While studying inventions, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, we thought a lot about what life was like in the past compared to how we live today, and learned the stories behind many modern conveniences.
One of the things we learned about the Middle Ages was that people in the peasant class were tied by the feudal system to the land where they worked, and many never traveled far outside of their village in their lifetimes. Only wealthy nobles and knights had horses, so most people were restricted to travel only as far as they could walk.
What a far cry from today in America, when many families own not one, but often two (or more) cars! It was interesting to learn and think about how inventions like the printing press and the steam engine have changed the way people live ... and what better place to see the evolution of things like automobiles than Tacoma's very own LeMay Car Museum?
We were particularly interested to see the Model T Ford - which we learned was not actually the first car, but the first car that was affordable enough to make owning one possible for middle-class families, thanks to assembly-line construction. We also tried our hand at creating our own cars, testing them for aerodynamic efficiency, improving them and testing again!
Here's that famous Model T! It was like greeting an old friend when we got to see it in real life!
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