You may remember Washington Irving’s short story of Rip Van Winkle, first published in 1819. Rip Van Winkle was a Dutch-American villager who had a habit of avoiding work. He lived in a village at the foot of the Catskill Mountains in the years before the American Revolution.
To shorten the short story: One day Rip met a mysterious Dutchmen and a group of men playing ninepins. Rip imbibed their strong liquor and fell deeply asleep in the Catskill Mountains. When he woke up twenty years later, the world was very changed—instead of King George, there was President Washington.
