I posted this question over on the A-C Forum and it was quickly closed.

What is your opinion of what's too old to participate in CPH events as a private in the ranks?

Having turned 63 today, this is more than just a philosophic question.  

Well, Happy Birthday Bill!  You are never too old to be a kid!  

Congratulations, Bill.  Now you have another growth ring.  

Criteria for ceasing reenacting:

1)  Don't want to do it anymore.
2)  Can't do it any more, at least the way you want to.
3)  Can't come up with another approach to reenacting that you would like.
4)  No longer breathing.  Non-existant pulse.  Room temperature internal organs.
5)  Won the lottery big time, and there's no units on Maui.
6)  Nothing left to contribute to your comrades, spectators or the hobby.

Other than that.....
Oh, and Happy Birthday.  You don't look a day over 58.  

--Last edited by flattop32355 on 2008-08-15 21:08:33 --

2)  Can't do it any more, at least the way you want to.
BINGO!

It's not an age thing (too me). It's a look, maturity, and physical ability thing. I don't even care if you look female (male breasts, pony tail/long hair, beer belly pregnant)....or a female trying to look like a male soldier. Or don't look particularly Civil War (wrong race, ethnic background, religion, grey hair, prematurely bald, eye glasses, too tall, stocky to fat, too muscular, falsetto voice, no beard yet no straight razor nicks.....).

IF you can march in full ACW gear for 5 miles.....double quick airborne shuffle for a half mile with no knapsack and then fire rounds at the end of the 'jog'.....you're in. Anything less, you are out.... unless you are mounted.

My reenacting days are basically numbered due to a knee injury....it's either horsie's or stay home. If you can enjoy a charge across a field, Change Front Forward on 1st Company, and a good walk down a country road...keep at it!

Bill:
 First of all, a belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you, sir!  
To answer your question, I'd say anybody born before the Japanese officially surrendered ending WWII would be too old to participate.    Just kidding. It's all about your state of mind and state of health. It's one area we just have to accept a good bit of historical inaccuracy in regard to average ages of participants.
  If it makes you feel any better, here's a bit of history you might appreciate. Color-Sergeant Benjamin F. Walls of Company 'C', 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, was wounded in action during the April 9, 1864 fight at Pleasant Hill during Bank's Red River campaign. The wound ended Walls' service. Walls was sixty-five years old when he enlisted as a private in 1861. In September of 1864 he was not permitted to reenlist.
  So, you've got time. Of course, you could always do what Walls did and take up civilian life. The good thing about historical portrayals is that you can always take up an impression of someone who was the same age as you. Geezers are historically correct, you know.    
Happy birthday,  

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RJSamp wrote : 2)   IF you can march in full ACW gear for 5 miles.....double quick airborne shuffle for a half mile with no knapsack and then fire rounds at the end of the 'jog'.....you're in. Anything less, you are out.... unless you are mounted.

 RJ, you just disqualified 85% of the hobby, including the youngsters.    What are you thinking?

Heck, for most reenactors the test is if you're able to make the walk from the keg to the Port'o'Pooper and find your way back in the dark (in under two hours)  

Couldn't be serious today if I wanted to,  

There are mornings that I think it is time to hang up my traps and slide into a comfortable chair and watch the events on dvd. I am 61 and at the present time, I select the ones that I feel that I can do but there are a whole lot more that I would do if I felt I could physically do them but I won't put my pards out to take care of me at an event when they could be doing what they want to do.  So the answer is to do them as long as you can and enjoy every minute of it.

Happy belated b-day Bill. You're the day before me, but with 17 years more experience! I can at least say that Elvis died on my birthday, and it's the best present I ever got.

While it would be nice to see companies loaded with whippersnappers who are chock full of p*ss and vinegar, it is an awful lot of graybeards who seem to hold the thing together. I gueess I look at aging in the hobby like I look at pro athletes and pro/college coaches who hit the wall but don't go out when they're on top of their game. As this is a hobby, it's always going to come down to individual choice. For me, I'm giving myself 4 more years on the military side of things. IF I stay active at all, it will be doing the GAR reunion tours.

Back to lurkdom.

Bill,

You ask: "

Quote :

What is your opinion of what's too old to participate in CPH events as a private in the ranks?

The answer depends on the event, and I'll quickly point out many event slots exist beyond being a private in the ranks.

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Charles Heath wrote : Bill, I'll quickly point out many event slots exist beyond being a private in the ranks.

Charles,

My single most favorite part of the CPH side of the Hobby is nobody ever asks me to fill those other slots! I just get to play!  

My question really concerned if and when older reenactors become a distraction to the younger participants. The consensus seems to be that it is not an issue for most people.

BTW RJ.

The "airborne shuffle" wore me out when I was twenty-five and in the Airborne!    

--Last edited by Bill on 2008-09-30 15:15:10 --

Bill, belated happy birthday.  I have to agree on the Airborne shuffle too!  I spent way too much time at FT Benning's School For Boys (Infantry School, Jump School, Ranger School, IOBC and IOAC) and it killed me too!  I say as long as you are up to it and still have the drive, do it.

RJ, we must ride a little differently because I find my knee (or the parts that are left of it) are killing me after a weekend of hard riding.  I find marching a lot easier on it.

Yea Barry, my Texas Grandfather taught me how to ride like a sack of potatoes at the ranch outside of Lampasas (actually Lometa) Texas. and I'm not doing cavalry riding.....staff rides are a lot easier...only an occasional gallop and usually over easy terrain. So no posting, no rise and fall with the diagonal on the wall, no jumping.....when we walk or stand I let the right leg/knee stretch out outside of the stirrup....

As fat as I am I actually was doing fine for walking and double quicking in ACW reenacting....until I fell down our steps and tore the medial meniscus in my right knee,.....last April. So now I hobble around and can't do campaign marching events....

Bill, I am some months older than you and my goal is to be the oldest campaigner hardcore private still in the field...I know of at least one buddy who has the same goal--and we're the same age. We're waiting to see which one of us falls first. (kinda grim ain't it?)
What I do is sort of baby myself during ordinary events and save myself up for the hardcores. Also keeping a healthy diet, exercise, and lifestyle is essential.
Just this morning I saw a 73 year old man who made a college basketball team!!
So it's all in the mind--desire, and taking care of yourself. And guts.
But as an old Bummer friend of mine said (who is three years older than me), "It's OK as long as you keep going...but if you ever stop--you'll never start again." (He outmarched me until a mild heartattack--but he still reenacts.)

Spence~

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Bummer wrote : Bill, I am some months older than you and my goal is to be the oldest campaigner hardcore private still in the field... Spence~

Spence,

I noticed you are registered for "After the Battle" and we are in the same company. I'll see you there.  

Bill

Bill:

We still have two guys over 70 toting muskets.  One you'd never guess he was.

So I suspect it sort of like playing pro sports.  You quit when your body tells you too.

But then, if your over 30, don't be in the ranks and lecture me on authenticity.  By the way I join the 50 group next month.

Quote :

Bill wrote : I posted this question over on the A-C Forum and it was quickly closed. What is your opinion of what's too old to participate in CPH events as a private in the ranks? Having turned 63 today, this is more than just a philosophic question.

Bill,

I’ve been thinking about this long and hard and decided that I will be too old to participate in CPH events when I get to be your age because that just old!  ;)  

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hendrickms24 wrote :   Bill, I’ve been thinking about this long and hard and decided that I will be too old to participate in CPH events when I get to be your age because that just old!  ;)

Mark,

I'm finding I enjoy those "wounded soldier" impressions more and more!  

What can I, the old, gray, overweight, slower moving reenactor contribute to the good of the hobby (to myself, my comrades, the events, and the spectators) when I admit that I look nothing like a real Civil War Soldier?

1) I look more like one than no image at all.
2) My accumulated knowledge base about the period.
3) My desire to keep the memory of time alive, though not perfectly.
4) It gives me something to do that I like doing.
5) I can afford to help out newer hobby members with less disposable income.  I can learn 'em a thing or two, also.
6) I attend.  That's more than can be said for some younger folk.

There's a few other things that us old farts can do that perpetuate our usefulness to the hobby, including those aspects of organizing and running units and events at the administrative/logistical levels.

When it stops being enjoyable, when I stop being useful, then it's time to stop.  Until then.....

Thank You Mr. Biederman,
You said : When it stops being enjoyable,when I stop being useful,then it is time to stop.

I am getting old quick.I will be 59 next month.
I am increasingly paying for my misspent youth.
Being grossly overweight for over 35 years has taken a toll on my feet, ankles and knees.  Weight loss surgery has given me a new life.Almost 5 years ago now)
My fourth season as an old soldier is coming up and I am looking forward to it. The great soldiers of the Federal 6th Ohio have made a place for me and I am greatful.  
I cook and command the coffee pot.
The enemy will have to pry my cold dead hands from my Enfield before they get my coffee pot!!!

See you around the camp fire.

Your Obedient Servant, Sgt. Dan Girton, Co. A, 6th OVI