By Peter Covino
Entertainment Editor

No TV. No Internet. No text messaging.

Some Osceola County youngsters, used to a world where cell phones, microwave ovens and gaming devices are part of everyday life, had a rude awakening when they went to pioneer camp June 24 at the Osceola County Historical Society's Pioneer Village.

The Pioneer for a Day camp, held at the village, shows what life was like for youngsters living in the county in the 1880s.

They found out quickly that it was not such an easy life.

Even at 10:30 a.m., the Florida sun was beating down on the youngsters, who tried their best to fan themselves with their hands or other improvised devices, such as a piece of paper.

If they were really pioneer youngsters, Philip Jackson, pioneer guide and spokesman for the historical society, said, they would have already been up and working before the sun even came up.

At the society's cracker house, one of many restored buildings in the village, youngsters found out up close just what a bedpan was used for.

“Family members usually wouldn't go outside in the middle of the night,” Jackson said, and there certainly wasn't any indoor plumbing.

In the daytime, the bedpan would usually be placed in a cabinet called a commode, Jackson said. Which is why the bathroom is sometimes called a commode as well.

The youngest member of the family's first chore of the day was to empty the bedpans, Jackson said.

The sleepy-eyed Osceola County youngster of the 1880s next would venture outside in the dark, probably with a lantern, to milk the cow.

At the Pioneer Village, that cow is “Betsy,” a wooden facsimile of a real cow, who might be as likely to give a youngster splinters as she would milk.

Betsy does give milk, though, and the young pioneers all got to try their hand at milking.

Osceola County still has some pioneer heritage. Kelly Arwood, 12, said while she has never milked a real cow before, she has ridden horses because her grandfather owns a farm.

Another chore most pioneer youngsters would have had to tackle early in the day was the garden.

The Pioneer Village has a small plot for gardening, probably not big enough for a large family, and by late June, also not a great place for many vegetables because the heat and insects would have taken their toll.

So the campers learn another trick of pioneer living: canning and drying food.

On a large table, items such as Craisens (dried cranberries), a bottle of pickles and boxes of prepared oatmeal are displayed.

But families didn't have such luxuries in the 1880s. If there was a store, it was often more than a day's distance away.

So everything they ate came from the garden. Bread often was cornbread, made with corn from the garden.

“Cornbread? I hate cornbread. What about a hamburger?” Josh Borchardt, a 10-year-old camper from St. Cloud, said.

No, there was no hamburger, he was told.

The youngsters’ busy Pioneer for a Day schedule also included doing laundry with a laundry board, making butter, attending the Pioneer Village school house, pioneer game playing, a nature walk and making heritage crafts.

So could today's Osceola County youngsters make it through a Central Florida summer without air conditioning, TV and computers?

“Yes, I could,” said Jacob Bright, a blue jeans-wearing youngster from St. Cloud. “But I would have to have shorts.”

The Pioneer for a Day program continues through the summer at the county historical society with two more themed sessions, July 22 (Cracker Culture) and Aug. 12 (Florida's Nature).

Each program makes use of the society's Pioneer Village as well as the adjoining nature preserve.

Enrollment in the camping program is kept small. Registration is $30 per session and $15 for each additional child in a household.

Registration forms can be downloaded from the OCHS website at www.osceolahist

ory.com, or call the OCHS office at 407-396-8644.

The Pioneer Village and Osceola County Historical Society Museum are at 750 N. Bass Road and are open Thursday through Sunday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults and $2 for children 12 and under.