Cultural institutions across Massachusetts are keeping old traditions alive and well. An hour west of the city, in Sturbridge, Old Sturbridge Village is fanning the flames of rural 18th-century New England. The largest living museum in the region has over 200 acres, holds a variety of events for adults, kids, and families, and is a hotbed for long-forgotten crafts.

Just near Cape Cod and about 50 miles from Boston is King Richard’s Faire, a Renaissance fairground at Edaville Family Theme Park in Carver. The festival runs from the end of August through the middle of October, and has a jam-packed list of special celebrations, entertainment, games, rides, food, and drinks. It’s a one-of-one encapsulation of the medieval era, meticulously crafted to send patrons back into a bygone era.

What these two venues have in common isn’t just their shared keeping of the flame when it comes to older crafts and hobbies. It’s also a wealth of older volunteers and employees showing that age is no barrier when it comes to stepping back in time and reviving traditions of old. 

King Richard’s Faire

At King Richard’s Renaissance Faire, two different life paths have converged at one fairground. Chris Goguen and Maciej “Zak” Zakrzewkski come from different countries, are far apart in age, and pursue different hobbies. But one thing is the same: their drive for preserving age-old traditions.

Gogouen, 53, has lived in Massachusetts all his life. Originally from Ludlow, he now resides in Cape Cod. But his hobby, leathermaking, has brought him as far as Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Southern California. 

“Learning things helps us stay mentally alert,” Gogouen says. “As soon as you stop learning stuff, you kind of go into a shutdown mode.” He makes leather goods by hand, ranging from simple belts to full, intricate pieces of armor. Monday through Friday, he’s getting his hands dirty in his workshop. Saturday and Sunday, he sells the pieces at the renaissance fair. 

Gogouen also demonstrates leathermaking in front of crowds so they can see what the process is really like. He’s self taught, and has found that some of his client skills from his former career in sales have translated to the crowds of thousands he entertains on the weekends. 

“This stuff is a forgotten art, so preserving our heritage and some of these crafts is something you won’t see anywhere else [but the renaissance fair],” Gogouen says. He urges people to consider the importance of trying something new. “A way to keep yourself sharp is having knowledge of things like this,” he says. “These lost arts are so important, and modernization is great, but understanding where things come from is important not just for today, but for the future.”

Zakrzewkski has spent a lifetime upholding those values. Born in Poland and growing up there during World War II, he has lived in Argentina, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Scotland, Ireland, and now in the Commonwealth. He walked into the blacksmithing job at King Richard’s when he was 16.

Now at 92, he’s still hard at work.

“Handwork itself needs to be preserved,” Zakrzewkski says. “It tends to get ignored by machinery, but the manual work itself does a lot of help with physical and psychological moods.” Zakrzewkski credits his improvements in living with ADHD and dyslexia to his manual work. “Blacksmithing helps me stay centered.”

And he’s ensured at least a few members of the next generations have been brought up with those same values. He raised his children stressing the importance of doing handiwork and feeling satisfaction with seeing a project through completion. When he hasn’t been working in the blacksmith’s shop at the fair, he’s practiced martial arts, arranged flower bouquets, worked on metal sculptures, and he plays multiple instruments.

Avid fairgoers may even catch him practicing the drums on his smithing anvil.

“I’ve seen where these hand arts have been practiced,” Zakrzewkski says of his travels. “We need to keep the principle and unique form of conservatism — conserve that which is good, but grow through it.”

Old Sturbridge Village

Linda and Peter Oakley have been married for 43 years. Their relationship began when they met in the parking lot of Old Sturbridge Village, an outdoor historical museum in Central Massachusetts.

“I had just become interested in British folk music, and I went to my car and there’s this guy playing a tin whistle,” Linda, 70, says. The rest was history. And when it comes to history, the Oakleys have made their careers out of preserving it. “I wasn’t trained as a historian, but I’ve become one over the years of working here,” Linda explains.

Her time at Old Sturbridge Village is driven by a keen interest in historical artifacts, patterns, and the challenge and intrigue behind learning to do something with your hands. At the museum, her demonstrations range from making garment accessories, caps, capes, bags, and bookbinding. She’s also versed in making wearables, like hats, out of straw, and knitting.

“The thing that keeps me going is the artifacts,” Linda says. “Just being inspired by those original pieces and trying to duplicate that work as best we can without taking the thing apart, but to do the best we can to figure out the techniques that people used to create the things in our museum, on display, and in our demonstrations.”

The Oakleys have spent many decades at Old Sturbridge Village. Not only did the Webster residents meet there, but their careers have become intertwined with the museum. Linda used to be a teacher before she started volunteering at the Village. Peter takes his crafts home with him. The Sturbridge Village shoemaker runs both a shoe and tin making shop out of his own home, where he makes tinware for items like Revolutionary War-inspired canteens.

“What keeps me driven is making something, comparing it to the original you’ve been copying, and discovering you’re spot on,” Peter says. “We often get comments from people saying ‘Well, if the apocalypse comes we’ll be able to survive because we know how to do all these things.’”

The couple stresses that it’s never too late in life to break out a new hobby, and that their love for historical preservation is deeply rewarding.

“If you don’t know how something has been done, people might not know how it’s being done today,” Linda says. “I think you take things for granted, and that’s something I hear visitors say, We don’t know how lucky we are.’”