Thursday, March 3, 2016
I had an interesting conversation Sunday in church with a reenactor. This man had just been to a living history program at a Revolutionary War site in North Carolina. I knew him as a Civil War reenactor so we started talking about those communities. He didn't realize I've been writing this newsletter for several years.
He was describing how in the reenacting community there is a spectrum of people who take it very serious and try to be authentic versus on the other side guys who view it as a good excuse to get together and drink beer on the weekend. He is hoping that in our area more people will start taking an interest in the Revolutionary War as we are approaching a major anniversary.
Apparently I've had my head in the sand because the booming aspect of reenacting is indeed WWII. He was describing a huge D-Day event that happens in Michigan complete with amphibious assault craft. I've been spending my free weekends camping with the Scouts so I was clueless that all this was going on.
It would make sense for there to be WWI stuff going on since we are still in the middle of the centennial of this conflict. However, since there is a much smaller footprint in WWI I can see where it might not be as popular as the later WWII.
Friday, February 26, 2016
I've been writing this newsletter for several years now but I don't know if I've ever featured pantyhose. You know you are a serious collector if you are willing to pay more than $100 for some WAC stockings.
One of the WWI inventions that is on the project list is the submarine. If you are going to tell the story of the German sinking of the Lusitania then it fits. The sub binoculars listed below are from WWII but are a reminder for me of that lesson coming up.
To get my class warmed up for their presentations tomorrow I showed them a video on the Battle of Jutland. I usually see more RAF stuff in this block as opposed to the Royal Navy. Although I grew up as an Air Force brat I was always interested in big naval ships.
The Zimmerman telegram was probably the thing that ultimately pushed the United States to enter the war. We have been talking in class about the entangling alliances and protection agreements we have in the United States today that could possibly draw us into a war that we didn't start. Even my students wrote out some hypotheticals that sounded like reasonable theories of how this could happen.
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
I am sure the auction nannies over on eBay were alarmed when they saw the listing pictured to the left. It's pretty unusual to see an eBay listing that includes two forbidden firearms in the gallery pictures. Just to be clear the seller is only offering up the 82nd Airborne collection but it did get my attention.
The trench binoculars might be an example of war time equipment that was ingenious but would look pretty silly to use today. I don't know maybe a hunter in a deer blind could make use of them but I wouldn't take them to a NASCAR race to watch the cars make left turns.
For a minute I thought about purchasing the old Soviet flag to use as a lesson prop. But having grown up in the 80s I still remember how we looked at the Soviets in the Cold War. Instead of displaying this in my class during the lesson I'll just stick to a computer graphic and spend my money somewhere else.
The closing block is full of WW1 pieces including trench art, helmets, medals and more. Click any of these to see what the best selling items are from the war fought 100 years ago.