Wow, today was a fabulous day! The day began at 8am when all of Kraemer’s eighth grade GATE met up in our Quad to take roll and get into our groups to go on our Riley’s Farm: A Civil War Experience. Then, we headed onto the buses. The buses were completely decked out, with plush seats and even seatbelts! We were required to wear our seatbelts and then after that, we were ready to hit the road. I sat next to Shweta, one of my good friends. We had a great time spending our time on the bus, and so the hour 45 minutes flew by like that. Both of us didn’t pull out any phones to start scrolling through social media or to play some video games, which I found amazing.

After all of the intense driving, Kraemer Middle School’s bus number 4 arrived safely and all in one piece at Riley’s Farm. I could tell that the weather would be just right and that the farm wouldn’t be extremely crowded, but at the same time wouldn’t be looking like a ghost town either. We were placed into our own regiments, which were medium sized groups that represented some of the states during the Civil War. We were Vermont 2nd, a Union state. One station that I really enjoyed was the imitation of a soldier’s campout and tent. Their tent was tiny, not even counting the fact that the tent had to be shared with one to three other people! That meant that the tent which was the size of less than one bathroom stall had to fit four people to allow them to sleep. Also, we learned that their food and dining was quite disgusting as a soldier. They had to eat hard tack, cheese, and beef jerky, all day every day. Actually, even worse; it really wasn’t “all day every day”. It was more like once a day every three or so days. I could not imagine that because food plays a huge part of my life. I realized how lucky I was and appreciated just a little more the fact that I have meals three times a day. We also looked at the way a court case would be handled. I found the process interesting because it is still pretty similar to the way that court cases are run today.

Overall, my day was pretty smooth and educational at the same time. I really enjoyed my Civil War experience and I hope that more people will go to Riley’s Farm to learn more about the Civil War so that they can really appreciate the life that they are living in today.