World War II Reenactment Camp

Molly-ception

So, today, I finally got to check something off my bucket list.  Although I'm mainly a Civil War history nerd, I am also definitely a World War II history person.  I'm not as far gone into this, mainly because Civil War was what held my attention during college, but World War II is my first history love.  I fell in love with it thanks to my American Girl doll Molly back when I was seven years old, and I have not regretted falling in love with it since.  It handles my love of the Civil War just fine and knows it always hold a special place in my nerdy history heart.

Anyway, today I woke up and just could not sit still for some reason.  Like, really, I tried to sit down at the computer and work on the lesson for the Sunday school lesson I'm subbing for tomorrow, but my whole body was like, "Um...no," and I was more fidgety than Sherlock before going off to solve the case of the Hound of the Baskerville in the current BBC remake.

So, I finally decided that in order to burn my energy, I would go and buy a wedding gift for my friends' wedding in a couple weeks.  So off to Target I went in my penguin shirt that I almost never wear in public unless I forget I have it on and run off to the store.  When I was almost there, I remembered, "Oh yeah, today's the day I was going to go to the Civil War Reenactment Camp they've got set up near my house today!"  So I bought the gift and then headed straight over there, not even wanting to stop at my apartment and change into something else because IT'S HISTORY STUFF!!!  HISTORY!!!!!  (I may have a few obsession issues in this area.)

Yeah, so I get there (Oh, and I should also mention I'm in sandals, which I normally don't want to wear to this type of stuff because of the walking, but fortunately there wasn't too much walking), and it's like, "Where do I go first?  What do I do?  I LOVE HISTORY!"

So, basically, here's a summary of what I did:

German Camp

British Camp

Doctor Who References

Machine Gunners at American Camp

Free Food at USO Barn

Replica 101st Airborne Stables

Replica Pacific Barracks

Americans Capturing Germans

Soviet Tent

Germans Capturing Americans

 And then I had to go home and eat supper and call my dad for Father's Day because it was tomorrow already in Japan.  Then I got myself all prettied up...

....right down to my shoes...

...and went to the WWII USO-style dance, where I enjoyed the music and turned down the two reenactors who asked me to dance.

They also had a couple games to play, which I ended up participating in both because they were having a hard time finding volunteers (just like college).  The first game was musical chairs, and you could always jump back in after you got out, but after nearly sitting in a reenactor's lap once, I was done.

Also, I bought a cool hat:

So, basically, I got to talk with a bunch of cool reenactors (How do I know they were cool?  Because they're reenactors.  Yes, I know that's circular reasoning.  Deal with it.).  Especially the Soviet reenactor was really cool.  I mean, there aren't a ton of Americans lining up to be Soviet reenactors apparently, and then during the USO event, he got constantly teased by the American reenactors and the German reenactors.  Plus, he knew so much.  I was there the same time as this dad and kid, and they were Serbian (but no accent), and they asked a lot of good questions (and the kid, who was probably somewhere between seven and nine, knew a ton of stuff himself), so I got to spend a lot of time just standing there listening.

I also came partway into a reenactor talking about the 101st Airborne, who are pretty fascinating (even if you haven't watched Band of Brothers to give you a frame of reference; which I have seen that miniseries, and I basically would recommend it).

But, yeah, it's just a fascinating story, and to hear someone tell the real story after I'd seen the miniseries last year was SO COOL!  Like, standing there sometimes with my mouth just hanging open cool (Those who've sat near me in a history class know this expression.  It's the one where I've just been overwhelmed by the sheer awesomeness of what I'm being taught.)

Also, there was this lady who talked about the home front during the War, and she was one of those types who encourages you to keep passing on the stories of the past because they need to be.  That's why we have reenactments.  We don't want to lose our past, our history.  Be it good or bad, our history has made our world what it is today.  The seemingly smallest actions can have the most far-reaching consequences.  Our world today cannot be properly understood without understanding the history of what has shaped and formed the relationships among peoples and nations.  Yet, somehow, we choose to forget our history, either because our history teacher was boring, or the whole subject seemed irrelevant.  My dear reader, history is not irrelevant.  Without history, you would not be here.  (Think about that.  It's not as profound as it sounds.)  As my favorite history teacher often quoted, "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does often rhyme," and only by learning from history can we prevent some of the most terrible rhymes from happening again.  World War II is full of events we hope are never rhymed, yet if we forget what happened 70 years ago, terrible things will come again.  So take advantage of a historical event or a museum near you; go and learn something about history.  You might be surprised how fascinating the subject is.  It's full of things you couldn't invent if you wanted to, and you will forever be learning something new.