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I suppose my experience is not unique. Like a lot of people of my generation, I first got into the living history hobby in the 1990s, those years that followed "Glory", the Ken Burns documentary, "Gettysburg" and other popular culture events that renewed interest in the Civil War. I had no money. So, in the mid-90s, while still in high school, I joined the nearest unit to where I lived, a one-gun artillery "battery." My first genuine event was the annual Picacho Reenactment outside of Tucson. If you haven't witnessed that before, look it up online and more than a quarter century later you'll get some idea as to what that was like.
College, work, career - in the years that followed, they all seemed to collide and prevented me from participating very actively in the hobby for several years. Then, in 2004, I met the good folks in the First Texas and after a slow start, I put together a better kit and in time I enjoyed some good years falling in with that group.
But, nothing lasts forever and in time most of the fellows went their various ways. My last event was at Fort Tejon in 2012. I gradually started to sell of my gear. The last of it went when I moved to Montana.
Like a lot of other people, though, I still love the hobby. Now, all these years later I've started to pick up a few bits of gear here and there. It's harder this time around. The vendors have changed. I've lost touch with a lot of my old friends. I'm also older now.
Has anyone else been in this position lately? It's a strange hobby we all seem to keep coming back to.
-Sam Dolan
College, work, career - in the years that followed, they all seemed to collide and prevented me from participating very actively in the hobby for several years. Then, in 2004, I met the good folks in the First Texas and after a slow start, I put together a better kit and in time I enjoyed some good years falling in with that group.
But, nothing lasts forever and in time most of the fellows went their various ways. My last event was at Fort Tejon in 2012. I gradually started to sell of my gear. The last of it went when I moved to Montana.
Like a lot of other people, though, I still love the hobby. Now, all these years later I've started to pick up a few bits of gear here and there. It's harder this time around. The vendors have changed. I've lost touch with a lot of my old friends. I'm also older now.
Has anyone else been in this position lately? It's a strange hobby we all seem to keep coming back to.
-Sam Dolan