapshot

The most memorable "snapshot" from our 2009 7/8 class backpacking trip was at the first creek crossing on the way back. Everyone was so tired from hiking some much and maybe not sleeping well (in my case at least). We arrived at the creek in small groups and the air was filled with sighs of relief. ONE MILE LEFT. There was a small swimming hole covered by overhanging branches and the gravel bar kept going as far as you could see. I waded out to a partially submerged log and ate my sandwich. By the time I got to the log my feet were numb, that's how cold it was. After I was finished a couple of my friends had jumped in. I thought " No way, I'm not going swimming." But the water looked so refreshing and so inviting. So I waded through the shin deep freezing water. My mind was split between jumping in and staying out. But finally, the look of such refreshment blew me over. I took off my shirt and jumped in. The freezing water rushed over my head. I burst through the surface spluttering and gasping for air, but it felt so refreshing. This, I thought, was true heaven. This refreshment was enough for us to drudge the last mile where ice water and popsicles awaited us.

History why

This author makes some very good points in this segment of the book about the people of America and their rights. One good thing this author does in the beginning is ask a couple questions which get the reader thinking. Another thing that I like about this writing, is that when the author acknowledges that the people reading this book are part of a crowd (s)he writes "you." This author has a very good part about the Constitution and the peoples rights which includes a sentence which says "But the constitution didn't protect all American. It allowed slavery. That was a horrible mistake." I totally agree with that segment. I also agree we are a country which allows you to have more freedom, like the ability to criticize the government without getting prosecuted, but also have to depend more on ourselves. I also like the ending because (s)he kind of hints what will the following chapters of this book.

Overall this chapter is very agree and I hope I can feel the same with the upcoming chapters.

Misfits: A Interesting Novel

The last book I read that is worthy of a book review was The Misfits by James Howe. It is a novel about feeling secure about the way you are and everyone is different. The four main characters are Bobby Goodspeed, Skeezie Tookis, Addie Carle and Joe Bunch. They call themselves the Gang of Five because there might be someone else like them; a misfit.

All of these characters are discriminated against. Bobby is a little overweight, Skeezie dresses like a hoodlum but is very nice, Addie is very tall and is very smart and Joe is gay and trying to deal with it. They are struggling to get to 8th grade without being put down so much the become depressed.

This book is very interesting in many ways. First of all, they are very outgoing for calling themselves misfits. Come on, they run for school counsel, I don't think many people that call themselves misfits would do that. I also thought that the idea of Bobby working in a tie store was kind of out there. But overall this book gives reader a good idea of how misfits are treated.

I think that a kid in 7th grade who knows he is gay would have a very hard time going to school because they might be teased more than students who are "straight". Also the idea of running for student council is cool then you can change as much as you can for the people who are discriminated against. Being discriminated against this much doesn't happen in middle school much, but the author did it like this to emphasize the discrimination. I disagree with the context of love in this book. I do like the idea of the setting being in a small town but this book would have been just as good or maybe better if it was placed in a city. Thankfully, I go to a school where everyone is nice and there aren't really any cliques, at least not any mean ones. The Misfits helped me realized that not everyone has it as nice as we do. Back to the idea of love they use the word love way too much for someone in 7th grade. At that stage in your life you don't fully understand the power of love.

I would give this book about a 3 out of 10 because I disagree that people of that age are discriminated against that much. But I would recommend this book to people who like biography as it is told in third person by Bobby Goodspeed. This book is also about knowing yourself and feeling confident about who you are.