"dumb re-enacting questions" Topic

an earlier post inspried me
MY FAVORITES,
1. sweat rolling off your noggin', its 91 degrees and your wearing blue wool w/ 35 pounds of kit and a musket, and here it comes
"are you hot?"
2. just spent 49 minutes carving up onions, potatoes and something that resembles animal protein and Im tryin' to fry it in a skillet the size of a salad dish, here it comes
"are you gonna eat dat?"
3. just spent 115 minutes firing, running, marching, falling walking etc, musket is fouled ,stinks to high heaven and im trying to clean it by pouring tepid water down the barrel as black putrid ooz comes out, here it comes
"is that gun real?"
raise you hand pards, raise your hands!

I like the question when you are eating bacon and hardtack and swallowing it, "Is that real food?" 'No it's fake and when you leave I will have to vomit it all up. It's foam food.'

My wife dressed in a period dress was holding our 6 month old son and he stared to cry. A passerby asked if that was a real baby or a fake one. *sigh*

We had this one happen once… one of my Pards was trying to hammer his heel back on his shoe. It kept falling off all day. Some passerby saw him hammering away. He said, "Did you know that nails weren't invented until 800 AD?" In my Pard's frustration he blurted out, "Oh really?! So we can assume that they didn't nail Christ to the cross, they just used tree resin?!"

It was pretty funny at the time. :)

Don

actionfront.blogspot.com

"Who ever saw a dead cavalryman?"

We have those questions in AWI and War of 1812 re-enacting too…

Eric

(From a fellow ACW reenactor & event coordinator)

How about these beauties…

1. Comment from a spectator, "When are the Germans going to attack?"
2. Another spectator, "Do you use real bullets?"
3. After reenatcors start falling down during a battle reenactment, "Are they really dead?"
4. Spectators looking at hundreds of tents set up into camps, campfires, furniture, wagons, flags, and etc., and then ask, "Do you sleep in those too? all weekend?"
5. Spectator looking at a fire pit with wood, flames and smoke, "Is that a real fire?"
6. Spectator arriving late on the last day of the event while the masses are taking down the camps, "Will you be out here next weekend too?"

"Here's your sign!"

Yeah, the spectators can be a hoot. My wife had the 'is it a real baby?' question with our two-month old daughter at the 125th anniversary of Appomatox.

Sometimes we'll turn the tables on them. If we see some spectators in shorts on a hot day we'll ask them: "aren't you cold dressed like that?"

As a Revolutionary War re-enactor, my favorite is "Are you guys Yankees or Rebels? Since I portray a Continental, the proper, though not quite perfect answer (in their eyes) was that we indeed were Rebels!

As a rev war reenactor as well.
Who did we fight?
Are you from the north or south?
Did we win?
Aren't you hot in that, of course as a continental in a hunting shirt I can respond 'Not as hot as those lobster backs over there'

Oh I remember another good one… We were doing a living history event for the whole weekend at a recreated period farm. There were massive signs in the parking lot about a "Civil War Encampment". An older women comes up to me and says, "You are dressed nice. What are you?" I thought she was joking so I added, "A Japanese soldier from WWII but I'm a bit tall." She said, "Well you look very authentic as one anyway so don't feel bad."

We usually participate in the St. Patrick's parade in NYC every year. This one year it was just after the Gulf War. As we are passing, by two ladies shouted out, "It's nice to have you boys home!" I don't think they were drunk either.

Don

When I was carrying my son off the field(he being the flag bearer) Why did they kill that little boy?

Wearing my zouave uniform before a battle I was told. "They didn't have any pirates in the Civil War, so why are you wearing that?"

My favorite was always, "Do you get paid a lot to do this?"

French and Indian War event. I'm there in my "white" justacorps interacting with the public. A kid walks up and asks, "Are you a redcoat?"

Same group. We have a dog in camp that works for her keep. A group is petting it, she is loving it, and someone asks, "Is that a real dog?"

Had a lady at Spring Mill State Park History Day literally give me the :ook over as I stood there in my gray uniform, and in the CIVIL WAR section…
Then she looked over at the ANV battle flag…
Then back at me…
Then back at the flag…
Then back at me and said…
"So you're the British huh?"
and then the next person asked me "Did you kill any Indians today?"….

The ones I particularly enjoy are the ones with the "Polictically Correct view of the Civil War"….It's fun to ask them if they've ever heard of The Morill Tariff, The Corwin Amendment, or if they have even read The Emancipation Proclamation…

Many times you start to see their eyes flutter as the facts come crashing into their "spoon fed agenda material" like two trains in a tunnel….

Sitting with a friend under a tree before a battle…he and I are nibbling on some hardtack…

Lady looks over at me and says "They didn't have Pop-Tarts during the Civil War!!!!"

Is that fire real?

From a boy scout leader at the high water point at Gettysburg "Now so I don't get it wrong when I tell the kids, which side won the war?"

It goes beyond questions. Two occasions at events I was at: a group of Boyscouts are watching a blacksmithing demonstration. One boy reaches over the rope line to snatch a coal from the fire. He didn't think it "was real." He screams echoed up and down the valley.

An adult, watching a pewtersmith demo was heard to say, "that's not (molten) pewter, that's mercury" and swept his finger through the flow. Thankfully he fainted quickly so we didn't have to listen to his screams. As if mercury would have been a smart idea either. Now the safety rope lines keep the ignorant and arrogant beyond arm reach.

Ya wonder why we don't let them handle the guns?

I was at a civil war reenactment and we just got our allotment of raw rations. We left them in a pile next to the fire. The rations consisted of a few carrots, onions, and a few potatoes. A tourist comes walking by and says to her friend, "look they had carrots back then.".
Now I thought she was just being sarcastic but I heard the same comment again from another tourist walking by!

And yet sometimes a visitor says just the right thing…

At a reenactment at New Madrid, MO, years ago a group of black children from a nearby neighborhood visited us in the Union camp. The youngest asked "What ya'll do this for?" Before I could explain, his older sister observed "this about memories, aint it?"

I still get chills when I remember that answer.

The VERY best scenario I ever witnessed was during a living history presentation. We were conducting mail call, and one of our younger men got a letter from home. He sat down by a tree near the crowd, opened it, and took out the 2 pages. he looked at it kinda funny like, before resting it on his lap. One lady from the crowd watching all of this asked him if there was some bad news in his letter. The fellow thought for a second, then looked up at her and said, "I don't know. I can't read".

This lady stepped right out of the crowd, and stood beside him and asked if he'd like her to read it to him. He admitted that that would be very nice.

So we more or less sat spellbound as she read him this letter from home, amazed at this poignant little scene being played out, unrehearsed, unscripted, by one of our men and this lady from who knows where.

Afterward, she handed him the letter back, he thanked her, and she disappeared back into the crowd.

Just about the most amazing thing I've seen at an event.

Reading the stories in this thread, you don't know whether to laugh or cry.

U.S. history is not a high priority in american high schools. Most of the administrators I have met consider it a useless trivia class and, heaven help us, do not cram heads with fact. As one principal told me "tyou don't need to teach facts to teach history – teach the concepts." He also said, "We don't need to teach the times tables. That's why we have calculators." The Every Child Left Behind nonsense had dimished it even further.

I am surprised at the lack of common courtesy of many of the people asking these silly questions.

You may not be able to overcome stupidity but anyone can learn manners.

Well done to the re-enactors for not remembering they have weapons handy.

I've been a reenactor for well over twenty years, and used to be horrified/amused by the questions that we got from spectators. Eventually I realized that a lot of these questions were ice breakers from people interested in what we were doing, who couldn't think of anything else to say. Nowadays I try my best to answer their questions and engage them in conversation – though I do occassionaly sneak off behind a tent to chuckle.

And for the record, the green uniform indicates that I am a member of the 1st US Sharpshooters. I am not a park ranger, and I am not in the Irish Brigade…..

I don't mind the "silly" questions at all. They provide me with an opening for a dialogue where I can help dispel some of the ignorance, (which can be fixed--stupid is forever). I'd rather get the "silly" question that I can correct than have someone walk away KNOWING something that's just plain wrong.

I'm less concerned about questions that seem silly from kids. Kids are, well, kids. It's some of the ones from their parents that make me shudder.

Not the ones that require a complex answer, or the ones that maybe misidentify hardtack as a Pop-Tart, but the ones who come up to us at Rev War re-enactments and ask with all seriousness if we use real bullets when we fire at each other, or if that's a real fire in the fire pit, etc.

That's when you realize that some folks' gene pools are really puddles.

Eric

As you probably already know, many make light of what you do.
Although I'm not a reenactor, I love the events. And the questions you record here prove that you do something that's important.

be in dress and stop any where, and you get. Are you in a play?

We did a school program for the 4th grade at one school. They had done some studying BEFORE we visited. There were actually 3 classes that all did special projects in advance of us coming. These kids were highly motivated and we had to give their teachers mountains of credit. These weren't normal bored students they were… super-students! It frightened us! Their questions were intelligent, thought provoking, focused and they all sat and actually listened to what we said! They broke us into small groups and each group had an area of interest which they chose. It was awesome. For 60 minutes they fired off question after question… it was more like a grilling! That was the most fun we have had at a school program ever. We had one new guy with us and after we finished and were packing up in the parking lot he turned to me and said, "Gee… I didn't realize it was going to be this tough. I should study more for my next event." I told him to relax since they are rarely that tough… very rarely.

One very curious child caught my attention more than the rest. This one little girl had billions of questions about dead soldiers, burying them, notifying their next of kin, coffins, embalming, transporting the bodies home, indentifying the unknown dead etc etc. When it was time for the classes to get back to their normal schedules she stood around trying to get the rest of her questions answered and peppered me with more. When she left I turned to a buddy of mine and wondered if perhaps she had some sort of issue at home that prompted this barrage of questions.

One last one from me. I do 95th Rifles and got into an argument, an ARGUMENT at an event that we weren't British, we were Irish. Why? Because we were in green. You can't cure stupid.

I was at a "Christmas In The Village" event and some visitors (some of whom were visually impaired) came by the train station,where me and at least two other ACW reeactors were,according the the setting ,waiting for the train home for a rare furlough. One lady,who was sightless,I let feel my jeancloth shell jacket sleeve,she said it felt itchy,I reassured her it didn't bother me much,as it was lined inside. I thought it quite helpful.

Spectator: Why are you burning wood at eleven in the morning?
My wife: I am about to prepare lunch for my husband and sons.
Spectator: Next thing is you will expect me to believe that you slept in that tent back there.

Spectator drawing me aside from my bookstore in a tent: Was Lincoln for the North or the South?

memories memories
I love the idea of waking up in a field with 1156 guys in blue wool, at 0700am, everyone looking like 'Bill the Cat", blankets rolls strewn as far as the eye can see, here it comes "DID YOU SLEEP HERE LAST NIGHT?"
thats gotta be the favorite,
The baby question, now that really would me off if that was ever asked of me. You really cant fix stupid…

I was touring Antietam battlefield with my family when we came across a group of re-enactments (US Sanitary Commission) camped behind the Dunker church. Two men were deep frying little lumps of dough in a dutch oven over an open fire. One of my boys started the conversation:

What are you doing?

I'm sitting here behind the Dunker church making donuts. When I get home from the war I'm going to open up a little shop and make these. Yessir, I think I'll call it Dunker Donuts. What do you think?

Not really a question that was asked me, but I reenact the ACW and I posted some pictures on facebook, the one that was commented on was a picture of an artillery piece in a trailer hitched up to a van. A friend jokingly comments "I didn't know they had cars back then". I jokingly reply "of course, without these there may have never been a war".Here comes the stupid part, a girl (one of those beauty is beter than brains one) says "really they would have stopped the war". Now I know its hard to read emotions in text, but believe me when I say the person believed in what they wrote.

Done my share of re-enacting (ACW War Correspondent), and was always a "Ramada Ranger," so I don't hold a candle to the stawarts who DO sleep in the field, etc.

Thank you for sharing all these stories, but on the whole the common thread of public ignorance worries me. Okay, I worry easily, but when I think that these hordes of the utterly clueless also vote--on issues they obviously know nothing about, or only learn from the "neutral media"--it only drives home the message that history MUST be taught, at all levels. And I do mean the "details."

Almost by definition, teaching only "concepts" means teaching a pre-disgested-seasoned-to-the-political-tastes- of-the-educational-system set of ideas they want you to believe, but not be able to question or analyze.

To the entire re-enactment fraternity I say, "March On!" You may be the only hope for some people--especially the kids--to learn there is so much more than politically correct "concepts" to history, their country, and life in general.

TVAG

I'm a museum professional and reenactor. I've gotten "real fire" "are they really dead"..all that stuff…weekly.

My favorite:

My son was 4-5 months old at the time. My wife and I have a small collection of 19th century baby clothes and they happen to fit him at the time. There was a small ACW event nearby and I thought it would be awesome to take him,see the action, and get used to multiple guns (he'd heard 1 a lot already :) ). I knew a lot of people who were there so I threw on my Union uniform, dressed my guy in vintage clothes and set out.

I got there and it was hot, hot, hot! NC in June. Since I wasn't in line that day I left the fatigue blouse in the car and walked out holding my guy. So, I'm un-uniformed with a baby. No weapon. No gear. Just trousers, brogans, donnet and the cap.

I'm walking across the field with my son when I see a guy pointing at me and I hear the "expert" telling his family that the Union army would put bombs below babies to blow up Reb's.

I swear to god…go reread that last sentence.

I walked over to the guy and told his family that I "cut the wires" and saved this one!! They then asked me what I was going to do with the "confederate baby"?

…come on…you would have said the same thing…

"cook it, of course"

My wife laughed til she cried!

-R.O. Bemis

At a WWII event held at a steam railway centre, I'm walking beside the track when this woman asks me "which is the electric rail" I look down, smile sweetly and say, "why madam, the one you're standing on."

Some years ago whilst visiting the US, I visited Vicksburg and fell to chatting with one of the rangers, who it turned out was also a reenactors, I asked him the worst question he had receive. his answer how did they fight a battle with all these monuments in the way"

Not a dumb comment, but myself and another cavalryman rode up to the sulters area and were waiting for another of our number to arrive when a young gent somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 years old trundles our way as we are getting off the horses and announces to the world "DOG! BIG DOG!" Turns and walks back to his folks! He was so sure of himself how could we argue?

All funny, dog big dog could that have been Ralph wigham from the simpsons?? joking guys only joking!!!!!

Mr Bemis, I shall be cursing your name as I wipe Dr Pepper off the screen and keyboard.

While manning a Dark Age re-enctment village I overheard a mother asking if they had wood in those days.

We also had someone go through the ropes to stand behind a shield wall to get a better photo of the fully mailed wedge lining up for a charge on it. We had to do an emergency "hold" over the entire battlefield.

Kadavar.

Now who wants to put down some dumb reenactor responses/actions? Unfortunately, not everyone who dresses the part knows very much, and sometimes they make that quite obvious!

"Now who wants to put down some dumb reenactor responses/actions? Unfortunately, not everyone who dresses the part knows very much, and sometimes they make that quite obvious!"

Reb reenactor to the public at an event in Bloomington, Indiana years ago – "According to the Census of 1860, there were more slaves in the North than in there were the South"

At a local event last year, a reenactor is getting interviewed by the local media (naturally).

He points out another reenactor wearing the Army Issue Hat, AKA Hardee Hat, and informs the reporter that only the Iron Brigade wore such a hat.

He points out another reenactor wearing the Army Issue Hat, AKA Hardee Hat, and informs the reporter that only the Iron Brigade was issued such a hat.

"YIKES"
That would make like 3/4's of the army of the cumberland members of the iron brigade! no wonder georgia howled , nya nya nya

I was at a winter event beside lake Erie,the wind was furious and it was -15 fahrenheit.Standing guard ,fully kitted out with woolen trousers and great coat covered in lake effect snow spray, i was shivering and silently cursing my hob nailed boots when tourists strolled by and commented "Wow, you really make it look like your freezing!"

This isn't a stupid comment but kinda like the nasty conditions which Warpseed experienced.

We did an event in which it started raining about a hour after we got there on Friday night and never stopped until we were heading home on Sunday afternoon. At times the rain was so heavy that all the public left and never came back by mid-day Saturday. As we were waitng for the order to march back to camp our officers gathered together to discuss the situation. We stood at attention in a driving rain that came down sideways. We were miserable, wet and the longer we stood at attention waiting for our damn officers to decide what to do we all got more ticked off. I turned to my file mate and said, "Boy… I wish I was a stamp collector." He said, "Why is that?" I replied, "Well if I was a stamp collector I wouldn't be standing in this G*d damn rain!" Everyone burst into a hearty laugh. For a few minutes it lightened everyone up a little…. just a little. The stamp collecor remark became a joke for the next year whenever the weather turned ugly.

BTW… You never realize how lousy and useless Dog tents are until it rains even a little.

Thats a really great story,the things we do for our hobby!I remember going into a beer store in uniform,again said hobnailed boots became dangerous as i "skated" across the faux marble floor uncontrollably.As for tents they are also prone for letting foul critters in.My friend 1 tent over awoke with a startled cry finding a rat snake amongst his bedding.After that event rubber snakes plagued him for a year.

YEAH, the hobnails and heelplates make for some good … hard surface skateing…yes-sir-ree, I lost a heel plate at murphreesboro when I slipped like a hockey goalie, one leg forward & one leg back, sent the damn thing right into a crowd of people. heard a distinct 'pinggg', -------move along, move along, nothing to see here------

I know the feeling,with just the heel plates on my brogans,I nearly did a Brian Boitano move walking through a hotel lobby..