February 16, 1667
Dear Captain,
I am back from the colonial times and I am reporting back to you from headquarters. I will tell you about my time there. So I was stepping out of my time machine that you let me barrow. I was walking through the woods and saw a little girl and a little boy. The little girl looked about seven and the little boy looked five. They saw me and came over and said “hello”. I said “hi! What are your names?” the little girl said “ my name is Alice and this is my little brother Edward. He does not talk much.”
They brought me into the town that was near. There was a lot of shops there. A blacksmith works with iron and steel, A silversmith makes anything out of silver like jewelry, A cabinetmaker makes furniture, A chandler makes candles, A cobbler makes shoes for the people, A cooper makes barrels, A gunsmith makes guns, etc. Alice was talking to Edward for a moment, and Alice suddenly asked me if I would join them and there parents for dinner. I said yes I followed her and Edward down a narrow path and saw a little cabin like house. The mom was named Elizabeth and the fathers name is James. The mother asked what I would like to drink I was going to say water but then I remembered that they did not drink water so I said milk. James got up and I saw a flag but it was not the same as the one we got now. It had a circle of stars in the blue. Edward said that the would tell me bout the laws and trading habits and the government.
So today they said first was the trading habit the said the traded goods like knives and some other weapons and the Indians would give them all sorts of furs. Alice said that only men could vote and women can not. When the men go to work and the children go to school the women do the house work like the dishes. The government make the laws and one is that you cannot go swimming it was a waste of time. The kids could only play when there chores were done. When there were meeting the men went and the woman still stayed home I was starting to think that woman did not do anything and just cooked cleaned and did the dishes and I saw another law that if the mother talked back to the father then she had to go to the ducking stool it was a pole that had a chair on the tip and the had to go under water. The boys went to school more than girls because the girls had to go back to the house and help their mothers clean the house. I really felt bad for the woman and young girls because they could only do chores. A lot happened in that one week I was there but now it is time for me to go I said goodbye to Alice and Edward and got in the time machine and left.
Sincerely Maria Alize Anzaldua