Field Trip

    It was time for William's second grade class to take a field trip. It is times like these that bring diabetes front and center. If a parent does not go then William and the other student with diabetes would not get go because none of the teachers have been trained to take care of them. William is in a state that does not require the school to have a school nurse or to train the teachers to take care of him. It really makes me wonder what would happen to my son if the school went into lock down and it lasted for a long time. I guess that is a blog that I have already written but it makes me wonder every time I have to take time off from work to go with the class on a field trip.

Isaac Cappon House

    The field trip was to the Cappon house and an early settler house in Holland. This house was build by the first Mayer of Holland, Isaac Cappon, after the great Holland fire in 1871. This fire burned most of Holland to the ground including Mr. Cappons house and his factory The Cappon and Bertsch Leather Company. This was the largest tannery operation in Michigan at the time. Mr. Cappon built this beautiful house to motive people to stay in Holland and rebuild. The inside of the house had all of the original furniture from when the house was constructed over one hundred years ago. Mr Cappon squeezed 16 children into this home. It is a big house but that would have still be tight. The granddaughter of  Mr. Cappon, Barbara Archer, lived there until the late 1970's. She donated the house to the city of Holland to keep as a museum. It was a real step back in time. The wood work and details were breath taking to see.

Here are some of the examples of what we saw:

Beautiful Wood Work

Wood Panels Going Up Stairs

Stair Case Banisters

Settler's House

    We also saw an early settlers house. This house was built in the 1840's. This was one of the few houses that survived the Holland fire. The family that lived here had five children. There are only two bedrooms. The upstairs bed room was very small and had no heat. I can not imagine having five children living in a house this small. It had no running water or electricity. The bed had ropes that the mattress was placed over. If you ever wondered where the saying "sleep tight" came from. This bed was the reason. The ropes were tightened often to keep the mattress supported. The kitchen was a single pot belly stove big enough for about two pots on top and was the second source of heating for the house. It makes me wonder what people will say in a hundred years from now about how we lived.

    William seemed to have a good time and asked a lot of really good questions. I was proud to see him jump in and be comfortable asking questions. Diabetes was quiet for this trip and we all had fun.

Here is to learning about the past,

Your Loving Dad