DARLINGTON – On Friday, April 23, the Lafayette County Historical Society held it’s second Game Day for local children in the Carnege Library in the downstairs of the museum.  
There were games such as Jacks, Marbles, “Goose” which is similar to the game of Chutes and Ladders. An outside game of “Hoops” was played, which uses decorated embroidery hoops and bamboo sticks and was discovered at a Platteville Encampment several years ago in the children games’ tent.
There were old stereoscopes with 3D pictures; a View Master with circular slides and an IPAD showing pictures and movies of some of the displays in the museum.  
A snack was provided. Guest speakers were Mike and Barb Dinges.  Mike, a retired high school teacher, spoke of his association with Amish families that started in the 1970’s.  He talked about the children and their manners and responsibilities.  From an early age the children help with the chores.  They are respectful and obedient toward their elders.  They attend school taught by one of the Amish.
Mike and Barb answered many questions by the children, most of who came from the class of homeschoolers attending the Friday Classical Conversations courses.  The students wanted to know about their clothing, games, foods, etc.  They found out that, other than clothing, there were many similarities to their own lives.  The Amish love to play baseball, for example.  And they eat the same kinds of food.  
Volunteers that helped at Game Day were Myra Taylor, Gloria Sperry, Mike and Barb Dinges, Marion Stanton, and Tristan Prater, the photographer.  
LCHS is an active organization.  On May 29 they will have an Open House with refreshments immediately following the Memorial Day Parade.  On Sunday, June 25th, LCHS and the Genealogy Society will sponsor a speaker, Lori Bessler from the State Historical Society, discussing finding your family’s ancestors anywhere and everywhere.  This will be at the Town Bank public meeting room at 1:30 p.m. with refreshments.  These events are all free to the public.  On July 9th they will be serving food for the Tunes at Twilight as a fundraiser.  Kammerude prints will be available.  
The Lafayette County Historical Society is funded by donations and fundraising events.  They exist because of you and would not be able to do so without funds and our volunteers.  There is so much more we could do with additional volunteers, such as recording stories of the past from people who lived them, researching people and events from our county to display at the museum, keeping the Depot open during the summer and having more Game Days for our children.  One of the students at the last Game Day said, “I wish we could do this more often.”  If you want to find out more, contact us at 776-8340 or contact president, Judy Hastie.