We have family members present at reenactments.  Normally, these people dress as period correct as their knowledge and resources will allow.  This is not deemed as any sort of dilemma.  As a matter of fact, these are an asset to our unit.  In an informal discussion last weekend it was decided the individual most correct in all things was one of our female civilian members.  I have no intention of embarrassing any one, but her name would be familiar to a few members of this forum.  What is seen as a problem are those few families who make little, or no, effort to blend.  It puts an additional burden on my blood pressure medication when people in shorts, tee shirts, and flip flops take up residence on the company street while dad does his reenactment thing for the weekend.  Hmmm?  Need to get that prescrïption refilled.

Curtis,

Good point. If you want to wear modern attire in camp, then please camp in the modern camping area not the authentic camps. My wife will not step foot out of her tent until she is properly attired for the event. About the only exception is she may come out with her hair undone to get one of the other ladies to help her get it taken care of. Another pet peeve of mine are the guys who stay in their period attire but slip into tennis shoes at night.......ugh.

This is one of the places where we may not always be able to recreate with accuracy how they did it.

Take six men of period average height and weight and place them together with their gear, and you can fit them in, if only with spooning.  Quite possibly, the weapons and maybe the leathers are stacked outside.

Now try doing the same with men of today's proportions; a bit taller and mostly heavier.  We can get crowded at four men, with three lying with feet towards the door and another man below their feet crossways at the door, much less all four sleeping in the same direction.

It's virtually impossible to get them all in if you start adding additional gear.  Even a drum takes up a good deal of space.

"It" (insert antique or repro here) looks "old timey" so, it must have been around during the CW. Saw some Deitz lanterns and old wooden folding chairs in a CW camp yesterday, those examples, are fine ones. I saw Charles too but, not in that camp.

We had some boy scouts in our camp, and from the looks of things someone needs to 'splain to them about lowlands around springs. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with one black sock and one white sock, but I know how that sock got that way.

I'm being so nice.  

Charles,

You weren't at Spangler's Spring were you? We were doing a living history there last year and a young man lost his shoe in the swamp where the water now comes out of the ground below the orginial spring. One of the guys tried to retreive the lost shoe and pulled out five other sneakers before he found the correct one.  

Bill,

Yep. As much as I have sworn off G'burg living histories at the Pitzer's Parking Lot or the Penna. Broiler, I do enjoy Spangler's Spring.

I was there about 15 minutes and got drafted for you know what duty. Oy!

Quote :

Curtis Makamson wrote :   What is seen as a problem are those few families who make little, or no, effort to blend.  It puts an additional burden on my blood pressure medication when people in shorts, tee shirts, and flip flops take up residence on the company street while dad does his reenactment thing for the weekend.  Hmmm?  Need to get that prescrïption refilled.

Curtis,

I have no problem with the members of our group staying in period attire, although little children and fast growing feet can be a problem. Peer pressure seems to solve those problems.

What I've run into and have no answer for is the all day visitors. Our camp is open to spectators; in fact, that's why we are there. But, we've had family members or girl friends who show up and hang around camp all day.

Uh huh, Bill, those all day long visitors can get to be an irritant.  This is especially so when their appearance becomes predictable.

Your group may not be as lenient as ours when it comes to fast growing feet.  We had a four kids who were moving into the next size shoe every six to nine months.  Mine was one of them.  I thought my boy had guts in his feet.  We ended up letting them wear any black leather shoe and hiding most of it with gaiters.

What was even funnier than watching the first guy try to cross the "swamp" at Spanglers Spring, was watching the guy who tried to follow him. "tha's why the sojers crossed up here..."

Grumpy,

I love the Spangler's Spring area, but it has probably changed more than most places on the Battlefield. The mill pond to the east of of the Spring is gone. The wooded area was much smaller and it was tended woodlot, not a wild plsce. The Park Service is not going to take the trees down along the Baltimore Pike because of modern housing along the road. So the artillery along the Baltimore Pike will continue to "fire" into the trees.

You need a clue, if you are going to talk to the spectators at that Spangler Spring LH site. Especially since you tend to get a more knowledgeable class of spectator. I don't think that swampy area right along the road was there at the time of the Battle, but it fun to watch the kids get stuck.    

Bill,

The sharpshooting from the mill on the other side of the creek was one of the items discussed at the 13th NJVI monument last year, and our walk out to Powers Hill gave us a little better idea as to what transpired on the backside of that fight.  There was a lot more going on in that area than meets the eye.  

I'd like to know more about the role of the Spangler's Spring as a pre-war community gathering area for picnics, the usual political affairs of the day, etc.  We are reminded of this from time to time, but never really get into it.

I understand the LHG memorial march may be in that area this November.

coming from someone that is trying to find a few new pair of shoes... geez... whats up with kid feet? i bought their shoes large and yet they are all outgrowing them! thankfully 2 pairs can be passed down. i think im going to take a pair of my old boots and have the speed laces taken out and fixed (may have to see...teh price may not be worth it!). that would only leave 1 to find shoes for.

i got very lucky with the shoes they had this season. one had her boots i had paid under $20 for off ebay. the other 3 i happened to see a sale at walmart for shoes that looked almost like dhs brogans... i got the sizes i could, but they were pretty picked over (i think the amish got some!), but at $2 a pair, i was happy. i havent even seen those shoes again either. so now im going to keep searching ebay.

Quote :

chatrbug wrote : coming from someone that is trying to find a few new pair of shoes... geez... whats up with kid feet?

Dulcie,

I feel your pain. We got Lauren a nice pair of shoes back in May, which she has already outgrown. Sandy picked up a pair of slippers for her to wear for an event last weekend. They had to be dyed and the process shrunk them. Sandy was off to WalMart on the Saturday morning of the event trying to find something for Lauren to wear.

Sandy buys Lauren's shoes at an Amish shoestore in Lancaster County. Funny, most of the Amish kids are getting sneakers, while Lauren is getting fitted with the hightop leather shoes.      

Quote :

Bill wrote :   What I've run into and have no answer for is the all day visitors. Our camp is open to spectators; in fact, that's why we are there. But, we've had family members or girl friends who show up and hang around camp all day.

Bill

I am not sure what you can do with that.  Last year we had a new recruit show up to an event and his family came to watch and they dropped their cooler and lawn chairs right in camp near the end of the company street.  

Quote :

lhsnj wrote : I am not sure what you can do with that.  Last year we had a new recruit show up to an event and his family came to watch and they dropped their cooler and lawn chairs right in camp near the end of the company street.

Greg,

That sounds familiar!  

Quote :

Bill wrote :   Greg, That sounds familiar!

Yup.. it took place at Ridley last year.  Good kid, he came with us to Cedar Creek, I think he had potential to make a good soldier.

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--Last edited by Scooby on 2007-09-06 09:08:16 --

No tins in your cartridge box so it will hold more rounds.
Loading your rounds with large amounts of powder so there's more smoke and bang.
Company commanders ordering "Double loads."

Grumpy,

Do you remember the panic over tins in the cartridge boxes from A140 as well as I do? That was funny, since some folks thought that little spec was for the entire event. Sigh.