FIND YOURSELF A PRESERVATION RAILROAD AND ENRICH YOURSELF.

Last year, we noted the possible role of a preservation railway as a way to enrich your kid's knowledge.

This year, the Fox River Trolley Museum offered the enrichment more directly.  Early in June came Rails to Victory, in which local World War II re-enactors set up camp on the museum grounds.

That's dune buggy technology adapted to the Kubelwagen.  Originals sometimes turn up, commanding hundreds of thousands of Reichsmarks, er, Euro.  On the other hand, adapting a Beetle chassis to something else has long been something for the car guys.

Enrichment activities also allow an enlargement of the cast of re-enactors.

The British Home Islands were no longer self-sufficient in food in the late days of the Empire, and city girls were recruited into the Farm Army to expand food production.  That's why a training device for cow milking was necessary.  These cast members adopted the biographies of known members of that organisation.  The Pig Club was a way to recycle table scraps: participants in the scrap drive got some of the carcass after the pig went to market, with most of the pig being converted to rations for the troops.

Cast members are always pleased when the younger set shows up and takes an interest in what's going on.

Two weekends later, the museum provided transportation to a Ballet Folklorico Huehuecoyotl performance at the Forest Preserve.  Yes, it might have been possible to drive directly to the forest preserve, but where's the fun in that?  "We are proud to continue the legacy of the North Shore Line [which founded Ravinia Park — Ed.] and many other trolley lines that have long since ceased operating by providing rides to a new generation of cultural events."

It's Freedom Weekend, with Canada's Dominion Day followed by Independence Day.  Let's make July Freedom Month.  Find yourself a fireworks show, and then a circus or a concert or a folk festival, or a preservation railway and go to it.