We spent one day with Thomas Jefferson at his Monticello home in Charlottesville, VA. He was a gracious host, although a bit stiff and reserved. His home is beautiful and really quite a remarkable structure for the age in which it was built. We learned a lot about Mr. Jefferson and his personality in the way he built and structured his house. He spent many years tinkering, building on, adding things, and making his home exactly what he fancied. My favorite parts were his library (which was quite extensive), his weighted clock in the parlor, and his beautiful dining room complete with a neatly hidden dumbwaiter that fit bottles of wine exactly and which connected directly to his wine cellar so he could have the bottles delivered quietly when he was entertaining.
I really enjoyed learning more about Thomas Jefferson and his life. I'm ashamed to admit I didn't know or remember hardly anything I had learned of him in my younger years--maybe I didn't learn much back then anyway. Now that I'm older, I appreciate learning all the "boring" historical stuff. After our visit, Jason and I both were fascinated with Mr. Jefferson and wanted to learn more. We purchased a few books about him and since then I've already read part of a short biography on him. It's truly fascinating--he was a very interesting man.
The photos below are of two parts of life that we take for granted every minute of our existence today. The first is a picture of the ice house (really a huge ice pit) that was used for Monticello and the plantation. During the winter they would fill this deep pit with ice chunks from the nearby river in order to preserve foods through the coming summer. The other picture is of the privy located outside the house in the slave quarters. There was only one privy in the actual house of Monticello, and it was located in Thomas Jefferson's private, personal quarters. I suppose everyone else had to run outside and use this one. And now I am so very grateful for my bathroom and my refrigerator!
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