The Civil War is Over . . For Now

We spent the weekend at our first Civil War re-enactment. It was so fun. Our family was blessed to meet the Schroeder family a few years ago. Memorial Day 2007 we met for the first time at Greenfield Village (a living history museum) at their annual Civil War memorial weekend. The next year I spoke to Wendi (the mama) again. This time she asked my if I wanted to try out the hobby. I said yes and then never got my act together and got things ready. This year I made plan to talk to them at Greenfield Village and we plotted when and how to make it work.

The Schoeders and their many children were so generous and and invited us to visit their camp during the day and lent us uniform for Charlie. I was worried on Friday because it was pouring buckets and the ground was so muddy in the civilian camp area. All I could think was all this work and the kids will be nuts because they can't do anything , and we'll have to go home. As Saturday went on the weather cleared and stayed nice for Sunday.

It was fantastic. People were so kind, and our hosts have two sons around the same ages as Wonder Boy and Jofus. They "shot" the confederate soldiers all weekend. I'm surprised that any survived for the men to "kill" in battles. I met a thousand people and they were all welcoming. (I was a little nervous about our clothes since I had made everything and I hoped it was accurate-- or at least accurate enough.)

It was sometimes strange. Spectators would come through and look around and watch us, but it wasn't like being in a play. There was no script and we weren't doing a demonstration. We were just cooking or taking care of children or washing dishes. There were a few moments where I thought, "so this is what the tigers at the zoo feel like." Luckily no one threw sticks at us. (side note: If you are going to throw sticks at an animal in the zoo, why would you antagonize the one that could eat you?)

When the event was over and it was time to go, the kids did not want to leave and were asking when they could go back. Charlie and I are already making plan to upgrade our wardrobe and attend another event in October.