This weekend, we went to Civil War Days.
Actually, I need to back up a little on this story …
This winter, Darcy’s school presentation assignment over 7 weeks was to work on memorizing a famous historical speech (her history major mother did a little happy dance, I assure you). We settled on The Gettysburg Address and got about 2/3 of the way through. This piqued a Lincoln interest in her and so we decided after a very Lincoln-focused Winter/Spring that we needed to try out Civil War Days.
I can honestly say that I’ve never seen anything like it. In case you didn’t know this about me already, be warned: I didn’t just major in history – I’m a complete history geek. As we strolled through the town along the green, I shared the street with the likes of Generals Custer, Sherman, Jackson, and Lee. I also saw Mr. Jefferson Davis, and of course, our beloved Mr. Lincoln.
Our time culminated with a view of an afternoon battle between really amazing re-enactors (or re-en-actors? or reen-actors?) posing as Union and Confederate soldiers. Very real. In fact, so real that my kids at 6 and 3 only made it past the first few minutes of the full artillery before they were asking if we could please take it all in from a sizeable distance. Judging by my son’s grimace, I equate “sizeable distance” to some 50 miles give or take. Luckily, they were both comforted with some kettle corn – leading to a discussion of whether the kettle corn they were eating was actually around during the Civil War (uh, sorry, FDA…) .
Such a fun afternoon … even the discussion on 150 year old kettle corn. If you ever get the chance to re-live history this way, jump at it!