That's my what if.

Come and experience World War II with one of our nation's finest storytellers, Ken Burns.

New Hampshire Public Television invites you to a free preview screening of The War at the Capital Center for the Arts in Concord on June 28th.

After the screening, join Ken Burns for a candid question and answer session about the war.

For more information, go to nhptv.org/thewar NHPTV’s local programing is made possible in part by the Marie Schmidt Gerrato Trust, a living memorial to Marie and all those who shared her love of New Hampshire.

NHPTV See the difference Music Hi, I'm John Clayton.

And this is New Hampshire Crossroads Theme Music Today we’re at Apple Crest Farms in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire.

And we're going to find out what lies at the core of a family-run orchard.

This is where the apples are going to get ready to go to market.

Can anybody see a name, recognize a name that's on this bag?

Also on tonight's program, we’re going to Lyme, New Hampshire to listen to a group called Revels North.

What we're really, about is creating a family or community entertainment.

Then we'll take a look inside the photo archives of the New Hampshire Historical Society.

We have several very interesting collections here at the Historical Society.

One of them involves the Abbot Downing Company, which is probably best known for the manufacturer of the Concord Coach, which was the Rolls Royce of stagecoaches.

Then we'll get a look at another autumn harvest special, the Pumpkin Festival in Keene, New Hampshire.

We're hoping to break our own record of 13,044 pumpkins from last year.

But first, let's find out how apples go to market.

Music To do this, we went on a field trip with a kindergarten class.

We started out the day on the right foot, naturally, with snack time.

And naturally, there was a lesson to follow.

Okay, now I need one of you to hold this down.

Okay?

And, Sam, why don't you come up and you're going to grind this.

You're going to turn it this way.

Here we go.

I'll help you out a little bit.

There you go.

Inside this barrel, everyone can take a look.

We've got all the ground up apples.

This is what we're going to press, okay?

Now, again, this takes a while, as did everything back, back in the old days.

Out of one full bag, about a quarter gallon of cider.

See all that cider in there?

We're with Ben Wagner, who's one of the owners of this family-operated farm and we’re with a couple of educational aides, I guess, behind us.

Ben, you obviously invest a lot of time and energy in making this a learning experience for kids.

Why is that?

Well, the important thing is that, that kids learn as much as they can about agriculture, about farms, where their apples and other produce comes from, what the important parts are.

So we try to show them a day in the life of an apple orchard at this time of year.

As we go in, you'll see some of the big, the big bins of apples.

These ladies have a very important job that they do, because they have to recognize all the best of the apples that are coming by.

Now there are going to be some apples that are not going to be quite good enough to go to market.

And they're the ones that are in that big crate at the end of the packing line.

What do you think maybe those apples are going to go to do?

They're not going to go to the market.

What do you think we might do with those apples?

Apple cider?

Apple cider, absolutely!

Sheila Taylor is one of the parents with our kindergarten group today.

Sheila, what do you think about the educational experience for the kids?

The kids are really enjoying this day.

They've been preparing for it for about a week in school.

They've made applesauce.

They weighed apples.

They've learned a lot about the apples.

So they're they're, incorporating all of their education in this day.

They're really enjoying the trip.

They're looking forward to the hayride I think they're going to take.

Education is really, I think, more beneficial when it's fun, isn't it?

Yes.

Yes, that they enjoy that much more and they're able to bring it back and remember it in a fun way.

And that helps them to learn a lot better, I think.

And maybe if they bring an apple to the teacher from now on, they'll think a little bit more about what went into it?

Yes, yes.

After last year, we've tried to show them also the importance of bees as far as pollinating the apples and making sure we have a crop from year to year.

What is the most important bee in a hive, do you think?

The queen.

The queen, that's right!

The queen is the most important bee.

There's a real teaching component to what you do, Stephanie.

You seem to have a natural affinity for kids.

Yeah, I love it.

It was amazing to me the other day, this one woman came up to me and she had said that, I don't know, like a year ago, her two year old son had watched our bee demonstration that we do.

And, she, there was a bee in the car or something, and he just rattled off all this information about bees.

Like he just knew all this information, and it was all right, and she just couldn't believe it.

And she said to me, you know, you just have no idea how much you're reaching our kids and how much you're teaching them.

And I just think it's wonderful.

I wanted to cry.

How many of you guys have ever been stung before by a honey bee?

While the kids learn more about the role that bees play in an apple orchard, we're going over to Lyme, New Hampshire, to meet a group called Revels North and see how they celebrated their summer revels.

(inaudible singing) We're all the same We're all made of one clay So while we're here with our friends so dear we'll drive your care away Summer revels is a celebration of rural life.

Wow, this is a totally different world.

I mean, it's, it's just a different world to be in revels.

(women singing) Yeah, it’s good stuff.

I wish every, every community had ways of doing this kind of stuff.

Where are the Spaniards, that made so great a boast if you feel like joining in, well, you're not alone.

In every land, oh The land where’er we go Hal-an-tow, jolly rumble O For more than 20 years now, audiences from throughout the Upper Valley have sung along and danced to the music of this community theater group called Revels North.

Long before the day, O To welcome in the summer To welcome in the May O There's, there's a kind of a a group of, core group of people who do this show year after year.

But there's always new ones, new kids coming in.

Music Summer Revels is the troupe’s summertime production.

It's a celebration of song, dance, and community.

Music And this particular show is the influence of the Celtic countries on New England music.

So a lot of the music you hear will be adaptations or growth from the Celtic music that came from Ireland and Scotland, etc.

(singing) Try taking off your ears.

One ear there, one ear there.

And hear the sound just as if you have microphones on a wall.

(inaudible singing) It’s quite an experience to see it all come together.

In fact, it's a real community.

It's as diverse as any community would be.

But we have this unifying thing, this, this, this thing that we create together.

And it takes us, you know, three months.

We start about three months ago, we started rehearsing.

That's how sharp you go.

And it's on the Amen Together, the cast and crew endured weekend after weekend of exhausting summer heat during rehearsals, which took place in Grantham.

There are lots and lots of people helping to put it together.

And fortunately, as I said, this is one thing about the revels community is that they're not only a community singing together, but they're a community working together.

singing singing I have to confess that, when I moved up from New York City about ten years ago, I thought, wow, I'm going to be a little bit in the backwoods up here, you know?

And what it's, it's, it has proved to be really the opposite.

All kinds of talented people.

Band?

We're going to do the last verse one more time in f. It's different from directing in the big city, where people sort of sit back and take what the director has to say.

But up here you have to defend yourself.

People want to know why, and people do have their own ideas, and the show benefits terrifically from it.

And having new people come along keeps us fresh in terms of the themes that we do and also in terms of our sound.

Our sound is always sort of recreating itself because we have new people We’ll wheel him round and round o’ again and Many of this year's cast members were once members of the audience.

In fact, what they saw on stage inspired them and all felt the need to take part That's one of the things that intrigues me about being up here.

People are not overly impressed with other people.

It's like everyone is someone who has a job, and it doesn't make any difference whether you clean the streets or build the bridges or operate on hearts or direct musical shows, you're just another person who has a job to do.

And that's pretty darn refreshing.

And I like it.

I like it a lot.

Well, a lot of my friends who've been doing it for a long time.

Like after kids have done it for when you get around to doing it for at least three years, then people like your parents start being involved.

Green grass grew all around and the green grass grew all around my boys and the green grass grew all around Music, any kind of music.

has an ability to bring people together And, and in something like revels, people join, people try out because they're interested in being part of it.

So it's a self-selected group, which on some level is guaranteed to, for some kind of success.

And with a kiss the ring was closed in the wedding it’s come on, from courtship’s cares they are released, these two are joined in one These are our friends.

These are the people we do something with.

We make music.

We make theater.

We reach out to broad audiences.

And in so doing, we form our own relationships, that are transcending just the music.

And a lot of the people here are my permanent friends.

This is my Upper Valley community.

singing Revels is, as I have said before, it's a community.

The woman who is the props designer lost her husband this year, and the revels chorus called me and said, May we sing at the at the funeral service?

Now that's, that's revels.

We're not just on the stage, but we're, we're family and friends all the time, regardless of the situation.

And the green grass grew all around all my boys and the green grass grew all around!

And the green grass grew all around, my boys, and the green grass grew all around What we're really about is creating a family or community entertainment.

The tree on the hill and the hill sat still and the green grass grew all around This is a way you can give to an audience.

And the more you draw the audience in, the more you feel like you are then sharing some joy with them.

And the green grass grew all around my boys and the green grass grew all around.

And the green grass grew all around my boys and the green grass grew all around And so we we're loving each other and loving the audience and that's a big part of what the show is.

So of course I'm on there performing on stage performing, and the audience is there receiving love and sharing love back.

To take you to my chamber, love, my parent’s would not agree But sit you down by yon bright fire and I’ll sit close by thee You kind of see people beaming up at you.

There's this, you know, there's this immediate connection, and that is extremely exhilarating.

And once you've done that, you always look for it again.

(singing) I remember one year, a woman who I'd worked with in Brattleboro brought her sister up, who was dying of cancer.

And, it was it was extremely moving.

And she was sitting there beaming, and she died the next week, and, and, and she, this woman came to me later and told me how much that had meant to her sister to be there in the audience.

(singing) Without the audience getting involved.

It's just another show.

But, originally Jack Langstaff and Carol, his daughter, when they were inventing this form, they knew that the audience participation needed to be a big part of it.

And it always is.

(singing) Well, it’s just exhilarating, you know, it’s just I knew, I know this one loves to dance, and she loves music.

And so I knew she was really getting a kick out of it.

And, you know, if I can contribute to that, that's just a real lift.

(singing) It’s wonderful, good stuff.

Hard, it's hard to know why, why I mean, New Hampshire's.

I don't think they're probably a whole lot different other places except this sense of community.

It's not the low taxes.

I'm sure of that.

I'm grown up around here.

and crown him lord of all crown him, crown him, crown him lord of all And crown him lord of all Music We're back at Apple Crest Orchards, and my buddy Sam and I are going to go get some of the highest apples in the tree.

Music We've been spending the morning with a kindergarten class learning about apples and all of their many uses.

And we also have a wonderful group of about 24 or 25 gentlemen who come for about six weeks the end of July and or little longer into October from Jamaica.

Do you anybody know where Jamaica is?

There's a sociology to an apple farm that a lot of people don't realize as well.

For example, your apple pickers are not people who live down the street.

Right, right.

We, in the last 30 years, most apple growers in New Hampshire and New England bring Jamaicans in, the main reason is, is that there's virtually no local help to pick.

This is an agreement between the apple growing Jamaican government and the United States Department of Labor overseas.

The, the Jamaicans come up generally around Labor Day in this day for the harvest season.

They, they do a phenomenal job.

Most have been coming back year after year.

I would say the average time has been 20 years.

Music Tommy had a little mishap in the apple orchard.

Tommy, what happened when you bit into the apple?

I lost my tooth.

Show me?

Stick your tongue in, put your tongue back in.

Like this.

Show them It's time for me to have a little snack.

But meanwhile, we're going to send you over to Concord for a look inside the photo archives at the New Hampshire Historical Society.

Music The Abbot-Downing Company Collection that we have includes all kinds of things: ledger books, order forms, order books, designs, but I think the most interesting thing, of course, are the photographs.

And some of the photographs tell some really fascinating stories.

Here, for example, is a folder of photographs dealing with Buffalo Bill.

Buffalo Bill supposedly found the famous Deadwood Coach and incorporated it into his Wild West show.

And later on, when it was in pretty bad shape, he came back to Concord and not to have it refurbished, but he just brought it back to Concord.

And there are many, many photographs that were taken of it here in Concord, driven by Buffalo Bill himself.

And every single vehicle that was produced by the Abbot-Downing Company was photographed as it left the company.

So we have a wonderful record of all of these vehicles as they were produced and all the different types of configurations.

The Abbot-Downing Company, located in Concord, New Hampshire, was founded by Lewis Downing in 1828.

J. Stephen Abbot was brought into the company shortly thereafter.

During its heyday, which was approximately the 1880s, the Abbot-Downing Company was considered to be the Rolls-Royce manufacturer of wagons and coaches.

Its best known vehicle, the Concord Coach, played a vital role in the actual development of the western part of the United States, but by the turn of the century, the combustion engine brought a rapid decline in the demand for coaches.

By 1909, the company went bankrupt.

Its last remaining asset, its name and the name of the Concord Coach, were purchased by the Wells Fargo Corporation in the 1930s.

Music The range of sizes and uses of the vehicles that Abbot-Downing made was everything from street sprinklers, fuel carriers, and, of course, the passenger wagons, which had many, many seats were open or very few seats and enclosed.

Some of the photographs show some of the huge coaches that held so many people.

And a lot of these very large coaches were used to ferry people from the railroads to some of the hotels in the White Mountains.

As a matter of fact, the railroad was sometimes considered the downfall of the stagecoaches.

But that's not true.

It actually resurrected the industry because the tourists had to get to the hotel somehow, and more coaches were purchased by the hotels and by the railroads themselves for that very purpose.

Music We're back at Apple Crest Orchards, where the learning continues.

Every year we make over 20,000 apple pies.

One lady alone comes out, and she gets our our apple slices, and she makes 10,000 apple pies at home alone.

They send them on here, pushes it down and slices it into a barrel.

Isn't that a lot easier than sitting at home and peeling your apples?

Diane Hickey is the teacher in charge of this field trip.

And Diane, I'm guessing it's going to be more than one shiny red apple on your desk the next day at school.

I hope so, we love apples.

We've been talking about apples a lot at school.

You really did a lot to prepare for this visit, didn't you?

We did.

Every year, this is one of our major field trips, and we talk about nature and about things growing.

So coming to the apple orchard really is the climax of what we're doing in school.

Music Here it is, the perfect pumpkin.

Of course, it was a lot easier for producer Chip Neal.

We sent him over to Keene, New Hampshire, which is home to one of the largest Jack O'Lantern festivals in the world.

Music Well, this is our seventh festival.

It's only our fourth festival in terms of the Guinness World Records-setting.

It actually started with about 400 pumpkins.

The streets were not blocked off.

It was then called the Harvest Festival.

Music And then as we went in for the Guinness Book of World Records, the name changed to the Pumpkin Festival.

And we're hoping to break our own record of 13,044 pumpkins from last year.

And, we don't know, of course, with the weather.

Two years ago we had a monsoon, but we were close to 10,000 at that point.

So we're thinking this is going to clear and we're going to have a wonderful It is clearing.

we expect over 15,000 today in terms of pumpkins and 30,000 people.

I came here all the way from Maine to visit.

To visit the Pumpkin Festival?

Visit the Pumpkin Festival.

How did you hear about that in Maine?

Through the TV.

Okay.

Last year.

Okay.

So are your wildest expectations being met here?

Yeah, I'm enjoying it.

You're enjoying it.

Although the weather's bad, I'm enjoying myself.

Yeah.

Do you think they're gonna be able to keep all these candles lit in the rain?

I hope so.

When he was three years old, he attended the Harrisville Zucchini Festival.

I think I remember that, yeah, I mean, I remember that festival.

Yeah.

Oh, so you're kind of, zucchinis and pumpkins are pretty close together, right?

Yeah.

So you're kind of a squash family guy.

Yeah, exactly.

Well, we wanted something different for our wedding.

At first we didn’t.

This is different.

This is surely different.

At first we didn’t, but now we we we like it.

We think it's really cool.

So today's the day.

No matter what, you get married.

Yes.

By the powers vested in me by the sovereign state of New Hampshire, I now announce that you are husband and wife.

May the Lord bless and keep your home and family safe.

(cheering) Music Are we going to make it?

Oh, we're going to make it.

Music Well, we hope you've enjoyed our visit to Apple Crest Orchards here in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire.

And until next week, for New Hampshire Crossroads, I'm John Clayton.

A video of this program is available for 1995, plus $3 shipping.

To order your copy, note the program number on the screen, and call 1-800-20NHPTV VISA, Mastercard, American Express or Discover accepted.

Theme Music We’re taking the show on the road New Hampshire Outlook hits the main streets and back roads to keep you in touch and in the know.

We've got it all.