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I sure hope this helps, especially that last part.

Thanks for the response.

I've met both "tators" and "visitors", among other catagories I could include.  The spectrum is a bit wider than those two extremes, with subgroups for each faction.

In effect, you can dismiss the "tator", but everyone else could warrent answering their question or discussing some aspect of the war.  

I also have given out the command "Eyes...Right!" when the cute jogger/jiggler came bouncing by on the park path during a reenactment.  Some things are worth breaking first person.

wow!

Joey,

Do you remember the person who wandered into camp at Athens, and explained the commercial significance of the Widow Gray's grove of trees? That's a visitor.

I think reenactors also may be training spectators/visitors how to respond. I wouldn't go to a Ren Faire and expect to get a detailed discussion about the historic context of mud wrestling, or to a buckskinner gathering and expect to get an answer to "what year is being portrayed here?"

Years ago I did a school presentation with my mainstream unit then, where we were in three classrooms, and the students rotated through from infantry, to me as medical, then to a cavalry fellow. We could each present however we wanted.

The cavalry guy complained that I was making it harder for him, because I did my presentation in first person and we got off into all kinds of topics in the question and answer, including in one case an African America boy who was having a great time talking to me as a slave owner. He enjoyed making me "look stupid" in front of everyone by arguing what was obviously right, while I argued what would obviously be proven wrong.

Well, when they went from that into the cavalryman, he wasn't prepared for it. They wanted to hear his views on the wide-ranging topics they'd asked me about, but he had to explain that he "didn't do that," and he was just going to talk about cavalry in the war. So he had to re-train them how to be proper spectators/visitors in his room.

Of course there will be some people who only want a certain kind of experience, whatever it is, and would never like anything else. They might be disappointed that there aren't enough explosions and neo-Confederate rhetoric, or they might be disappointed there aren't more accurate camps and in-depth discussion.

But I think there are also others who think they know what a "Civil War reenactment" is, based on others they've seen or frustration they've had when they try to make it into what it isn't, so they go with certain expectations in mind. If you're trying to present something else, you have to first somehow convince them that yes, this really is different this time.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net  

--Last edited by hanktrent on 2007-11-11 11:50:25 --

And then there are always those in the hobby who believe that without force on force battles, or even just firing demos, that historical interpretation is not only impossible, but not worth doing.

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Fatback and Beans wrote : And then there are always those in the hobby who believe that without force on force battles, or even just firing demos, that historical interpretation is not only impossible, but not worth doing.

There are also those outside the hobby who feel the same way.

Each of us can fill a niche.  Some will do some, even many, things well, while some will do better to concentrate a few, or even one, things that they do best, if not well.  We can all contribute something.

Bernie,

There is a great Karl Marx quote in there just begging to be set free.

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Those young gals in short shorts and sports bras often seen jogging the battlefields, as can be viewed at Kennesaw Mountain, among other places, well, by golly, that's scenery.  We might be reenactors, but we ain't dead.

Charles,

I often joke that if it wasn't for short shorts and halter tops I would have gotten out of the Hobby years ago. At this point,  it's about the only conceivable excuse for wearing a wool suit in July!  

To me, a spectator is somebody who stays behind the rope, watches the battle and goes home. A visitor is anybody who takes the trouble to come visit me in my camps. To me, any visitor, no matter his or her level of knowledge, deserves the best possible answer I can give to their questions, including "Is that uniform hot?". Depending on who I'm talking to, my stock answer is
"No, aren't you cold walking around in your underwear?". I then discuss the reasons for wearing the wool uniforms.  

There are differences in vistors. I do one or two living histories at Spangler's Spring, in Gettysburg, every season. I find the folks who visit this out-of -way location are often pretty knowledgeable about the Civil War. You better be on your game, when talking to these folks.