Fantasy vs. Harsh Reality

Taylor Vazquez, Amy Hall, and Jennifer Dobie

Daydreaming is a regular thing for majority of people. A place in your mind that you escape to from everyday life, but I think it would be great to actually escape to my fantasy and simply vacation and view it for a week or three. And of course, I found my solution without having to invent a time machine. Colonial Williamsburg a place where I can connect to my inner eighteen century side which sounds pretty un-freaking-believable! Which of course sadly, I have to say this whole entire time it is only an amusement retreat, where they take you on a journey through their version of history to evaluate our fantasy dreams and keep things “G rated”, but we also have to think of what the reality of the 1700’s. Take for example their advertisements, in the brown colored themed the black male dreams to build the town with his hard work skills. Funny, let us view back to our history books please, in the 1700’s blacks were slaves and had no rights, and I do not remember reading about any free blacks riding no their free will to America. The fact that his man is actually dreaming to give up his freedom to build homes for a master seems very unrealistic. Side note- If you look in the corner picture, you see a black man and his son. Notice anything odd? They are extremely clean for slaves, just saying. That master must be in to appearances since they represent him and his wealth. Another is the homeowner doing some yard work in her front lawn. “A gardener of the royal governor…”, so she gives up being a homeowner to a servant for someone just because she has this abnormal love for her hydrangeas which of course are the pride of Virginia. Now my favorite one, the purple themed ad with the very gorgeous Asian lady, She romanticizes being sailed off to the New Land where a rich man starved for love courts her and they end up married because he is not afraid of commitment. Okay one- she would be the mistress because two- she is not white. Three- her family is not wealthy. Four- no one married out of love. Sorry, the reality of the 1700’s is harsh, yes I know. Of course daydreaming is the use of your own creative imagination where actual history does not matter. Now all I have to say to Colonial Williamsburg is, keep it up. You are doing such a fine job of twisting history to match our fantasies, so you can stick your hands in our nice fat wallets. Dream on my friends… Dream on.