After the 150ths, Are You In or Out?

[dpu1990]

Re: After the 150ths, Are You In or Out?

I have heard only a few people say they would be "out." I just got "in" - and really was not around for any of the "150th" except as a spectator (Gettysburg in 2013 was a circus...but I want to thank all of you who were there and helped make it a memorable experience for my kids...).

Most of the people who seem to want out are tired of the 'mainstream' folks, or, in a few cases, were really just waiting around for the big party before they let their a;ready-flagging interest really flicker out.

As a new person, I hope all you experienced and serious folks will stick around as long as health permits. I also hope that Civil War living history will prove friendly enough to welcome and draw in the new recruits needed to keep the activity alive. I am just learning, and I am pretty sure that I don't entirely live up to AC standards in dress, much less food and shelter. However, I have to start somewhere, and I am grateful to the folks I've met who are educating and encouraging, rather than dismissive.

I'm glad to be here; I hope to be for a long time, and I hope the AC/Living History community will remain authentic and healthy to educate future generations. Battle re-enactments are interesting, but what I most love (maybe it's the teacher in me) is talking to members of the public about the history of our country.

[Archie R. Lib]

Re: After the 150ths, Are You In or Out?

As many have already said, the 150ths mega events were a disappointment. But let's face it, this was the time for business to get involved and make money. They could not care less about authenticity, and I think we all knew that going in. The adjuncts were a noble effort at establishing some kind of authentic presence and participation, and I can't but appreciate all the work that went into all of them even to make them possible. But the "moments" were few and far between. From tripping over job johnnies, Marlboro Lights and solar showers at Manassas, waking up next to a Tacoma parked on camp at Shiloh and then watching pickup trucks scream past at attack formation hauling fat artillerymen, to drunk 'streamers pissing and singing Elvis songs next to their trucks at Prairie Grove and an RV diesel running at Valverde so the kids could watch The Lord of The Rings, and of course the circus of Gettysburg that was just a money-making machine. I was prepared for disappointment, and it did not disappoint. But I was still disappointed.

In fact, of all of them my closest "moment" (other than the fog attack at Shiloh through the woods, complete with screaming officers who were as confused as I was, artillery sounding everywhere, and the ghostly apparition of a twinkling Federal line emerging upon re-formation in the field in fog and smoke) was lying in a field (and then the tree line) in the pouring rain at Chickamauga at 1AM on rotating picket duty, and then marching to "camp" on the side of a mountain where we couldn't even get a fire to boil coffee or broth because a river ran thought our camp. For 12 hours. My son, whose first big event was Chickamauga, turned to me after about 10 hours of rain and said, "This sucks." War is all hell. Immersion. No doubt.

Being in the southwest, I found myself putting on about 15,000 miles over 5 years, and was mostly let down. But, I'm let down by not hearing rounds whistling past, so that's that. It is what it is when it comes to everyone doing it.

Like most, I'm taking my hobby back to the tree line. I'll be wary driving there, but I'm in.

Rich