there's gonna be a hangin'

A couple of years ago, I was looking for something fun to do over the fourth of July weekend, and stumbled across the Kutztown Festival. I clicked on the list of events, and was taken aback when I read, "Our reenactment of an actual 19th century hanging has stunned audiences for years."

I begged Isaac to take me, because honestly, who doesn't need to see a reenactment of a hanging once in their life? For the past two years, Isaac has thought up some other less-cool way to spend the our time, but this year, he cracked. We invited our friends to join us, and headed to the festival.

We got there just in time for the 2pm hanging (they do it three times a day).

A woman, dressed in black, told us the story of Suzanna Cox. She killed her newborn son, and admitted to the fact. Then a bunch of people were trying to get her freed, and a woman's group made her a dress to be hung in, and I think the point of the story was that they wanted us to feel bad for Susanna.

Then woman dressed in black read a poem, then the trap door on the gallows was yanked open and this incredibly not-at-all-lifelike dummy. The crowd was silent, and then everyone dispersed in a kind of awkward hush. Were we supposed to cheer? Boo? What?!

{so, i guess it does look a little scary in the pictures}

I wish I had been sitting in on the meeting years ago when they were planning the festival, and someone suggested they reenact a hanging. And then everyone agreed. Because nothing screams festival like a dummy being hung.

The rest of the festival was great fun. We drank rootbeer and sarsaparilla, ate every flavor of licorice you could imagine, saw a huge ox being grilled, and oh, so much more.