Jake and Emily are typical children growing up nowadays, used to the conveniences that many have grown accustomed to, their mother, April Ward, said.

“I think being here today helps them appreciate what they do have,” she said. “You know, not everything comes so easy and at one time, your clothes didn’t come from the store.”

Both children enjoy playing with tablets, video games and other electronics, but Ward said she tries to balance that out with other activities like Boy Scouts to help her children learn more about the world and connect them with skills that are needed.

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“That keeps them grounded and let’s them enter both worlds,” she added.

Jake shrugged his shoulders when asked how he thought pioneers would have survived without an Xbox, but had a simple answer when asked if he thought he could go without one.

“I probably could,” he said.

As he was leaving, Richey was ready to carry on his birthday festivities by going to a bowling alley, something the early settlers of Indiana settlers couldn’t do.

Kathi Linz, information services, organized the event and said it is important for children to understand how pioneers lived because nowadays there seems to be a disconnect on how they lived.

“Technology is so prevalent and it changes so fast that we really don’t have a clue what it was like, even as little as 70 years ago,” she said. “The things that my mother taught me were tied to her mother and now I’m passing some of those things down to these kids here today.”

Linz spoke about a string and button spinner and how most kids do not know what they are because they don’t have access to them.

“That’s not a toy you can pick up at Wal-Mart anymore because nobody uses it,” she said.

Linz said the library used nine volunteers throughout the day to help pull off the event.

“We try to connect the people with information of all sorts and that includes our history,” Linz said when asked why the library felt it was important to join in the Indiana Bicentennial.

The library will continue its celebration of the state’s 200th birthday with an event featuring Lori Roberts at 2 p.m. Nov. 5 at the Seymour library. Roberts is a local author that portrays Ann Jennings, the second wife of the first Indiana governor, Jonathan Jennings, and shares the history of Indiana.

One of the most unique features of Saturday’s Pioneer Days event was the apothecary display Jennifer Plumm of Crothersville was working.

Apothecaries could write “prescriptions” in those times, so Plumm had a quill pen to show participants how to use it. They practiced from the 1650s to the 1790s and used only plants that people would have found in the Indiana territories.

Plumm said she has always been interested in apothecary and history, and it has become an interesting and niche hobby. She also has experience in acting, as she was involved in medieval reenacting for 11 years.

“So two things I could put together was my love of history and my love of herbs,” she said. The acting helps her get into character and portray what an apothecary would be like in a given time period. She has since transitioned into a role of the revolutionary time period.

People that stopped by her area enjoyed smelling all the different oils and herbs and many of the children enjoyed the quill pen, she said. Plumm said the library had many books and information about apothecary and that she has several books to keep up on her hobby.

“The library has everything you need to start your herb quest,” she said.