Robert, have you gotten anything out of this latest storm buzzing around out in the Gulf?  I’m here glued to half a dozen weather sites.  This one is not supposed to be bad but you never know.  The only mandatory evacuation so far is for people in FEMA trailers.  There are still 17,000 FEMA trailers.  I’m happy to say we are out of ours and back in the house.

Anyhow, since I’m here I thought I would toss out this half baked question.  Do we run through “fads” or “trends” as reenactors?  Are these stages normal for a maturing unit?  Do all units have such growing pains?

Some where along the way every unit had to have an initial start up point with a handful of people new to the hobby.  I was involved shortly after our unit formed.  The new was still painfully new.  None of us had the least bit of experience at reenactment.  Looking back over a double digit number of years to where we once were is not a pleasant, heart warming exercise.  If one single word could be used to describe us back then that word would be “wrong.”

In the beginning (Doesn’t that sound Biblical?) no one in my unit knew doodlum squat about what we were supposed to be doing.  Our enthusiasm, which literally had no bounds,  was easily influenced by every new bit of information.  Read that to mean we were naïve to the extreme and had precious little guidance.  These were the “more is better” days.  If you want to be a real Civil War soldier you need to buy all of this stuff.  We had the stuff.  We would drag enough stuff to a typical weekend reenactment to stay for a week, maybe longer.  One guy would show up with something the rest of us did not have and it would precipitate an immediate stampede off to the sutlers where one or more of the latest and greatest would be acquired.  There were extras of everything.  We had every kind of lighting device known.  Our single unit owned enough tin items to stock a sutler’s tent, maybe two sutler tents.  Those ubiquitous camp chairs got to be so bad one guy actually made one in the form of a love seat.  There were camp tables of every descrïption.  The Lodge people must have smiled at all the cast iron we bought.

Some more knowledgeable members were acquired.  That was a blessing.  Was it ever!  It is remarkable how valuable someone with even a little bit of reenactment experience is to bunch of eager beaver neophytes.  This, plus, advice from acquaintances in other units, steered us away from the Civil War Mardi Gras look.  The notion there was a historical rationale for having a limited amount of things began to make itself known.  Slowly that fact worked its way into our collectively hard heads.  We began to change direction.  The load was significantly lightened.  To a certain extent, that is still on going.  The idea now is to take as little as possible.

During those crazy days back in the early 90’s the desired shirt was wildly psychedelic colored with white collars and cuffs.  If you could get some decorative tape applied, plus contrasting collars and cuffs that was all the better.  Big baggy pockets also helped.  We cycled away from that look and are presently wearing the plainest of plain shirts.

What you have to understand is there were a good many stops between then and now.  That is the case in all aspects of this growth.  Complicating it is some of our growth was abnormal and off in a wrong direction.  An example of such was a temporary profusion of massive fire grates.

Back then I doubt if any us realized there were such things as hand-sewn buttonholes.  We went from that extreme to where we are now doing them on all our garments.

Confederate jackets went basically the same route.  We, perhaps subconsciously, were attracted to the full range of extra fluff and foo-foo in the form of tape, piping, and contrasting this and that.  Now days, all of that has been shed and we seem to have settled in to a right steady jean cloth diet.  Strangely enough, the Federal impression did not lend itself to such excesses.

Hats started off being as decorated as your typical Christmas tree.  If it was garish and flashy it needed to be on that hat.  Those beginning days were a rough time for the local raccoon population, especially the male of the species.  There were enough feathers to have avian tendencies.  It didn’t take long to get the message about that and to wean ourselves off of what resembled a serving of fruit salad on your head gear.  Gone are the days of cast off cowboy hats.  At present, an unadorned, but high dollar, hat seems to be the current trend.

We started off in JC Penny engineer boots with the straps and buckles removed.  The first honest to goodness brogans were some sadly made affairs hardly worth the asking price.  Decent brogans and a smattering of boots finally began to make an appearance.

Gone are the propane heaters, Coleman stoves, and chemical toilets.  However, one of our ladies still insists upon her chamber pot filled with kitty litter.  I should not dare admit such, but some of us who find that bodily functions insist upon functioning during the night have adopted her technique.  Laugh, young people.  Just you wait.  As you get some more miles on your wheels you are going to discover, and perhaps rudely discover, the bathroom is going to take on an added significance to your life style.

We have come a long way.  What some of us are snorting around about now is complacency.  A goodly proportion of our peers are content where they are.  Oh, make no mistake about it, we are light years from where we were in those beginning months.  However, this contentedness with the way things are is an equally imposing obstacle.  We are needing to move to the next stage, but heels are firmly embedded.  Getting these people to overcome the existing inertia is the current project.  We are ready for the next fad/trend.  

--Last edited by Curtis Makamson on 2007-09-21 12:12:17 --

Curtis,

As usual great post.

As to the weather, I was out of town for the past two weeks so I missed it but according to the Mrs. all we had was a lot of badly needed rain.

hmm... chamber pot with kitty litter, huh? im not laughing.. i have 4 little ones that always have to go, and theres nothing worse than trying to find something to throw on over my nightclothes (never know who is going to be awake at that time! and i dont feel like giving a nightly show), and then finding the matches and lighting the oil lamp, and then getting that little one to the lovely portapot, that casts very scarey shadows when the oil lamp is in there (i believe it was my now 7yo that at an event, at 2am, while sitting in the portapot he yells... "MOMMMMMM THE REBS ARE COMING I SEE THEIR SHADOWS!!!!" the poor kid was terrified for a few minutes!).

i wish someone would send the rain our way. we are on severe water restrictions right now. our water is nasty because its the bottom of the well (as is everyone elses). that is if your lucky enough to get clear water! some people are getting rusty water.

Not exactly sure why, but you made me laugh.

Quote :

chatrbug wrote : (i believe it was my now 7yo that at an event, at 2am, while sitting in the portapot he yells... "MOMMMMMM THE REBS ARE COMING I SEE THEIR SHADOWS!!!!" the poor kid was terrified for a few minutes!).

Dulcie,

What the heck are you telling your kids about the sweet, lovable, and generally just nice Rebs?  

IMHO, eating children is way over represented in the Hobby.  

My wife keeps a large mouth plastic jar in the tent for night time activities. We found a white cotton haversack that is used to transport said plastic jar to the Porta-Pottie in the morning. Seems to work pretty well.  

me teaching them wrong? lol.. nope. im for both sides  i dont know where they picked it up actually. our first event my 11yo would not let go of my skirts because she was scared the rebs would kidnap her. (any rebs want to kidnap a mouthy 11 pre teen girl?).

and then after she got over that fear of being kidnapped... she decided she really wanted to be shot at (in which they did...but they missed!!!)

be glad you cant see the other side!!! it says "rebs" and the other one says "stink"... anyone want to deal with her?

i think my children need to hang out on the other side for awhile lol.  

--Last edited by chatrbug on 2007-09-25 15:33:21 --

Quote :

chatrbug wrote :  (any rebs want to kidnap a mouthy 11 pre teen girl?).

No thanks,

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. (And scars!)  

I gotta' admit, the girl knows her baseball!  

lol grumpy... that was funny!

come on bill.. ya know you wanta do it again! right? just think..shes my oldest, i have 3 more to go through.. by then ill need to find me a time period appropriate straight jacket!