By Matthew E. Milliken

mmilliken@heraldsun.com; 419-6684

DURHAM -- Of all the exhibits at Pearson Magnet Middle School's colonial fair Tuesday, Adam Beyer's was probably the best in terms of yuck factor.

Four large containers sat on the table in front of the eighth-grader -- one containing a green substance labeled phlegm (actually pistachio pudding), one labeled yellow bile (lemon pudding), another marked black bile (coconut milk and molasses) and one identified as blood (not drawn from a sibling but made of corn syrup and food coloring).

Medicine in North America during the colonial era, Beyer explained, was not like today's. "They thought that if those [substances] got out of balance, it caused people to become sick," he said.

So physicians of the time would prescribe herbs and dietary changes. For instance, rhubarb, a natural laxative, was thought to diminish excess black bile. Doctors would also let blood, said Beyer, "which actually did a lot of harm to a person, but they didn't know that."

A visitor asked Beyer if he would have enjoyed being a patient in Colonial America.

"No!" he answered. "That was the other thing -- the average life expectancy of a colonist was only 25 years, so that's not so good."

Beyer was one of about 20 gifted eighth-grade students of Pearson social studies teacher Charlene Pennington-Best who staged the colonial fair Tuesday morning. Many Pearson students came to the library to see displays on many matters colonial.

Several of the students also performed music from the era, lending a rather collegiate atmosphere to the proceedings.

At a nearby table, Cynia Black and Elizabeth Piloso were displaying information on colonial textiles. Under a teacher's supervision, Black had mixed water, vinegar and tea leaves to dye some fabric brown; a mixture with turmeric turned a different piece of cloth yellow. "I never actually knew you could use food spices to dye your clothes," Black said.

Piloso had researched how colonists wove their own clothes and created a few sample weavings of her own. "I learned that weaving was hard," she said. "I mean, it must have [taken] them a long time."

In the center of the room, Destini Garrison, Rachel Utz and Jade McClain were giving away colonial recipes and showing off foodstuffs that would have been available to Americans of the time.

Garrison was fascinated to learn that some things we eat were consumed by the colonists -- although occasionally they went by different names. Today's doughnut, for instance, was yesterday's sweet ring.

Garrison added that some stuff colonists ate "I would never imagine myself eating." She cited liver.

"I have to say liver would not be my first choice of something to eat," Utz concurred.

The idea for Tuesday's event came from Pennington-Best's students, who are members of Pearson's first eighth-grade class. (The facility became a middle school in 2007.)

The fair was the product of nearly two weeks of research conducted by students with help from Pennington-Best and Dayna Durbin, the school librarian and de facto hostess of the event. (The fair took place in her room.)

Utz enjoyed the independent work that individuals and small student groups put forth to produce the fair. "I think it was a very interesting experience," she said. "I was very happy to do it."