Reenactor or Living Historian?

[loophole]

Dave, I'll agree with you that as a frontiersman most of us wouldn't make a scab on a good man's ass, as folks in these mountains used to say. On the other hand, history teaches us that there was a time when the frontier valleys were covered with game, the streams were alive with fish, and the living was good for those strong enough to survive. I have read that one of the reasons slavery was introduced in the colonies was that living on the frontier was so easy no one would stay on the coast and work on a tobacco or rice plantation if they could escape to the west. You've read the stories of Boone killing hundreds of deer in a few weeks for the hides, and of how well Louis and Clark fared until winter came when they were in the high country or on the Pacific coast.
My mother used to tell me that my romantic facination with earlier times would have been cured by about one week living in the depression she grew up in, and she's probably right. Maybe most of us are fortunate that we can't get so deep into trying to relive history that we encounter any of its hardships and dangers.
Do give me a call. Looks like the weather is going to be fit for nothing but working on a longrifle.

If at first you don't secede, try, try again.

 

[Dave Poss]

You are correct, Windwalker.... If I were compareing eras as far as social makeup. Yes, soldiers on the battlefields in Iraq and Afganistan are as much in danger and as brave as Indian fighters 200 years ago....Yes, poverty has been with us since Bibical days...Yes, home invasions, car jacking, assults arn't much different from burning out homesteaders, stealing someones horse-and getting beat up is still as painful now as it ever was...and Yes, medical problems exist and are often very expensive to remedy and we can't usually trade a chicken for a Doctors service. But This was not the point! The point was comparing and attempting to emulate the everyday life of our ancestors when we put on our knee breeches and frock and grab our longrifle and head to the woods for a relatively short time as compared to living that life on a daily basis.
I can't imagine, no matter how much I read, how my dad felt when WW2 ended. The emotion of knowing it was finally over is something that only those that were there can expierence...on the same order is a frontiersman that went hunting and/or trapping for 4 or 5 months and was totally up to God's mercy if he made it back or not. His mindset is something that we, as modern frontiersman, can only imagine.

Each generation has it's own distinctive problems. 200 years from now, people may look at our history and think how brave we must have been to endure not having controled weather! ::

 

[Claude Mathis]

How can a "reenactor" be defined as such, if he doesn't reenact a time period with "weapons" of the time period he's reenact'n????

I have a couple friends who "reenact" Tavern Keepers. They sell food and drinks at Rendezvous. They don't carry weapons when tending their establishment.

 

[wil]

Kansan,
GOOD QUESTION? I can not begin to anwser it. But I know what I want to be called by my peers, Friend, Helpful, Curtiouis, and a damn good trail mate. Mostly I just tell other folks that I'm a Frontersman in the pre-18th century Ill country. Just trying to get by, like everyone is trying to do today.
Wil

"History preserved, through knowledge shared."

 

I have a couple friends who "reenact" Tavern Keepers. They sell food and drinks at Rendezvous. They don't carry weapons when tending their establishment.

Claude,.... I'll bet they would, if they had to "deal" with a fella thet "fergits to pay" fer his drinks (like I do :haha!!

Seriously tho, thet doesn't surprise me if they're "reenact'n" tavern keepers in a settlement.

Traders of whiskey at a "Rendezvous" (1825-1840) surely would have been "armed", look "who" they were deal'n with. :haha:

 

[Twisted_1in66]

The very livelihood of our ancestors was largely dependent on weapons. Ther is no way someone can honestly call themselves "reenactors" without use'n the most prominate/prevalent tools of survival for any given "bygone era"!! (to attempt to do otherwise is greatly "twisted") :imo: :m2c:

Hey, you make twisted sound like a bad thing :nono: It's good to be twisted as long as it's a slow twist.:crackup:

Actually, I agree with you 100%, just couldn't resist the word play.

 

:applause: :haha: I agree with'ya on the "slow twist" :thumbsup: ::

I was kind'a refer'n to folks thet have most of the "looks" down pat, but know very liddle of the "tools" of the era they are 'sposed to be "reenact'n" !!

I (personaly) don't consider it "reenact'n" unless you can act (use "period tools") as well as you dress (wear "period cloths")!! :: :imo:


YMHS
rollingb

 

rollingb
If you wore a fig leave and ate apples I still wouldn't put you in the same era as Adam & Eve :crackup:

Woody eace:

 

[The Kansan]

Thanks much to all who responded - Even more to those who stayed on topic. :hmm:

I guess it'll all come together today; I'll be setting up a little "fake" camp on the lawn of the local museum and glad handing with the folks who come by. At 2:00 a lady will stopping in to speak about the Corps of Discovery and after that, my better half's best friend will do a program on the foods that Lewis and Clark used complete with samples. In the mean time, it's my understanding that someone from the local paper will walk across the street (it's a small town!) and interview me.

Reckon I'll do my best not ruffle too many feathers, but at the same time I'm gonna' let know that I ain't anywhere near what they're used to.

Thanks again!

...The Kansan...

 

[shmrck1]

The Kansan,
I don't care what label you put on what
you are doing, but thanks for doing it. We could use
a lot more of ya :imo: :applause: :applause: :applause:
good luck today.
snake-eyes :thumbsup: :applause: eace: