Here There Be Dragoons

Last weekend I achieved a small personal milestone that has been several years in the making. Namely, I participated in a living history event at Gettysburg.

[ pause for applause ]

This will probably surprise exactly no one that my historical interests were tending towards this, but I myself only became aware I was going in this direction about a year ago. Almost exactly a year ago, to be specific, when history friend Mel and I went to the Eisenhower Farm for their annual WW2 day. I wrote about that in one of my very first blog entries. And the rest, as they say, is history.

[ Get it? Get it??? History!!! Like this blog! … okay … ]

I joined my friends the Polish Army at Eisenhower Farm on the participant side, specifically the 10th Dragoon Regiment, 2nd Squadron. Once I know exactly what that means, I’ll let you know. I must also regretfully inform you that no actual dragons are present in this group, much like how the Union Jack recently got jipped out of including the Welsh Dragon

And so to the weekend:

Memorial Day Parade

Happy Memorial Day!

(Not to be confused with Veterans Day, Armistice Day, ANZAC day, or Remembrance Day.)

Today is the day to recall the men and women who died in the service of the country, which is not to be confused with Veterans Day, which honors all those who served. (I had to look this one up.)

The origins of this holiday are debatable. Why? Because apparently everyone wants to take credit for the holiday that is the official kickoff to summer? Because it was such a good idea that everyone wants to prove they thought of it first? I don’t really know.

FIGTHING, part 2

This post is brought to you by adult snow day #1228382.  Adult snow days are the best.

Back to FIG –

For being the last girls in the previous night, we were the first ones up and out the door.  I was rather proud of us – Poland is SRS BIZNIZ.

The Big One … Part 2

As previously stated, the events commemorating the 150th of Gettysburg spanned several weeks.  The first week was full of events for the reenactors themselves and the second week was full of ticketed events for the public.  On the first day of the ticketed events, the 4th of July, I went up with my friend Mel, who normally does history things with me, and it was hot but we had a blast.

We were unable to attend the second day of events.  The 5th of July was that awkward Friday between a holiday and the weekend, and Mel hadn’t been able to take off work.  I didn’t want to go up by myself so I stayed home and did homework all day.  This was actually serendipitous because it turns out I needed that time to complete the assignments in a satisfactory manner.  Getting a master’s is hard work. Uff-dah.

The Big One

Among my goals for December: write a post on the 150th of Gettysburg.  I’ve been putting it off for a while but December is coming to a close.  And so, it is time that I, the Domer in DC, climb the apex of bloggery.

As you may have been aware, this year, 2013, marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.  There have been anniversary notices and articles for a few years now because the 150th anniversary actually spans 2011 to 2015, but could go even earlier than that, if you want to get into Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Bleeding Kansas and cover all the related things.  I won’t get into that because I’ve never read Uncle Tom’s Cabin and I’m not in Kansas anymore, Toto.  And honestly, all the related things get discussed ad nauseum at history nerd events anyway and I’m not sure I could distill the arguments into something blogworthy.

Event staff: you had one job.