Living History

Saturday I had a chance to attend an event I have always been interested in but never had the chance to go to: Living History Weekend at German Flatts Town Park.

The event ran from Friday Sept. 23 to Sunday Sept. 25 in the park, which is located adjacent to the Fort Herkimer Church, something else I’ve always wanted to check out. Steven and I drove out route 5S Saturday morning. We were too early for the battle reenactments, but reenactors were present with tents set up and fires burning. We admired their costumes.

I heard one Union soldier asking a Confederate soldier what was the quilt tied around his shoulder for.

“That’s my bed roll,” the other soldier said, in a quit asking stupid questions kind of voice.

“That’s you rebels,” the union soldier said. “You never know when they’re going to want to lie down and take a nap.”

“We don’t have supply trains following us around,” the Confederate told him. “We have to carry what we need with us.”

“That’s not something to brag about, Mr. Confederate Guy,” I told him, but he wasn’t listening to me. I started to give Steven an American history lecture about how much better prepared the North was for the Civil War, but he was not listening either. I don’t blame him; I was being rather didactic.

We walked around the tents they had setup, and checked out the vendors as well. A band was playing. We enjoyed the music, but I did not catch who they were. We purchased a Living History Weekend t-shirt and a plate of cookies.

The historic Fort Herkimer Church was not open, but we walked around the graveyard which surrounded it. A lot of the lettering on the grave stones had worn away. Some were obviously replacements of historic markers. We found one grave marked with the name of the street we live on (I won’t tell you what that is, because I don’t need anybody walking by my house and seeing how much the grass needs mowing). Steven said he knew our street was named after a prominent local family. I’ll have to research that a little more. Historic prominent local families might be a good subject for a future blog post.

We also looked at some displays of historic artifacts. Steven said the dental instruments looked scary.

“Modern dental instruments are scary,” I said.

“Modern dentists are scary,” said a man in a uniform. I agreed, although my own dentist, Dr. Zilka, is a very good dentist who I have never found to be particularly alarming. Hey, most of us don’t like going to the dentist.

We left for home, toying with the idea of returning for the afternoon’s battle reenactment or the evening’s fireworks. I mean to watch for future events at the Fort Herkimer Church, and I will definitely mark my calendar for next year’s Living History Weekend.