MCH History Gathering a Success!!!

I'm here to unilaterally declare Saturday's Inaugural Mill Creek Hundred History Gathering a smashing success. (Did you not see the three -- count 'em, three -- exclamation points in the title? I don't use them lightly.) The day was a bit dreary, but luckily it wasn't really raining while we were there. The venue was fabulous. How perfect was it to be talking about history in a 200+ year old house, overlooking a 200+ year old mill on the site of one a century older? It certainly made all our talk seem very appropriate. Many thanks go out to Greenbank Mill Associates for allowing us the use of the room. And thanks to the generosity of our attendees, we ended up making a $90 donation to GMA as a way of showing our appreciation. "Thanks" to everyone!! I couldn't have been happier with how it all went.

I'm a very bad host and didn't get a precise count of how many people we had, but I'm pretty sure there were about 22 or 23 of us, give or take. After we all sat down, we went around the room and had everyone introduce themselves and say a few words about their particular interest or connection to MCH history. I have to admit that I generally don't like things like that (I hate being called on to talk about myself in meetings or in classes), but it seemed like a good idea for the situation. Very few of us there knew one another in person, so it felt like a good way to get the "Oh, so you're so-and-so" out of the way up front. That went well (thanks everyone for playing along), and it even sparked a few discussions as we went.

After that, we broke apart to just chat amongst ourselves. There was a lot of information flowing, not surprisingly a good bit of it touching on the Eastburn family. There were several people related to the family, and even one resident of one of the old Eastburn houses. All the talk was aided by Donna Peters, who was prepared enough to bring her notebook computer with her extensive (and even "extensive" is an understatement) genealogical database. We had some refreshments to keep the talking going, too. I didn't catch who brought them, but the brownies were wonderful. I was lucky enough to take the last few home with me (also, my daughter says "Thanks!").

On a personal note, it was great to catch up with a few of the people who I had met before, as well as putting a few more faces with names. I don't think I got a chance to talk to everyone, but I got around as much as I could while everyone was milling about (yes, I used that one again). To anyone I missed, and to anyone who couldn't make it Saturday, I hope to catch up with you at the next one.

There aren't any concrete plans in place yet, but as of now I'm thinking we could meet up again in a few months, probably in May. I'm really liking the idea of seeing if we can reserve one of the pavilions at Brandywine Springs, and kind of make a picnic out of it. The only thing better than good conversation is good conversation and food. If the weather is nice and there's an interest, I'd also be happy to give a tour of the amusement park site while we're there. And as was touched upon on Saturday, we might even begin to have some business to discuss by then. But we'll get to that over the next few months.

So thanks again to everyone who attended, and everyone who helped to make it possible. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. We have a little community here at the blog now, and I hope that events like this will help to strengthen it even further. See you next time!