Beginning at 2:00 p.m. today, attendees and their parents were divided into three separate groups.  Some went to the conference room to learn from Rachel Coble, Chief Interpreter at Washington State Park about the ways people kept places lit at night before electricity became a public utility.  She brought with her three pots in which wax of the three primary colors red, yellow and blue was melted.  Kids each chose a white candle and, holding it by the wick, dipped it in the colors of their choice to create candles of many secondary colors.  These they were allowed to take home in a small bag.  

At the next class, Interpreter Haley Skinner spoke about the ways women often wove into their needlework signifiers pertaining to their religion.  She showed the children one example, a God’s Eye pattern.  “It was woven on your blankets, on your clothing, anything like that, so you would have that protection,” Skinner said.

Then she showed how to use yarn made from the wool on sheep that 19th century farmers raised to weave a shell for a turtle toy made from popsicle sticks.   Several kids wove shells in their favorite colors.

Then at the next station, several vegetables with their respective plant leaves and a container of seeds were set up for Washington State Park Gardner Theresa Neely to use in illustrating the various colors of crop plants grown in and around Old Washington.  From tomatoes to mustard plants to carrots to parsnips, Neely showed the kids the differences among plants whose vegetables were grown below the ground and those grown above it.  Without modern refrigeration, she explained, crops grown under ground tended to be favored because they could be grown in cooler months and could be stored in cellars.  Parsnips, meanwhile, could even be harvested in the winter.

The program was the latest installment of Hempstead County Library’s Summer Reading Program for 2025.  The next will take place July 15th when Big Poppa Bubble comes to the library at 2:00 p.m. The sessions are free.

Near the front entrance of the library could be seen many former library books for sale from several genres, including Christian fiction, adolescent fiction and romantic fiction.