Category: Thanks

Generation Gap

On By kittycalashIn History, Living History, Philosophy, Reenacting, Thanks5 Comments
Early gal trooping. I insisted on a frock coat and actual breeches.
Early gal trooping: Sam Adams, pre-beer.

Historiann has an interesting take on the scholarly study of the American Revolution:

I think it will take a fresh generation with no memories of the 1970s to revolutionize studies of the American Revolution. What do the rest of you think, those of you who remember the 1970s as well as those of you who don’t?

Historiann is riffing on a piece over at the Junto, on whether cultural historians have lost the American Revolution.

You know what this reminds me of?

Why, yes: The Progressive Movement and Various Backlashes in Revolutionary War Reenacting. (Supply caps and fonts as you like).

Now, Drunk Tailor is not specifically saying the same thing here but he is making a generational point.

They are half my age and already exceed me in sewing skill. They find new cultural nuggets I have never seen before.

I’ll see your camp kitchen and raise it a malnourished goat and acorns. (image from Drunk Tailor)

And that– younger people are finding new things–reminds me of Historiann’s post.

I could say we’re all standing on the shoulders of giants, but it is more about perspective, different ways of looking, and openness. The schisms are not just generational, but philosophical.

None of these breaks fall neatly, of course, but crack and splinter along desires and motivations. As long as you are willing to keep learning and changing (i.e. researching and making) then you’ll keep pushing at the edge of the interpretive envelope and that can only help push understanding of all kinds forward.

What Cheer Day 2014 Gallery 2!

On By kittycalashIn Events, Living History, Museums, Reenacting, Thanks4 Comments

Think of this as the afternoon photos.

The fortune teller came!
She had many interesting things to tell Miss Sally Brown
And promised better fortunes and comforts to the maids
The mantua maker, surpris’d!
The fortune teller even told visitors’ fortunes
Miss Ruth Smith asked for advice on a new gown
The deliveryman arrived with an order wine an empty bottle and a full head
Mr Taber shared his fashion plates with visitors
News of a happy future for Sally and Carl
Caught sleeping!
Battledore and shuttlecock
Lawn games
Mrs Brown and Mrs Brown!
Mr Mason and wife Alice; Mr Herreshoff and fiancee Sally
The ensemble
Eliza!
Bonnet swapping
And, finally, all done.

What Cheer Day 2014 Gallery

On By kittycalashIn Events, Living History, Museums, Reenacting, Thanks3 Comments

An overview of the day, to begin with.

Our new maid, Eliza, greets the mantua maker
Mr Mason confers with his tailor, Mr Taber
Alice receives the mantua maker’s letter
Taking Mr Mason’s measure
It was a long night….
Mr Herreshoff arrives from New York
Mrs Brown and her sister, Miss Smith, entertain company
…and quiz Mr H
Visitors from New York meet the ladies and mantua maker
Mr Taber and Mrs Brown
Motherly love
Not, perhaps, as dissolute as he appears?
Miss Sally Brown and Mr H
Mr H and a visitor
Did the vegetable milk remove freckles? Esther is not certain.
Miss Brown and Mr H
Mr Young, our sometimes troublesome deliveryman
Mr Taber threads a needle

Whimsical Wednesday

On By kittycalashIn Thanks
Hades (center), flanked by Pain and Panic

As elevating and inspiring as #dmmh was, reality is always around the corner, as predictable as a cast-iron frying pan in a Katzenjammer Kids cartoon. So on Tuesday, Mr S and I went to IKEA to re-vamp the Young Mr’s bedroom.

I know: this isn’t Martha Stewart, so what gives?

The Young Mr turns 16 on Saturday, and we wanted to mark the day in a memorable way. We had originally planned to go to Liberty Hall in NJ, where we would present the kid with his own Charleville and a Wegman’s white cake. Reality intervened in the form of AP European History, which led to dropping the swim team, which has their first  meet on Sunday. We dropped Liberty Hall, expecting to be swimming, but we’ve had to drop swimming to manage AP Euro.

So this has been a Very Tough Week chez Calash, and last Tuesday, the Young Mr slipped into the kind of Serious Funk that only teenagers can have. Reader, it was so bad, I asked him if he wanted to see his therapist and he said, “Yeah, OK. I guess.”

So, appointment on the horizon, we cast about the house looking for places in which one could do homework. Reader, there were few, and mostly they were places where I already sew or write. Something had to be done!

The Young Mr Surveys his Territory

IKEA catalog at the ready, my friend and I developed a plan: we would transform the Young Mr’s room for his birthday: He would get a desk, and place to lounge whilst reading, and I would get my table back.

We still have some tweaking to do, but he has a desk, a bench, and a watercolor of the Morgan that he loves (that once was mine) and loft bed that he seems to like.

Since the photo was taken, all free space has been claimed by textbooks and Magic cards, and I suppose the underneath spaces will soon be colonized by feral socks. Still, in the interim between this moment and Sometime Thursday Afternoon, the Young Mr has a nice room that makes him, and us, and his grandmother, feel that Things Might Be OK. I hope you have a cozy corner in your home where Things Are OK for you– and if you don’t, I hope you will  make one, soon.

The back of the top rail of Hades.

Oh, and Hades? That’s an 1813 chair we found in James Woods’s booth at the local antique mall. He’s from here, so no big. We figure the other two are his henchmen from Hercules. The names seemed appropriate to their relative comfort levels for long-term seating.