Back in Old Williamsburg With Grandma

Grandma Geddy has a catch in her back this mornin’ from playing games with the children on the floor. And she has a little tickle in her throat from catching up on all the goings on, now that she’s back in town.

And she apologizes now and again for “nattering on” about her late husband, James A. Geddy the gunsmith, and her children and her grandchildren.

No matter.

She has instantly captivated the capacity crowd in her son’s house, mildly chiding her female guests for cutting their hair too short and forgetting their bonnets, and easily spanning two centuries while chitchatting about their families and hometowns.

Yes, she has heard of Detroit out there in Virginia’s vast “Western Reserve,” and New Orleans, which was settled by the French, wasn’t it?, and even the far-off Los Angeles, which was planned by the Spaniards.

From Another Time

Grandma Geddy is a woman representing another place in time, the year 1770. And she is eager to show off her prospering little town and give you an earful of history and advice from a woman’s point of view.

Only after following her about her errands for 2 1/2 hours can visitors learn--and then only if they ask pointedly--that “Grandma Geddy” is Ruth Henretty, a registered nurse from Pennsylvania who moved south 19 years ago and has worked happily in Colonial Williamsburg ever since.

She is one of the Colonial Virginia capital’s 13 “character interpreters,” now in their third summer, who ease tourists back into the 18th Century and make history pleasantly palatable. A “C.I.” becomes a person who “really lived” in the old Williamsburg. Conducting their own continuing research and copying the chosen individual’s dress, language, knowledge and behavior, they regularly enrich the tour-guide patter with newly discovered nuggets of personal Colonial history.

An Added Dimenson

For a returning Williamsburg visitor, the character interpreters add a delightfully informative and personal dimension to a walk around the 173-acre Historic Area, where restoration began under the auspices of John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1926. For a newcomer the tours provide perspective on what can be an overwhelming history lesson.

Tickets for the tours led by the character interpreters are available for $5 at the Courthouse, just a short walk from Bus Stop 2. Special tours available on any given day are listed in the “Visitor’s Companion,” an informative brochure and map handed to guests at the Visitor Center, where everyone is required to park and buy admission tickets.

Grandma Geddy’s tour is called “According to the Ladies,” and, understandably, attracts women. But she had no trouble mesmerizing the men who tagged along. Especially when she related that her advice to marriageable 16-year-old granddaughter Nan is to “keep a man happy . . . that’s the way to get what you want.”

Her late husband, she natters on, died when her eldest son, James Jr., was a mere 13. With seven children and another on the way, she was a little worried about keeping the gunsmith shop open, but pleased that her Scotland-born husband trusted her enough to will it directly to her, even if she was a woman.

Already literate, she learned “cipherin”’ and started going through the books. When she saw that the Colony of Virginia hadn’t paid its bill, she walked down the milelong Duke of Gloucester Street to “that man’s world” of the Capitol and got them to pay up.

With the help of the indentured man who stayed on to work with the apprentices, she succeeded. In time her four sons learned the craft and refined it, with one becoming a gunsmith, one the silversmith and two working in copper and pewter.

On the Family Farm

Now she “lives out in the country on the family farm.” Grandma Geddy has come to town, as a sometime midwife, to help out when her daughter-in-law gives birth to her fifth child “at the end of her child-bearin’ years.”

This mornin’ she has sent that daughter-in-law off to visit a woman friend, turned the little ones over to the indentured girl, and would be pleased to take her guests along on her errands in town.

Some days she stops in the Wig Shop or the Milliner’s, where merchants explain their crafts and wares. Today she has a message for the music teacher, and stays to hear his prize pupil perform. She also drops by the apothecary to consult the folk-remedy “doctor” about a cure for her son’s painful gout.

Along the way Grandma Geddy points out curiosities to 20th-Century eyes, such as the wooden stocks beside the Courthouse where even a lady could be sentenced to stand immobilized for 24 hours (for such crimes as exposing her ankles or elbows).

Although prying questions may prompt wide-eyed amazement at such rudeness, she does answer them as best she can. Women don’t talk politics, but, yes, she has heard of Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson and “all that trouble up north.”

After a morning with Grandma Geddy, even strangers feel right at home in her town. She gives you that cozy, down-home feeling, as guests wave goodby to drop by the bakery for an oatmeal cookie or search for a substantial lunch, that she’ll see you tomorrow as she runs her never-ending errands.

Williamsburg, with its 90 preserved and restored historic buildings, attracts more than 2 million visitors a year, many of whom exchange pleasantries with residents who maintain the 18th-Century ambiance by leaving all cars outside the Historic Area between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Historic Taverns

A meal of Brunswick stew or Smithfield ham at one of the three historic taverns--Chowning’s, the King’s Arms or Christiana Campbell’s--further immerses visitors in the pre-Revolutionary era. And staying overnight in one of the Colonial houses after a torchlight tattoo by the village fife and drum corps can make guests want to remain in the 18th Century forever.

A delicious dinner for two at Chowning’s, including Brunswick stew, Sally Lunn bread, a choice of apple or plum pie and the sherry-like Virginia libation scuppernong costs about $30. It was the perfect authentic fare before a performance of the comedy, “The Lying Valet.”

Although most motel and fast food chains are available, the best accommodations can be arranged through the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Hotel room rates (single or double occupancy) are: $115 to $240 at Colonial houses and taverns, $150-$185 at the Mobil Guide five-star Williamsburg Inn (with suites up to $475), $89-$109 at the Williamsburg Lodge (with suites to $425), $79 at the Motor House, $94-$106 at the related Cascades and $59-$68 at the Governor’s Inn.

Shuttle Services

The hotel prices include shuttle bus service around the Historic Area, reduced admission ticket prices, tours, preferred seating for tavern dinners (reservations always a must) and various sports activities including lawn bowling, an 18th-Century favorite.

All visits to the Historic Area begin at the Visitor Center. There a Patriot’s Pass providing admission to all exhibits for a year costs $24.50 for adults and $12.25 for children 6-12; a Royal Governor’s Pass, including admission for four days to all Historic Area exhibits and the Governor’s Palace along with the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Gallery, costs $20 for adults and $10.25 for children.

The basic admission ticket, offering admission to 12 exhibits for one day, is $15.50 for adults and $8.25 for children. Separate admission to the reconstructed must-see Governor’s Palace, the original built in 1715 and burned down in 1781, is $11.

Williamsburg is a pleasant three-hour drive from Dulles International Airport in Washington. Go south on Interstate 95 to Richmond and east on I-64. Connecting flights can be arranged through Dulles to Richmond or Norfolk, or to Patrick Henry Airport in Newport News, Va., only 14 miles from Williamsburg.

For more information on travel to the Williamsburg area, or a free copy of the “Colonial Williamsburg Vacation Planner,” call toll-free (800) HISTORY.