The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Docents bring turn-of-the-century life to kids

By Steve Enders

For kids in the late 1890s and early 1900s, there were no video games or televisions, no CD players and no supermarkets.

Homework and chores were the top priority at home after a long day at school. Afterward, the kids were allowed to play while mom knitted and dad smoked his pipe and read.

Each year during the spring, thirdgraders from each Sunnyvale elementary school experience what life was like for kids of similar ages at the turn of the century. The opportunity is an eye-opening experience for many of the students, who are used to having modern-day conveniences.

At Murphy Park's Sunnyvale History Museum over the next two weeks, more than 100 students each day will take part in the program, which is near its 30th year, according to docents.

Third-grade social studies and history classes in Sunnyvale get their first doses of local history, including the founding and development of the city and the Santa Clara Valley. Docents like Margaret Maletis and Dorothy Ames teach the kids about the pioneering families, including the Murphys and the Olsons. They explain the role the Ohlone Indians played in shaping the region.

The docents used to travel with the presentation to each school, but it's grown so much that now the kids come to the museum, Ames said.

The museum chronicles the history of Sunnyvale from its founding by the Murphy family to the development of the aerospace industry in the 1960s. Its exhibits include a slide presentation on the history of the valley and displays of clothing, paintings, pictures and antiques of the era.

Erica Crome, a Vargas teacher, said that she prepares her class for the two-hour visit by incorporating Sunnyvale history into her curriculum.

"We focus on local history by having them read journals of people who came West," she said.

Crome said her students also complete hands-on projects, including creating turn-of-the-century crafts.

"To experience what it was like makes them understand it better and retain it longer," Crome said.

On Monday, the program's first day, docents drew "oohs" and "aahs" from the 60 kids when they explained how different life used to be.

Early in the century, schoolchildren attended a single one-room schoolhouse where all grades were mixed. They wrote with pens in their spelling and math books and with chalk on slate tablets. The schools were strict, docent Dorothy Ames said. Sometimes, if kids misbehaved, they'd get a few lashes to whip them back into shape.

After the presentation, the kids got a feeling of what it's like to prepare food with hand juicers, cracker grinders, potato ricers and nut crushers instead of electrical appliances.

Outside, they used washboards and rug beaters and played with antique toys.

Nine-year-old Eric Zapata, while making crumbs with crackers in a meat grinder, said that he enjoyed coming to the museum because he "got to do fun stuff."

He said, "It's cool because in the old days, they didn't have bathrooms and stuff."

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, May 6, 1998.
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