What the children think

[Drygoods]

Re: What the children think

Greetings everyone,

My own view is that children really enjoy being a dressed participant at events and probably feel more at home 'dressed' than those who walk around in modern clothes. The only trouble I had once was when my children were at an event and there was a period wedding.....holy smokes, was the bride mad when she found more photos of my little son in a gown than photos of her in hers! :(

When my daughter was little, I used to dress her in pretty white gowns and with large flour sack clothes, tie her into a chair so that I could cook and do laundry. People were delighted with that little baby girl who sat there patiently smiling and waving her arms......probably one of the best moments of my life too. No kidding, children are really happy when they are dressed and included into the events. I think it gives the public more scope into events that they, and their family can relate to.

[ElizabethClark]

Re: What the children think

An excellent resource for games and amusements: http://www.vintagevolumes.com Michael and Virginia Mescher have some great products and books.

Mrs. Peebles, I had to laugh at the "tied to a chair" baby--we've had our share of those, and it's really delightful. Though I think my husband got tired of explain why our "baby girl" in a dress was named Colin, and came with outdoor plumbing. :)

[Joanna Jones]

Re: What the children think

My son started coming with me to the site we worked at when he was 3 weeks old. The following summer when he was 1, it would get so hot, I'd pull down the washtub, fill it with water, and put it under a tree. He would sit in it for hours, naked as a jaybird, happily playing with any number of wooden toys we scrounged up. People flocked to us by the dozens - I talked about children's lives and birthin' babies and dresses for boys and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Now he's 4 and thinks the greatest thing on earth is to run away from Mommy and lead her on a merry chase; the hotter the day the better. I'm sad thinking about giving up those dresses for him, too... :( Joanna Jones

[Chris Suppelsa]

Re: What the children think

Darn right! You can't go whittlin on the tent poles!

Its been played out :tounge_sm

[Quiverful]

Re: What the children think

We just came back from our annual fundraiser at the Wax Museum in Gettysburg. With 9 children from 8 months to 15 1/2 we get a lot of attention. We have 5 very active boys and they love play at the reenactments. They have wooden swords and canvas balls and marbles that we take to most reenacments. One reenacment we went to they used the wood pile and made forts to play in. Our only problem is with some members of our group that don't want to let the kids just "play". They would rather see them sit quietly somewhere or better yet, not even come out. We do notice that a lot of the spectators love to see the children playing. We had a number of 'tators yesterday that just wanted to take pictures of the children playing ball. One fellow even gave our little boys quarters after he took their picture. There will always be those in this hobby who don't like children or having them around. We are going to make sure that we are going to events where the children can be children and enjoy their times of dressing up and hopefully learn a lot in the process.

[LindaTrent]

Kathleen Kiger

Anyway -- I asked Megan after the event whether she was aware that she and her friends were dressed in clothes from the past. Did they feel as though they were wearing their own clothes, or did it feel as though they were dressing up? Megan said without hesitation that she felt as though she was wearing her own clothes. She told me, "I wasn't dressing up. I just sort of forgot all about modern times."

I've had similar experiences with "borrowed" children. Probably the best experience I had was WOTJ with Kathleen Kiger. Kathleen was an 11 year old, I believe, who was portraying my daughter. I was portraying a widow who was being courted by a wealthy planter. Her character was that of a spoiled little brat who got everything she wanted and saw my attentions toward my beau as a threat to her specialness.

Well, when the event was over I pulled Kathleen aside and asked her what she thought. She told me how much she loved the experience and that she wanted to do it again (which she did, as my daughter at SFS). I said there's only one thing though, I thought you were going to try to come between Hank and my characters when we'd start paying too much attention to each other and not enough toward you. I was shocked at her innocent answer -- "what do you think I was doing when I asked you to tell me a story? Or I began asking about slavery, or saw a spider, or..." Dang, she was right, I remember all that and the looong discussions she kept going. That kid had a million and one questions

As Saturday began to fade away Hank's character was killed in an ambush and his body was brought back and laid in our little camp. The evening turned very somber with Hank's body lying there. Kathleen sat around the fire on my lap, along with a few others in our dwindling group asking me about death, dying, and the afterlife.

There was a bit of added tension brought in, unknowingly, by Julie Herczeg who was portraying my niece. It's been too long so I don't remember if it was the moon playing funny tricks, a lantern, or what, but Julie's dress did seem to glow in the dark a bit, and it scared Kathleen's character a few times, so we also discussed ghosts and the likelihood of their existance. The imagination of youth is precious.

Kathleen was a trooper, who put up with being captured and held prisoner along with the rest of us, walking miles upon miles, not knowing whether or not we'd be able to return to our camp for food, shelter, clothing, etc. Her real 21st century father, grandmother and grandfather were in our camp with us, and by the end of the event she had to deal with her character's grandfather (her real grandfather -- Fran Kiger, II) being tried and hanged as a traitor; her real life father (Fran Kiger, III) being discovered as a Confederate Lieutenant in civilian garb and sent off to Fort Delaware, her mother's fiance killed in an ambush, etc.

We had no idea things would turn out this way. Everything came as a complete surprise to all of us, and she took it all and loved every minute of it. If I ever had a daughter -- I'd want one just like Kathleen Kiger. :wink_smil

Linda.

[MissLottie]

Re: What the children think

Last weekend, we had a special event called Candlelight, were we, the reenactors don't enteract with the public and we "go about our daily lives" as it would have been in 1857 at Fort Nisqually.

On Friday Night of Candlelight, I was in the Factors House (it being a fancy upperclass house, home of Dr. and Mrs. Tolmie and their children in the 1850's) in the childrens bedroom. We were potraying Lettia Work's wedding recption in the parlor and the boys would go running down the hall to see their Aunt to see how pretty she was and what she was up to. The children had a grand time just being kids, and me and my friend had a good time too entertaining them (and they entertaining us too!).There were three children (siblings in real life) who grew up reenacting and they made it more real to me and also to the public!

And to whoever that was so sad that some didn't like the kids just playing and being kids, there were people back then too who didn't like kids just being kids either and they just wanted the kids to sit still and be quite too.

[Nevada Bugler]

Re: What the children think

We were potraying Lettia Work's wedding recption in the parlor and the boys would go running down the hall to see their Aunt to see how pertty she was and what she was up to.

So was there a chivarie party as well? The stories my mother used to tell about some of those chivarie parties...

________________________
Bill Scott
Hardaways Alabama Battery
Comstock Civil War Reenactors

[C.R. Henderson]

Re: What the children think

I can speak on the subject of "getting in to it" fairly easily from having been raised in the Hobby. I've been reenacting since I was 5 and have always been fully aware of what was going on around me. I have found that as I have gotten older, though, it seems a little harder to get in the right frame of mind than it used to. I now worry about how this hat works with a that uniform jacket or what is appropriate to wear at a certain event or catching up with friends on the goings on in "real life". It used to be that mom would give us our clothes to wear, dad would form the company and we would have a great weekend playing with our friends, trying to stay out of trouble, and seeing what we could get away with when mom wasn't looking- I'd imagine- in much the same way children back then would have done.
Now, I have 3 boys of my own to bring up in this wonderful part of life and they have the same great experiences I did at that age. It's great being a dad! :)
Enough reminiscing for me,
Chris Henderson

[MissLottie]

Re: What the children think

So was there a chivarie party as well? The stories my mother used to tell about some of those chivarie parties...

I don't think so, I donno, I wasn't in the Parlor. I do know that they did some dancing and that they ate cake. lol.

[dandl39]

Re: What the children think

I agree wholeheartedly! I think we (society in general) are making a huge mistake by not letting them just "be kids." All the responses to this thread prove the point perfectly. Too bad more educators and parents can't read this or see this at the various events!

[ElizabethClark]

Re: What the children think

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