Happy Holidays to you all!

The doldrums of December when all the packages have been opened and Christmas is behind us and New Years is on the horizon. uggggh, there is not a reenactment in sight.

Yes, we are solidly entrenched in winter camp with little to do but prepare for another campaign season. These are the times when dark thoughts enter the reenacters mind. Thoughts of what is going on wrong around us in the hobby or that perhaps it is time to seek a new hobby. I have received two letters in the past week with close friends questioning their continuation in the hobby. Two more told me they felt the hobby was dying. I can attest, friends, in 23 years of reenacting I have seen (and survived) many of the ups an downs of the hobby.

I remember well my first crisis, we all feared that the end of the 125th Anniversary series would do the hobby in. Dark days indeed. We had just been at a high point with 3000 reenactors at Gettysburg and actually did the surrender at Appomattox National park itself. There was no way we could keep the momentum without an anniversary to celebrate.

Then Ken Burn's Civil War came along and gave us a huge boost of intelligent reenactors. The "Ken Burns Generation" did an awful lot to improve the hobby with extensive research, improved authenticity of uniforms and equipment and enrichment of impressions.

The next downturn came as this group got bored and felt the hobby wasn't changing enough. "Without change the hobby would die!" A funny comment I always felt since we were portraying something that happened 135 years earlier. The "Ken Burns" Generation was looking for more, getting bored with the usual events. Some left, some became the new generation of commanders while others split time in other time periods. Some...Had families and left for suburban pursuits of mini-vans and grass cutting on weekends.

Along came a little movie called Gettysburg that perked the interest of a new generation of reenactor. There on the big screen was reenacting in all its Glory (oh yea, that movie helped too). The "Gettysburg Generation" gave us the expansion of the Mega Event. Larger battles, more troops on the field, bigger more drawn out events of three days plus. The whole hobby went from a "Company" mentality to "Battalions". We suddenly had to read the second half of the tactics manuals.

Battles got bigger but the soldiers still complained. Accusations of politics and favoritism to certain groups was going to ruin the hobby! I often found it funny that troops held in reserve were always angry that they were missing the battle. "We got shortchanged!" was the battle cry often heard. In actuality it was often, at these large events, that we still got the usual 45 or so minutes of fighting we just had to wait our turn.

Every few years we come upon a significant event that pumps up the hobby as a whole. Usually a big anniversary or a movie or other event. In recent years we have had a bit of a downturn. Some significant groups in the Corps have shrunk in number while others have prospered well. We have had no great movies (Cold Mountain didn't send fresh fish running to the recruitment office) in recent memory to improve things. Some would argue that portraying war during a current national conflict may also hurt participation. I do fear that our next big surge in enthusiasm may not be until the 150th series (it is coming sooner than you think) but I often wonder if the enthusiasm, in our politically correct society, will be as big as it was for the 100th Anniversary.

What is one to do when he finds himself straining to stay with his pards in the one activity he truly loved. Well, it all comes down to you!

First off RECRUIT! Nothing can rejuvenate a veteran soldier more than seeing some new guy come in wide eyed and full of amazement. It does a lot to remind one of their youth when they first started. It gives you someone to mentor and help along the way. It also give you someone fresh you can tell all those old jokes to around the campfire who might actually find them funny.

Second, look for new events. Not just a huge mega event but perhaps a small event or one sponsored by a fellow Corps unit. Small events give you that opportunity to walk around an meet folks, living histories give you an opportunity to educate the public and work on first person impressions.

Do something with your pards besides a reenactment. Why does the 5th Virginia always look like they are having a good time...Probably because they are. They often meet on off weekends to do, if nothing else, hang out and have a good time. My home unit used to take field trips to museums or battlefields and occasionally a hockey game or Busch Gardens. Camaraderie in places other than the field can bring a unit together and give members a much needed boost in participation.

Make every event interesting...Do not depend on the event sponsors or the Corps staff to plan every moment or activity for you during an event. We have plenty of time at an event where we are just lying around. DO SOMETHING....pay call, mail call, first person hours, etc.

One of my favorite things to do is make out 3x5 cards with short scenarios for people to do. Randomly hand them out at the beginning of the weekend. It will tell the person to perform some sort of first person impression at sometime during the weekend. Things like, "try recruiting everyone who comes by" or "Shirk all your duties".

A good friend of mine, who had reenacted for 30 years, had complained to me that the hobby was getting boring and he was thinking of quitting. The next weekend we did an event together at Ft. Norfolk where we were using the "Scenario Cards". His card read, "Try and escape the fort at any chance. Complain to anyone who will listen that you are only two miles from home and have not been there in a month and you want to see your family. The guards were alerted earlier to not allow anyone out of the fort without a pass. He and a pard spent the day devising ways to get out of the fort, all day I saw guards taking them "under arrest". At one point I saw them heading for the wall carrying a wooden ladder (how they found a period ladder I will never know) and a paint bucket, I didn't ask as I knew no good could have come from that. After the event he said the event was the most fun he had in the last 10 years.

Lastly, make those who don't show up feel like they missed something. I hate getting the e-mail from my company commander telling me about all the things I missed out by not coming out one weekend. Makes me feel like I won't miss another event in the near future.

So don't spend the cold months worrying about what is wrong with reenacting but, instead, think of something you can do to make it more enjoyable.

Happy New Year to you all. Next month we start working on the Corps meeting