ALHFAM Update 4

Today is the final day of the conference, and this will likely be my last "update." I doubt I'll do a conference overview since you can get that by reading the series of updates. I think everyone in my new group of friends is ready to get the hell out of here and go home. We've all had a great time, but are all fatigued and most of us are not feeling well. Most everyone is blaming the food; I don't think its the quality necessarily, but we've been eating an awful lot this week and I think its just starting to catch up to us. And that's to say nothing of the amount of alcohol we've consumed.

Today's sessions have been good. First, I attended a session on interpretation of southern "plain folk" of the 18th and early 19th centuries. The focus was on foodways, clothing, and housing. It was an excellent session led by two knowledgeable presenters. The second session I went to this morning was about organizing day camps for kids at museums and historic sites. I got some good information out of that session as well, that I can pass on to our sites.

The luncheon and annual business meeting was about what one would expect of such an event. This afternoon there was only one session, a plenary session that dealt with the challenges facing living history sites and what kind of future we face. While it was a great discussion, I think having it as the last session of the last day was a bad idea, as many folks were not in attendance. I sat through it and enjoyed all the speakers, but left when the Q&A started. We've got the closing dinner this evening and we're done. Its been a great conference, much different than any others I've ever been to, and I hope to make ALHFAM a tradition. I also hope to get more of our sites involved, as I believe they will greatly benefit from what this organization has to offer.