Me thinks the curse is broken and the valley will remain in a state of drought:

http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/weekend/USVA0837?from=dayDetails_topnav_business


Looks like the best chance is on Friday. NOAA says in the am.

At High Tide, Gettysburg 1863

June 27-29, 2008

By WMHF and pards.

See you there

Pards,

Chris,
I assume you posted the info you e-mailed me in the events folder?

Quote :

bill watson wrote : I'd forgotten all about the demands of the baggage. It's like folks were doing little except eat and have battles, sort of building up/conserving energy for the reloading on Sunday after exhausting themselves setting up Thursday or Friday.

Welcome Bill W.

I attend two or three "Family Friendly" events with my wife Sandy, and our Grand Kids, Lauren and Steve, every season. Lauren has been attending events for three years while this has been Steve's first season. We bring enough tentage, food, clothing, cots, coolers and other impedimenta for a regiment. I have learned that family harmony requires me to load up, set up, and shut up! Sandy spends untold hours making clothing, fixing food, packing, and unpacking her various boxes and baskets.

In many ways, these events are a huge pain, but I wouldn't miss them for the world. Little Lauren talks about going to "Civil War" all year. Just watching Lauren and her brother running around with the other kids makes my day. These events don't have much to do with authenticity, but they sure are fun!

In the First Battalion, I'm known as "Colonel Poppy"!  

Oh yeah, Sandy and I don't consider the big events family frendly. Just too much hassle to be tolerated.

To go along with what Mr. Rodman has written, if you are taking a wife and two kids to a reenactment with a “family oriented” unit you better think in terms of a trailer.  Back when every member of my family participated in this hobby, it took virtually half a day to put all of that stuff in a single pick up truck.  Some times it took an additional vehicle and that’s no joke.  One was packed to the gills and the other transported people.

Once you arrived on site there were two tents, two flies, enough cast iron to make an anchor for a battleship, seemingly miles of rope, (got a hernia totting tent stakes,) clothing racks, three foot lockers, four cots, camp furniture (none of which was small) and on and on and on.  Everybody brought their entire family.  Back in those days it took acres to get my unit settled in for the weekend.  The camp was not complete until a lantern was hanging off of every limb, a chemical toilet under the blanket, and cell phone under the pillow.  Don’t even guess at the time it took to set up that circus.  

The question begs to be asked why do you continue with such a parody?  Things change. Precious little remains the same.  Now days, that camp scene is toned down to a mere fraction of what it was in those crazy days.  Wow!! Has it ever changed.  If you saw us today you would never believe we were the same organization.  Yeah, it’s possible for an entire unit to get better at what it does.  It’s not easy but it can be done. It’s not going to happen quickly, but it can happen.   Leadership is the key, but this is not the time to go into that.  

Some of the most cherished memories I have came from those days when all of us were together at reenactments.  Those memories, and there are scads of them, are my treasures.  The hobby brought my son, who was reticent as an adolescent, out of that phase and helped make him into the dynamic young man he became.   I am thankful for it.  The other one, who is a college senior, was a child.  Nonetheless, she still talks about incidences that happened at those places.  

I’m the only participant left in this house.  Those kids have grown.  One has his bachelors and masters in history and is off saving the world from itself.  Having those degrees in history is no mere coincidence.  That was not an accident.  The other is still allowing dear old mom and dad to buy this most nebulous of commodities called an education.  

Was it worth the trouble?  It wasn’t any trouble.  Would you do it again?  I haven’t stopped.  

Quote :

Bill wrote :   In the First Battalion, I'm known as "Colonel Poppy"!   Oh yeah, Sandy and I don't consider the big events family frendly. Just too much hassle to be tolerated.

When you were given that moniker it was probably one of the funniest moments for the weekend.  

All lined up and ready to march out.. only to be halted by a little girl calling out "poppy..poppy.."

Quote :

Charles Heath wrote : Quote : "Nobody goes with what they ate back then," he said, "because they really didn't have anything to eat back then. All they had was hardtack." Food and marching are two the things we can get somewhere close to right, as mentioned in the CRRC2.

One thing that is "authentic" about these mega events is the hundreds of people wandering around trying to find where their "companies" are camped.  

My wife bought for me Not War, But Murder by Ernest B Ferguson  and he has an account on page 53-53 that describes this sort of.

Below Ashland, in the black of the night, Anderson's Corp halted, with orders to draw rations, cook, eat and be ready to march in two hours.  Eggleston had somehow gotten soda and salt, and when bacon and flour were issued, he set out to find water while his messmate made a fire. "The only possible way to do my part was to walk continually down grade, in no matter what direction, until I found a stream.  Of course this meant being utterly lost and the countless fires made the confusion all the greater."  Filling the canteens, he tired to find his way back by walking steadily uphill.  When he wandered among strange troops he began calling out for "Haskell's Battalion!" and then "Lamkin's Battery!""Hundreds of others were doing the same, and the effect was weird indeed," he recalled.

we are one of those families that reenact okay my hubby was dragged into because of me (he secretly enjoys it..he wont admit it yet..but he keeps asking when the next one is!).

we are going to have to buy a trailer... thankfully i have taken on a new job, and hopefully by next season we will have the money for it.

4 children and 2 adults take up enough space as it is... then you add in an extra set of clothes (at least for the children... i dont mind dirt, but like to see them start out half way clean..and then theres the rain and mud issues). then you add in quilts and pillows for sleeping, oh and the tent and all its poles, ropes and what nots. then you have the cooking equipment... cooking for just 6 takes larger (or more) pans, but i am also the cook for the unit, which requires even more pans! add in the *ahem* cooler and that takes room (yah i know what most of you think about the cooler... some of us need it though we have medication that has to stay cold, and we do have children! i do keep it hidden in the tent with quilts). then add in the chairs or whatnots to sit on... times that by 6 (we are still working on getting those actually), and a table for the cook to cook on (once again still working on).  im working on getting the hubby to build me some boxes to store everything in. and then we can put it all in the trailer and keep it there

im just thankful the children really enjoy reenactments (and the hubby does too... he just wont admit it. he has said we can cancel our annual event to see my family so we can go to a reenactment. so i figure thats a start!).

It's funny,

I wear uniforms, that in some cases, haven't been washed in twenty years and my wife accepts that. If the Grandkids get so much as a spot on their clothing, she's not happy until they're changed into something clean.  

sounds like me bill.. though ill tell you, im having a hard time not washing my hubbys uniform!! and hes told me to not iron his shirts

i keep a bucket of water on the fire to wash down my kiddos throughout the day!

Speaking of water on the fire, and since this thread is titled Gettysburg, I'll relate a couple of 07 Gettysburg fire incidents. On Friday, during a moderate wind, a tent (and contents) burned. It had been pitched way too close to the cooking fire and inadequately staked. Fortunately, no other tents were damaged. More fortunately, none of his rounds inside the tent "cooked off". He had his ammo in a wooden box and the fire was extinguished before it burnt the box.

The second incident involved a dress fire. Listen up Dulcie, since you do commissary. The wind blew the cooking flames her way, she was standing a mite close, and the next thing she knew her dress was on fire. Kudos to the rapid response from the medical personnel for their almost instant response. Luckily, she wasn't burned severely and was back at the event later in the day. I spoke with her and although she had a well bandaged hand and leg, she will be fine in a few weeks. Both of these incidents occurred a couple of streets away from ours, and sent a loud message to everyone in the Confederate camps.

 My company always has a fire bucket near the fire, for obvious reasons. In light of this experience at Gettysburg, we've decided to have a small kitchen type chemical fire extinguisher in a discreet, but easily grabbed location near the fire. A water bucket is great, but it doesn't help with a grease/oil fire, which is the most likely cause of a fire in a kitchen area.

Gregg Hensley
22nd NC

Thanks Gregg... we are working on ways to keep me away from the fire. Since putting on trousers isnt really an option for me! I think we have come up with me telling me the men what to do and having them keep the fire going and doing the stirring and such. That way Im still doing most of the work just away from the fire.  I do have some wool fabric here that I need to make into a cooking dress... though I am having problems giving up my hoops. So I can keep the hoops and make the men do the fire work.. or get rid of the hoops and wear more petticoats and do the fire work.  I think Ill just tell the men what to do most of the time

Quote :

A water bucket is great, but it doesn't help with a grease/oil fire, which is the most likely cause of a fire in a kitchen area.

Don't forget there are probably some wool blankets around for smothering.

I made Linda a couple of long wool aprons for cooking too.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

Quote :

chatrbug wrote : . though I am having problems giving up my hoops. So I can keep the hoops and make the men do the fire work.. or get rid of the hoops and wear more petticoats and do the fire work.

Dulcie,

I had an interesting discussion about this very subject with Karin Timour, this past weekend. Wear wool, it will give you some advance warning that you are indeed catching fire. If you are wearing hoops and catch fire, remember that old standby of drop and roll won't work. All you'll do is fan the fire. Just squat down so your dress comes up around you. The fire can then be either smothered, as Hank suggested, or put out with water.  

Most of my dresses are wool... so I have that covered!

Okay.. so now I need to see Gettysburg so I can actually say something on topic