~It is always my hope that the pictures I post in this monthly Living History Photo Challenge series may give non-reenactors a look at how we living historians attempt to bring the past to life.
A few from my extended family - and a ton of my friends from wa-a-a-a-ay back - have been a little more than slightly surprised at my passion in this hobby and my love for American history.
It's always been there - I just had little means to lure it out.
Well, c'est la vie say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell~
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One Autumn night, in Sudbury town,
Across the meadows bare and brown,
The windows of the wayside inn
Gleamed red with fire-light through the leaves
Of woodbine, hanging from the eaves
Their crimson curtains rent and thin.
As ancient is this hostelry
As any in the land may be,
Built in the old Colonial day,
When men lived in a grander way,
With ampler hospitality...
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A new month is upon us, and another 30 days of reenacting pictures are lined up and ready to go!
So, to change up the news feed and help get away from all of the harsh and getting harsher doom & gloom of our modern time, here is my daily Living History Photo for today, November 1 (All Saints Day/All Soul's Day): Day 220 until whenever I decide to stop.
(It was also time-change day lol):
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| November 1 Hey! I’m a meme! We are done with Daylight Saving Time until spring. DST—the practice of moving the clock forward one hour—has many critics. Losing an hour of sleep only to wake up to darkness? No thanks. But is Benjamin Franklin to blame for this “invention”? Daylight saving time is one thing that Franklin did not invent. During his time in France, he merely suggested Parisians change their sleep schedules to save money on candles and lamp oil. Franklin’s conclusion was that rising with the sun would save the citizens of Paris a great deal of money: “An immense sum! That the city of Paris might save every year, by the economy of using sunshine instead of candles.” He also believed in making good use of the daytime hours. As he said (with tongue firmly planted in cheek): “Every morning, as soon as the sun rises, let all the bells in every church be set ringing; and if that is not sufficient? Let cannon be fired in every street, to wake the sluggards effectually, and make them open their eyes to see their true interest.” Englishman William Willett led the first actual campaign to implement daylight saving time. While on an early-morning horseback ride around the desolate outskirts of London in 1905, Willett had an epiphany that the United Kingdom should move its clocks forward by 80 minutes between April and October so that more people could enjoy the plentiful sunlight. But it was Germany who was the first country to enact daylight saving time, occurring on April 30, 1916, when Germany embraced DST to conserve electricity. Contrary to popular belief, American farmers did not lobby for daylight saving to have more time to work in the fields; in fact, the agriculture industry was deeply opposed to the time switch when it was first implemented on March 31, 1918, as a wartime measure. The sun, not the clock, dictated farmers’ schedules, so daylight saving was very disruptive. Farmers had to wait an extra hour for dew to evaporate to harvest hay, hired hands worked less since they still left at the same time for dinner and cows weren’t ready to be milked an hour earlier to meet shipping schedules. Rather than rural interests, it has been urban entities such as retail outlets and recreational businesses that have championed daylight saving over the decades. Now you know. But what am I to do?? The Daggetts have no clocks that I can move forward! I suppose I'll just have to embrace the past... |
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| November 2 The beauty of Autumn past shines in this picture taken of me, Larissa, and Beckie a number of years ago at Wolcott Mill. At that time, it was the only Civil War reenactment to occur in this area after the August Jackson event. And it's where I came up with our fall harvest presentation as well. There is hope that Wolcott will one day come back---fingers crossed. |
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| November 3 Election Day! The following is from the Mt. Vernon website: In the long history of the United States, only one president, George Washington, did not represent a political party. The Constitution that Washington helped draft in 1787 - the Constitution our government still operates under today - makes no mention of political parties, and it clearly did not anticipate them. As originally ratified, the United States Constitution declared that the second-place vote getter in the presidential election would serve as vice president. It was not until 1804, with the ratification of the Twelfth Amendment, that this changed. Political parties as we know them today began to take shape while Washington was in office. By 1793 or 1794 there was an emerging split between two distinct visions for the future of the country. Only after Great Britain and revolutionary France went to war in 1793 did the Democratic Republican party really begin to form itself as a true opposition party in American politics, against what would become known as the Federalist Party. Washington remained above the fray; he wanted to be a president of all the American citizens. The most important reason was he believed unity, not division, was necessary for a democratic republic to survive. Washington believed that political parties would divide and destroy the young United States. His thought, in what became known as the Farewell Address in 1796, is clear: "This spirit, unfortunately…is inseparable from our nature, (and) serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection.” Throughout his political life, and until his death in 1799, George Washington was confident that the country could and should function without the existence of political parties. So in today's image you see me and friend, Ken Roberts, discussing current 18th century events with General Washington (Robert Jones), while he was still leading in the fight of the Revolutionary War. ~(I expect ya'll to be good & kind in the comments section here...don't make me delete you! lol)~ |
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| November 4 I love reenacting at historic Waterloo Farm way out in Munith, Michigan. First off, the ride out there is beautiful, with the hilly, twisting, winding road dotted with other very old structures along the way. And the farm itself, originally built in sections over a couple of decades during the mid-to-late 1800s, has been beautifully restored to its Victorian appearance. The best part of this historical farmhouse is that we are able to bring it to life as we portray an 1860s family. Oh yes we do! It was here that we began to form our reenacting/living history family, utilizing the immersion experience and expanded into 1st person. It was in this manner that we could bring the visitors into our world of 155 years ago. It's been a few years since we've done this in the house you see here (though more recently we did a colonial reenactment in the log cabin next to the house). We have high hopes to be invited back to bring it to life once again, just as we used to----Christmas at the Farm is wonderful. Fingers crossed that we'll be invited back soon! |
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| November 5 Here you see my friend Rebecca and I walking to the Daggett House during an early November day. I do enjoy wearing my period clothing any chance I can get, but when you are with others of the same ilk, whether they are presenters at Greenfield Village or other reenactors, it just makes it that much better. Rebecca & I have had many conversations on 18th century history - this girl knows her stuff! - and I enjoy listening to her share her knowledge, as I do the same with her. Maybe one day I can get her to join my Citizens of the American Colonies group. |
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| November 6 Here is another avenue that reenacting has taken me down: writing and photography. Besides my Passion for the Past blog (which, if I may brag a little, has had more than 1.7 million visits total and averages about 400 hits per day), I've also written numerous articles for a number of magazines, including The Citizen's Companion, which was a Civil War civilian magazine that was pretty popular amongst those in the reenacting hobby. I've also had two of my photographs make the cover! The first one I took at a civilian event at Crossroads Village in Flint of Karen Gillett giving a fond farewell to her husband, Mike, as the train was about to leave. The second picture is of my wife and Jean Cook that I took during one of the Christmas at the Farm events at Waterloo Farm about a decade ago.  There's more to this hobby than most may realize. |
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| November 7 'Twas a cool, blustery November day as I stepped out of the home of John Giddings, one of the most active and trusted supporters of the patriotic cause in Exeter, New Hampshire. In 1775, Giddings was nominated for the important appointment of delegate to the Continental Congress, but modestly withdrew his name. There were other members of the Giddings Family, including future son-in-law Joseph Pearson (who married Gidding's daughter Dorothy and became eventual owner of the home), that served in the Revolutionary War as well. A very cool patriotic house indeed right here in Greenfield Village! And this photo gives the impression as if I were visiting during the time of the Revolutionary War makes it even cooler for me. |
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| November 8 A group of us living historians were a winning bid for a silent auction for "modern people" to spend a day in the past with an 1860s family. This was at Waterloo Farm, and we not only spent the day talking to the highest bidders but we had a fine period meal served as well as parlor entertainment from our "daughters," reciting poetry for the guests, which was a popular past time during the Victorian era. |
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| November 9 My ancestors were farmers, and I like to think of my dressing period and visiting Daggett or other historical homes of the 18th century as paying a sort of homage to them. Well, they were contemporaries: my 7th great grandparents, Jonathan and Ann (Till) Heacock, first stepped foot upon this land in 1711 and rented - then purchased - a house in Marple, Pennsylvania. It was their son, Jonathan (my 6th great grandfather), who was the earliest of my direct line to have been born here in America, in 1715. This family line continued to live and farm in Pennsylvania until after the Revolutionary War, when, in 1788, my Loyalist 5th great grandfather, Enoch Shrigley (whose daughter-in-law was the daughter of the third Jonathan Heacock and married Enoch's son, Joshua) moved to Canada, where he petitioned for land in the Niagara area three years later. The petition was granted in 1795.
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| November 10 My wife Patty and I standing near the fireplace inside the dining area of the Eagle Tavern. This is the only structure inside Greenfield Village where 1st person is practiced, usually by the host and hostess. But I think what I enjoy the most is the food served is not only what was popular at the time portrayed - 1850 - but also "of the season," meaning that you will not find an apple or pumpkin dessert, for example, in the spring or early summer. And the servers are all dressed in period clothing as well, by the way. Oh---and one more thing: the food is excellent. It's unfortunate that the tavern did not open this year, but I have high hopes it will in 2021. |
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| November 11 I am not an "events only" kind of living historian. Quite the opposite, to be sure. I enjoy dressing in my period clothing and venturing out to various historic locations as often as I can, whether I go alone or with others, even though it may not be an actual event ...no explanation necessary. I just enjoy spending my time being immersed in the past. And if I have a few friends of the same ilk join me, well, all the better, for now we have *almost* become, shall we say, a community of sorts in the excursion. So it was on a mid-November day in 2019 when a few friends and I gathered at Mill Race Village, talking history and planning for future events (not knowing of the lockdown that was ahead). It wasn't meant to be anything extraordinary - - just spending time in period clothing at a suitable location. And if visitors happened by, all the better, for now we can also teach! So, no, 'twasn't anything along the lines of a reenactment at all, but instead a chance to enjoy the past with friends (and, in my case, family as well). By the way, it was kind of cool that shortly before we had a decent snowfall. |
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| November 12 The "Logan Family" of the Sixberry House in Charlton Park - us doing living history/immersion/1st person. The year is 1862; as a typical family of the early 1860s, we enjoy gathering together to tell stories about youthful events of long ago. Usually these narratives are quite humorous, for, since we are not actually related in our 21st century lives, the stories are made up and can go in any believable direction the author chooses. In my story, I told of when Jacqueline was of courting age that a Mr. Bagley showed an interest in her. But our father would have nothing to do with this young man and forbid my sister from seeing him. Well, late one evening, Mr. Bagley showed up at our home and threw tiny pebbles at Jacqueline's bedroom window in hopes of getting her attention without a-waking anyone. Only it wasn't my sister's window he was hitting with those pebbles...it our father's! Why, father came bursting out of the door, gun in hand, aiming and firing that old flint lock in the direction of Mr. Bagley, who was a-flyin' out of there like he had wings on his feet! And that was the last we heard of ol' Pete Bagley. Well, on this day, the fictitious Mr. Bagley surprised everyone - mostly Jacqueline - with a visit! The look on Jacqueline's face when his name was announced as a visitor ("Miss Jacqueline, there is a Mr. Bagley here to see you.")...and then there he was---standing right before us in living color. So, after decades, Jacqueline and Mr. Bagley reunited, and he even recounted the story of how our father chased him off with a gun all those years ago. Everyone (but me!) was stunned! Yes, unbeknownst to my living history family, I found a man (Dan Conklin) who was willing to portray this former suitor wannabe and gave him my story! Truly one of the BEST ever days! If you could have seen the looks on their faces...priceless. (That's Pete Bagley on the right sitting across from Jacqueline) |
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| January 13 Dating from 1715, the Bruton Parish Church is an active Episcopal Church located in Colonial Williamsburg. Among the Virginia leaders of the time who attended this Church were Thomas Jefferson, George & Martha Washington, Richard Henry Lee, George Wythe, Patrick Henry, George Mason, and many others of the founding generation.
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| November 14 Instead of Where's Waldo, it's Where's Ken? Ha! Back in 2015, my friend Lynn Anderson put together a very interesting history lesson for The Historical Society of Michigan: teaching the history of our state through the clothing of our ancestors by way of a period fashion show. As she advertised it: "From the French Voyageurs, Woodland Indians, and Colonials to the Civil War, Victorian, and Edwardian Ages to the decades of the 20th century, Michigan’s long and diverse past will unfold like never before." Stepping into the 'waiting area,' it was great seeing nearly 500 years of history right before my eyes; from the 1600s through the mid-1900s, from pioneers & voyageurs to WWII soldiers and civilians...it was great to see so many time periods all in one room! For my part in this, my friend Larissa and I told of our 1860s farming clothes, representing the everyday people of 1860 - the greater majority of the population at that time - and patrons were genuinely interested in not only our "work" clothes, but our lives as farmers as well. This was one very cool event to be a part of. If you are interested in reading more about this and seeing many more pictures, please click the link below the picture. |
"If the only light and heat comes from candles and fireplaces because of a power outage at your house, it is frustrating and annoying - but when it comes in the form of intimate tours of a historic village, it is charming and peaceful."
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| November 15 So…two lanterns lit! How wasteful! With an electric light not even a thought, much less a reality in the colonial times, a dim visual world began where life centered around the flicker of a candle and, in cooler weather, the warming flames of a hearth. This low level of lighting created only pockets of brightness, leaving most of the room in darkness. Forget about the Hollywood movies showing people enjoying a pleasant eve after sundown reading or writing by candlelight - I've tried and it's pretty darn difficult to do for any length of time, though certainly not impossible. As Laura Wirt wrote in 1818, "writing by a dim firelight. I can scarcely see." "Possibly as a result of long dependence upon strong electric lighting, we seem to have much poorer night vision today than the average man had a century or two ago," wrote historian Eric Sloane in his Seasons of America Past book. And it makes sense when you think reasonably about it; while our entire world is seemingly engulfed in electric lighting, citizens of the 18th and 19th centuries lived in natural light as well as in natural darkness, for with candles and hearth giving off little light, the sense of sight would naturally be stronger. However, just because the sun went down did not mean the people went to bed that early; this was their time for reading, writing letters, filling out a ledger, writing in a diary, sewing, mending, spinning, and other necessities, as well as also socializing, singing, storytelling, games, the aforementioned bible recitations & telling of family history lore, and other ways to pass the time. |
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| November 16 Here we are, Ken and Patty, at our very first actual bonafide Civil War reenactment, which took place at Detroit's Historic Fort Wayne back in July 2004. Like so many before us, our clothing was not correct...not even close...but it was a start. Yeah, we got lots of stares from the, shall we say, more veteran reenactors...looking down at us rather than help us. But there were a few who reached out to guide us, and I thank them. With their help we did a heck of a lot of research to improve our impressions, not only our clothing, but also the social history of the time. Like anything deemed worthwhile, it takes time and money. But getting involved in reenacting was one of the best moves I made! So, anyhow, while we were at this first event, we saw a wet plate photographer by the name of Marty Bertera - first time meeting him, too! - and had our photograph taken, which turned out to be the only picture we have of that event (believe it or not). And look what happened since.... |
For November 17:
During these autumn months, I frequently write about the fall harvest, and each time I mention the task of taking the wheat grain to the gristmill to be ground into flour.
Not too long ago, however, I realized there are those who may not know much about the gristmill’s importance during the 18th and 19th centuries. What was once a common occurrence and site is now rare. People don’t take their grain to the mill anymore!
And yet---they do! How else would we get flour made? (Yes---just go to the store and buy some, I know! Lol). The modern mills and process are quite different, however, from the mills of our ancestors.
Maybe it's because I intently study and reenact the everyday lives of those who lived in the past that I still think of gristmills in the manner you see here.
So, in the colonial times, wheat was harvested by cutting the straw near the ground with a hooked hand cradle scythe. The cut wheat was gathered in bundles and tied into “sheaves.” Sheaves were then stacked upright into small stands called “shocks,” to await threshing. Threshing is the way to knock the wheat kernels off of the rest of the plant. This was done by beating the wheat heads, thereby separating the wheat berries from their “chaff” (or husk) and supporting straw.
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November 17 To flail, one stick is held and swung, causing the other to strike a pile of grain, loosening the husks, as you see in the photos above and directly below.  Cleaning the wheat then commenced with removal of the long straw. This process could occur throughout the fall and winter months. Once the wheat was threshed, the remaining wheat, chaff, and dust mix were put into a basket and tossed up into the air where the wind would catch the husks and blow them away, leaving cleaned grain behind to fall back into the basket. This was known as winnowing. The cleaned wheat was stored in a granary and then taken to a local mill (below).
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| November 18 This was a very special night for me, for I was able to be one of the presenters at Smiths Creek Depot at Greenfield Village during their wonderful Holiday Nights event. With me, on the far right, are Kim & Jim Lynch (and the GFV presenter on the immediate right). The Lynch's invited me to join them to take part, of which I very much appreciate. What we spoke about to the visiting guests was of a homefront Christmas during the Civil War and how we were preparing packages of treats, socks, gloves, scarves, tobacco, coffee, and other items to send off to the men stationed away from home. This was the era where the Victorian Christmas really began to take shape, and it was great fun to teach the guests about everyday holiday life during the early 1860s. |
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| November 19 Happy 25th birthday to my karate loving, nerf gun collecting, periodic table of element knowing, lighthouse researching, killer bowling son Miles! Here we are about 12 or 13 years ago at Crossroads Village inside the mid-19th century carriage. And now this young dude is a full-grown man. We are very proud of what he's accomplished - - and, yes, he still reenacts with us, too! |
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| November 20 Writing a letter with quill and ink in the 1770s. Much of our research information comes from letters, journals/diaries, and newspapers from those old days. But who writes letters anymore? Does anyone keep an actual physical diary in 2020? The hard-copy newspapers are all but a thing of the past. Oh, I know perhaps millions of e-mails and/or texts are sent every second. But who actually prints and saves any of them? Diaries & journals were once commonplace, especially in those days when photographs were much harder to come by, and they tell of lives once lived. And speaking of photographs: how many of you who post a lot of pictures on Facebook actually print any of them out? I know my wife and I do. One day they may not be around to show, either through a computer glitch or through upgrades. Or due to a lost phone or a computer crash or who knows what else. And newspapers: instant headlines on the internet - you read a big news story, maybe post or share the link, then move on. I remember saving the big news headline papers (I still have my Detroit News & Free Press from when John Lennon died back in 1980, as well as the one when Reagan was sworn in as President on the same day in 1981 that the hostages in Iran were released, for example). Not so anymore. It's letters, journals, and newspapers that help us modern folk to research the past beyond what the schoolbooks tell us; they give us snippets of everyday life normalities that would have been forgotten, letting us know how men & women lived way back when. How much of our history - and even our personal history - will be lost to future generations? |
It is no secret that the home of Samuel Daggett is perhaps my favorite home anywhere. I visit it often, and especially enjoy being in and around it while in my 1770 period clothing.
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| November 21 Since I've discovered the publication of actual journals and diaries originally written over two hundred-plus years ago, I no longer look at the old historic houses quite the same, for these writings tell tales of everyday life as the occurrences happened. And the menial tasks written all those years ago that seemingly meant very little at the time (and still means little to most modern day historians) are like gold to a social historian like me, especially when one understands the purpose behind these chores and tasks. I feel to fully grasp past times, we must read and research the details of everyday life in books that go beyond politics and wars.
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This is why I read the old journals and diaries of long ago, because they teach me how to look at a historic home very differently than most "normal" human beings.
They bring me to another time like few other books can.
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| November 22 It was a number of years ago that a few of us, while on our way to celebrate Christmas at Crossroads Village, stopped off to visit the Holly Dickens Festival, where Dickensian England is brought to life - as best as small-town America can do. How surprised the "Londoners" were to see our own President and Mrs. Lincoln (Fred Priebe) in the good old city, being entertained by carolers, skits, and even Punch & Judy puppeteers! I'm sad to say the festival will not be taking place this year. However, look for it to return in 2021 ("I Got A Feeling '21 Is Gonna Be A Good Year"), and Simply Dickens will be there as well! |
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| November 23 Believe it or not, when I first began wearing my colonial clothing to Greenfield Village, I was somewhat nervous about it. I mean, Civil War/1860s men's clothing is not *too* far off from what we wear today to, say, a wedding; the cut of the pants, coat, and vest are a bit different, but in the great scheme of things, they're definitely "related." However - men's 18th century clothing is quite different in pretty much every way, from the buckled shoes to the knee stockings to the knee breeches to the waistcoat to the coat to the neck stock to the cocked (tricorn) hat to the cloak. Not even close! In these colonial clothes one is definitely placed in an easily recognized period in time. In fact, there were people directly from India who saw me and pointed, saying (in a thick accent), "George Washington!" But I was determined to do it, even through my nervousness. However, it was presenters such as Jordan, here, who helped to calm my fears. She greeted me, welcomed me into the 1760 Giddings House, and helped me to get over my fear of wearing something very different than what I was used to. And for that I shall be forever grateful to her. Now, I am every bit as comfortable in my 1770 clothing as I am in my modern clothing. Seriously. Hmmm...I wonder what kind of stir I would cause should I decide to forgo modern fashions and, instead, wear this style on a daily basis. Maybe if the clothes were cheaper, for they are a bit expensive...but it would be interesting, though... No longer Nervous Ken! |
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| November 24 This photo was taken by Lynn Anderson in November 2019 when a group of us got into our 18th century clothing and visited Greenfield Village. It's one of my favorites taken that day, for it makes me think of family returning home, maybe from church after a Thanksgiving service. I did some photo-trickery here, trading out the Firestone Farm, which is from the 1880s, for the 18th century Daggett House that you see in the background, which is more suitable for our 1770 fashion. During the early 1700s, individual colonies commonly observed days of Thanksgiving throughout each year, and the governors of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire began to (separately) make proclamations for an autumn Thanksgiving celebration, though we might not recognize a traditional Thanksgiving Day from that period, as it was not a day marked by plentiful food and drink as is today's custom, but rather a day set aside for prayer and fasting; a true “thanksgiving” was a day of prayer and pious humiliation, thanking God for His special Providence. Favorable events, such as the sudden ending of a drought or pestilence, might inspire a thanksgiving proclamation. It was like having an extra Sabbath during the week, for fasts and thanksgivings never fell on a Sunday. But, as the century wore on, it gradually turned more into a festive celebration as much as it was a holy day (or holiday). After the Revolutionary War, just the fact that the former colonists even had a national day of thanksgiving was a tremendous step forward in creating an American identity. As you just read, the colonies had previously celebrated individually or as part of the British Empire. Now they had experienced an event - the War and Independence - that had affected them all and formalized a celebration that involved them all. Americans had just taken a major step on the trail from colonies to states and from states to nation. More Thanksgiving historical information in tomorrow's picture. |
For November 25:
It was President George Washington who gave the new Nation its first Thanksgiving official Proclamation back on October 3, 1789 and set aside the date of November 26, 1789 as the 'official' date of celebration for that year.
Years following, however, the holiday continued to be celebrated on different dates in different states. But in the early years of the American Civil War, Sarah Josepha Hale, a pro Union magazine editor (and author of the nursery rhyme 'Mary Had a Little Lamb,') urged President Lincoln, through a letter she wrote, to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. The letter convinced him to support legislation establishing a day of Thanks as a national holiday, and on October 3, 1863, Lincoln proclaimed (in part):
"I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United … to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens…"
So, on the newly proclaimed Thanksgiving Day in 1863, you’ll want to be awake by five o’clock in the morning to get the range going good and hot, for it must last the rest of the day. And it takes an hour or longer for it to heat properly.
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November 25
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Thanksgiving Day:
The celebration of Thanksgiving over the course of the 18th century evolved from a solely religious day into a holiday celebrated around the dinner table. As New England became more densely settled and the good farmland all locked up, its residents started heading west, and they took their social traditions with them, including their annual Thanksgiving holiday. First in upstate New York then to the newly-opened Michigan territories and Ohio's Western Reserve, Yankee settlers on the expanding frontier kept the harvest feast tradition alive.
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| November 26 And that is what these two pictures depict - a 1770 frontier Thanksgiving feast actually cooked on the hearth from our event last month.
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| November 27 A photo taken of me at Colonial Williamsburg at "The Jn Greenhow Store." It is a very cool store - in fact, if anyone planned to do any Christmas shopping, I would highly recommend it to purchase gifts for all the folks on your list. There was some very cool commodities sitting upon these shelves, including leather dispatch cases, haversacks, waistcoats, shirts and hats, willow baskets, fine imported porcelain, floorcloths, fabrics, cooper's items, tinware, and craftsmen's tools - all items Mr. Greenhow has been carrying in his Store for over 250 years. Hey, don't laugh, it must be good stuff for he's outlasted Sears, Hudson's, K-Mart, Federals, and all the other new-fangled stores! Open early the day after Thanksgiving, too!
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| November 28 On Friday the 16th of November in 2012 a few of us who reenact the American Civil War era dressed in our period finest and spent a fine evening together for the premier of the new "Lincoln" movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln and Sally Field as his wife, Mary. Doing this sort of thing made it into a sort of reenactment event. A total of 18 reenactors showed up dressed in their 1860s clothing. At the theater we created quite the stir. The latest Twilight movie also opened on this day and I would venture to bet that the greater majority of patrons were there to see that. I, of course, played into it and when a customer would ask me why were we dressed the way we were and which movie we were here to see, I answered with "Twilight." Some actually believed it. And to top that, one high school-aged girl asked me if I was Thomas Jefferson! I asked her what war was going on during the time of President Lincoln's administration. *sigh* She had no idea whatsoever. Even her mother didn't know...
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| November 29 When the coronavirus/covid-19 for relatively new here, and the quarantines first started, I came up with a fun attempt to help alleviate some of the anxiety for those of us who reenact. I put the call out to a few friends to dress in their period clothing - whichever era is to their liking - and to photograph themselves in a sort of paradox: period person in the modern world. And the response was pretty good. I did it as well, and for the picture here I commented: "Yes, yes, I know they're British! And I know they invaded America in the 1960s. But they're the Beatles!" (Hey, as Paul Revere I could be 'Paul Revere and the Raiders'!) Look below for a link to the blog post with a host of other fun photos in this manner. Gotta have fun, no matter...right? |
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| November 30 My lovely wife & I enjoying an 1860s Christmas at the annual 21st Michigan Civil War era Christmas party. It's held at the 1872 Halfway School House in Eastpointe where we have great food with great friends. Sometimes we'll move the tables & chairs out of the way and have our fiddler play period tunes while we dance the jigs & reels of the old days. Alas, this year it will not be taking place. |
Now I ask my other friends in the hobby to post pictures with a small explanation on their own page. And if you do, please include your picture in my comments as well.
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The month of November has ended----December is now upon us.
Hope, by way of a vaccine, is nigh,
It's the holiday season - a time for hope and joy and peace;
So let us be merry, put sorrow away,
our Saviour Christ Jesus was born on this day.
Photos enjoying Christmas past are on the horizon...and we can party like it's 1769...or 1863...
Until next time, see you in time.
To see my other photo-challenges as they have occurred month by month, please click
HERE for October
HERE for September
HERE for August
HERE for July
HERE for June
HERE for May
HERE for March & April
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