Shear Pleasure

PINEY FLATS, Tenn. –  Delilah was pinned, yet placated, under T.J. DeWitt’s skillful hands Saturday as he snipped thick tufts of oily wool from her hide.
Several quiet minutes had settled over the two dozen or so onlookers as they watched DeWitt shear the ewe, when the thin voice of an inquisitive child rang out, “Why are you dressed like that?” he asked.
DeWitt, in gray knickers latched to black suspenders, looked up while he held the female sheep down with one hand and two knees.
“Because this is what they wore in the 1700s,” he said.
Cody McKinnon, a 10-year-old in the crowd whose gazed was fixated, seemed to contemplate the old-fashioned scene before him.
His grandmother, Darlene McKinnon, was by his side.
“They’re just amazed by old-timey things,” she’d said minutes before.
Delilah, the sheep, lives at Rocky Mount Living History Museum, and at 2 p.m. Saturday, she was the main display during Woolly Days, a six-hour Eastertime event that drew hundreds to the Piney Flats farm to witness how folks used to celebrate the end of Lent – back in the day.
“They dyed Easter eggs using onions and made candles by dipping a long string in and out of hot wax,” said the eldest McKinnon, as her four grandchildren bounded about the grounds of the museum’s backyard, where several “old-timey” Easter traditions took place. “The most important thing in the world today that kids need to learn is how to survive on very little.”
Three generations of the McKinnon family – six in all – enjoyed several hours together as a family at the museum, she said. The matriarch, Darlene, of Bluff City, Tenn., went with her daughter, Stephanie McKinnon, of Bristol, Tenn., her two kids, Cody, Joey, 7, along with her sister-in-law’s two kids, Hunter, 8, and Hannah, 4.
The best part: It cost the entire family just $25.
“It would have cost us $100 to go to the movies today,” Stephanie McKinnon said. “And we’d just be staring at a screen. That’s the best part, out here, they’re learning, they’re running around and interacting with other kids and excited about it.”
Her mother added, “I think they just realize how lucky they are seeing all this. It puts everything in perspective.”
The McKinnon family spends every Easter together, and for them, Saturday was the day before Easter. Due to family scheduling conflicts, they’ll be celebrating the holiday today – a week earlier than the official holiday.
When they left Rocky Mount, Darlene McKinnon said, they were all going to her house, where they would dye more Easter eggs – using dye bought at the store, rather than boiled onions – and then hide them for the morning’s hunt.
“I got to spend the holiday with all four of my grandchildren,” the grandmother said. “This is something we can all do together.”
After exploring the museum and participating in the activities out back, the McKinnon family joined the large group standing by as DeWitt sheared piles of yellow raw wool off the cooperative Delilah.
“Does she feel greasy?” he asked the group, after inviting them forward to pet her. “That’s called lanolin, we use sheep lanolin in lotions to make our hands soft.”
DeWitt explained the process of shearing sheep, which is not so much an Easter activity as a springtime ritual, and how the raw wool is processed exhaustively by hand to create colorful garments worn by 18th century Tennessee families.
The four McKinnon children acquired coonskin hats, which they wore as they listened and learned the history of Easters past.
Darlene McKinnon beamed while surrounded by her brood. And as she smiled, her expression grew slightly grave.
“Pappy died two years ago this May,” she said of her late husband, the children’s beloved grandfather. “It’s really rough because these are things we would be doing with him. But also, these are a lot of the things we do to keep his memory alive.”
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