Standing by the Fort

This morning we were expecting a group of 30 children to show up at 9am for a tour of the park's recreated fort and earthworks. I came up with an activity a month ago in which I let the kids pretend to be soldiers and Civil War photographers at the site. They use the fort as a backdrop and come away with some pretty good pictures every once in a while. We put the pictures on CD and send them to the parents. This necessitates taking two huge trunks of soldier's uniforms, ladies dresses, canteens, haversacks, and other accouterments to the site in advance of the group. Our group arrived a bit (1 hour) late today and so I was out at the fort with boxes full of Civil War paraphernalia set out on display for a while. Several groups of people wandered by, looked at everything, asked questions, and before I knew it I was basically explaining the site, the clothing, the topography and answering questions from everyone who walked past. Now I don't mean to make it sound like I was mobbed by people, but there was a steady stream of visitors coming past who I hadn't expected to be there. I explained French military terms to one man, uniform styles to his wife, gave directions to a couple from out of town, and talked about the deforestation caused by the Siege of Petersburg with an older gentleman.

By the time the group of kids got there I had been talking quite a bit and had to launch right back into it again. We talked about the process of making glass-slide negatives, famous Civil War photographers, why uniforms were made of wool, and dozens of other things. It made for a very full morning. I loved every minute of it. Things like this I will miss when I leave here.