Last year, I went to a Spanish fort called the Castillo De San Marcos with my grandpa every Monday as a history project. I learned about the history of the fort, St. Augustine, how to work leather, and how to fire muskets safely. This story is an average day at the fort.
                I wake up at five thirty A.M. to get ready. After taking a quick shower I start to get dressed. I have an undershirt, a vest, a woolen over cloak, and sometimes a heave wool jacket. Now I put on my leather shoes and walk the dog as I wait for my grandpa to take me to the Castillo. Once we get there I help him unload his leatherworking tools and his musket.

The colonial musket and rifle are the two most confused firearms at the fort, even though they are very different. They are usually confused because of two things. One; their outsides resemble each other, and two; they are both muzzle loading flintlocks. However, that is where the similarities end.
                The most prominent difference between the two is rifling. Rifling is the curved grooves inside the barrel of all rifles. Having rifling helps guns aim, because it gives the ball a spin. The spinning of the ball helps it maintain its path through the air. Because the musket doesn’t have rifling it is only accurate to about fifty feet, while the rifle stays accurate to about three hundred feet.

These are the rules for firing a musket.

1. Always keep the trigger facing away from you. If the trigger is facing you, chances are you’re moments away from blowing your head off.

2. Do not lower the barrel of the musket once powder has been loaded into it. The powder will fall out, and you will not fire.

3. Do not leave your ramrod on the ground. Without it you cannot fire.

4. You MUST have four teeth, two upper, two lower. You use them to tear open the cartridges. You can’t do it with your hands because you have a musket in one hand and the cartridge in the other.

On our family's trip to Pennsylvania this year, I asked the rangers at parks and historic sites (like last year) what the stupidest questions they've ever gotten from visitors had been. They didn't disappoint! Here's another list of funny questions for you.

Liberty Bell
Didn't the Liberty Bell used to be bigger?

Is it true that the Liberty Bell is made of horse manure?

Leonardo Da Vinci made the Liberty Bell, right?

Independence Hall

(asking a security guy, who of course has no idea) What kind of tree is that and how old is it?

How do I get out? (facing an open gate with "exit" sign)

Is that (independence hall, small-ish RED brick building) the white house?

What time is the 2:30 tour?

Matzi and the Zebra By Mary Lynn S Chapter 1 A Treasure is Found “Momma, I’m tired,” muttered Matzi through her clenched teeth. “I’m tired of working for that awful Mr. Craig. My back hurts, and I want some water.” Momma stopped abruptly and swung around to face her daughter. “I am too. And you know what? So is everybody else here. They all wanna leave, they all wanna be free and live on their own and have normal, payin’ jobs. But what’re we gonna do about it, huh? What are we gonna do?” Matzi’s cheeks burned with a mix of shame and anger as her mother turned around as her mother’s narrow jaw tensed and her eyes hardened. A couple other slaves glanced up from their work, and Momma gave them a harsh look that immediately humbled them and they resumed their tasks. Matzi was a slave girl in the summer of 1697.

You are a modern kid. You probably listen to rock or pop music, wear jeans and graphic T-shirts, and communicate with your friends via phone, text, email, or IM. This is your lifestyle. Now travel back one hundred years into the past. Kids play piano or fiddle for an hour or more every day. Girls wear layer upon layer of petticoats and dresses, even in Summer, while boys wear tight-fitting breeches, rough cotton shirts, and tight-buttoning vests. They often live very close to their friends and only communicate by letters and face-to-face contact. Life now seems a lot easier than back then--and a lot better. But in my opinion it's just about the same.
5:30 AM, 1910
You are woken up by a servant who helps you dress yourself. It takes almost twenty minutes to get dressed, with all the garments you have to wear! You finally finish and head downstairs for a breakfast of gruel--water mixed with wheat and oats. It tastes like wet sawdust.

One famous pharaoh, one you have probably heard of, is Tutankhamun (King Tut). Tut’s father was Akhenaton (Amenhotep iv). Akhenaton tried to move Egyptian religion from polytheism to monotheism. Monotheism means to believe in one god. He wanted people to worship the Aton, the sun god. Ra was another sun god as well. Akhenaton = son of the Aton. He set up another city about 100 miles south of Thebes. This is where his wife, Nefertiti, gave birth to Tutankhamun. When Akhenaton died Tut was 11. He then became pharaoh himself and married his sister Ankhesanamum, who was 9.

One of Tutankhamun’s favorite things to so was play Senet. Senet was a game similar to modern day chess and checkers. We know this because in his tomb were several Senet games in his tomb. He also seemed to like to hunt because there were six gold chariots in his tomb. Tutankhamun’s tomb was one of the greatest finds in history.