4th Grade California Gold Rush Day

We joined in with the re-enactment of the gold rush at school last week, another 4th Grade landmark (see Mission (Project) Accomplished).  Following a meeting, when Danny and I volunteered to run the saloon for the morning, we headed into school dressed in our finest gold rush outfits.  Danny and Declan managed to get away with jeans and a flannel shirt but as I was running the saloon, fishnets, a fancy dress, feathers in my hair and a choker was in order (all this at 7.30am).

The children were all given a cup and a piece of rope.  Outside on the school playing field, pieces of stone, spray painted gold, had been scattered about.  The children were told to run, stake their claim by spreading out their rope and then gather up their gold.  They were so excited and all ran about the grass trying to find the best spot.  There was a sheriff wandering around to make sure children weren’t doing anything illegal, such as mining outside their area or claim jumping.  A make shift jail had been set up on the playground and rule breakers were rounded up and put behind bars.

Once the gold was gathered up, the children could exchange the stones for dollars and then head inside to the multi purpose room to spend their hard earned cash.  The room had the feel of a gold rush town with various parents running different areas, all dressed in appropriate costumes.  Children could buy pancakes and hot chocolate at a restaurant.  Or pay to go to the movies, which was a Charlie Chaplin movie, set up on the stage behind the curtain with popcorn being served.  Then they headed over to the saloon.

We were serving root beer and pretzels and had the children in arm wrestling contests, playing chequers/draughts, black jack and a few other card games.  It was great fun.  The school just let the children get on with it and didn’t set too many rules.  It was time to turn a blind eye to discipline and let the children get the feel for that period of time.  They all had a blast, there were lots of smiles and they completely captured the spirit of the day.

It’s hard not to participate in these events and not compare them to what the boys would be doing in a UK school now.  At the pre-meeting, the parents were trying to come up with old-fashioned games for the children to play such as sack races, 3 legged races and egg and spoon races.  They were trying to re-create activities from a bygone era but to me they were describing the Sports Day my children had participated in last year at their English school.  How quaint!