Day seven was a fun day walking outside! We spent the entire day walking through the Black Country Living Museum which was so inspirational. To begin the day, we were able to sleep in for a little bit before heading to breakfast. I was able to eat a large bowl of cereal and scrambled eggs which was very delicious! I also made sure to bring my raincoat as well because I knew it might be sprinkling today. Once we finished eating, we met up for an hour-long bus ride to the Black Country Living Museum.
Once there, we started our day by viewing the buckets that would take workers into the mines. I found it so interesting that twenty-four workers were able to fit into the small buckets together and that the men would start working at the age of twelve. Women, on the other hand, were not allowed to work in the mines, and would work on the surface sorting the coal. One of the reasons that they were not allowed to work in the mines was because men would work down there shirtless, and it was considered improper for women to interact with them while they were. The other important animal that would be sent into the mines would be the horses. They were carried down in buckets as well, but blindfolded, and would be saved first if anything were to happen because they were considered the most valuable thing in the mines.
Once we were finished looking at the different aspects of the mines, we went to the school. The school was the original building from the 1800s, and was saved and preserved from demolition. We were able to watch and participate in a demonstration of how a classroom would have been taught in the 1960s which was a lot of fun and everyone was such good sports. I was even pulled up to the front of the classroom for not passing my cleanliness inspection due to my nails being painted!
After that, we ate some lunch and I ordered a hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was very much needed due to the cold weather, but after I warmed up, I was able to walk through the town until it was time to go. We stopped into multiple shops including a hair salon and a medicine shop. The hair salon was so special because we met a gentleman named Dan who had gone to the original hair salon when it was still in business. There were separate rooms for the males and females and many shop owners would live in the back of their shops during the time period. One of the beautiful messages he gave us was, “your mind stays young no matter how old you get.” After that, we headed to the medicine shop where we learned that it was common to make the medicine in the shop if a patient had a prescription or knew the chemist which is so different to the present time period.
Once we ended the day at the museum, I was able to eat an amazing dinner at Zizzi’s, an Italian restaurant. The workers were so kind and there was a warm, comfortable atmosphere. Overall, it was such a fun day, and I am excited to see what tomorrow has in store for me!