We were out at the LI Irish Fest which was held at the Abbess Farm in Calverton from about 2 until 11 on Saturday, and I had been having such a good time I had forgotten to take any pictures at all. All I have are some crappy shots from a cell phone, though I think Sport had a camera with him. There were 7 tents of various sizes, all very impressive. I quipped that we should find out how much it costs to have one of these put up, so we wouldn’t need to set up any tents at all when we camp; We could just partition the huge thing into rooms! In fact, the only thing that wasn’t impressive about the fest was the turn out. I don’t know if it was a lack of advertising or what, but there were some awesome bands playing to nearly empty tents which was a shame. The lack of crowds was very welcome to me personally, however - I just hope they broke even at least. Those tents were probably not cheap.
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I first came across the following 8th grade test posted on the soc.culture.irish newsgroup. So much has changed in only a little over a 100 years, and that is quite evident in the subject matter of the test. Good grammar and knowledge of geography were obviously considered more important than they are today, and the math questions were of a very practical nature. Doing well on this test meant you were well prepared to succeed in the business of the day which at least in the midwest was probably going to have something to do with farming, but it also meant that you would be able to correspond with others using the written word and that you had a basic knowledge of American as well as Earth history.

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I’ve always had a keen interest in history, but there’s nothing like a big old empty mansion down the street to get you thinking about who might have lived in it and why it’s empty now. Ken Spooner used to live right next to one such old house, and he’s spent a lot of time compiling information about the Knapps, a family from the town of Mastic where he grew up, their neighbors and friends, their work and personal interests. He intends (according to a couple emails I’ve had from him) to turn the accumulated information into a book someday, but in the meantime you can enjoy reading his stories of old Mastic of the turn of the last century up until the early 1960s online. He’s got a lot of awesome pictures that readers have donated toward the cause over the years, and his pages are laid out to be easy on the eyes as you scroll back through time.

http://www.spoonercentral.com