The last civil war reenactment of the season

The last civil war reenactment of the season

• 9.24.2010

I'm off today to the last civil war event of the 2010 re-enacting season.  Seems crazy, right now, to take off from my nice, insulated house to sleep in a tent for two nights, but the weather's supposed to look up from the chill and rain we've had this week and be up to 80 tomorrow.  Let's hope!
I've mentioned before how my family does civil war re-enacting, mostly for my mom's business of making historic clothing for museums, historical sites, and re-enactors.  We re-enact with the Northwest Civil War Council at four weekend-long events each summer and a few smaller things in the off-season.
This weekend's event is at Milo McIver State Park, a lovely park on the Clackamas River east of Portland.  It's a very scenic area, with the main drag right in front of the river (although the spot we always camp at, on Sulter's Row--the shops' area--tends to be lumpy and downhill, now that I think about it...).  Here are some pics from last year.
Here's the store, the back view (for some reason this is the only pic we have of it...)

Here's my cousin and her (then 9-month old) daughter:

We went to a ladies' tea one afternoon with some other reenactor friends:

(That's my mom in the olive green bonnet):

And, of course, we had some downtime.

I also do the fashion shows at these events, always at 2:00 after the string band performs 1860's-era songs.  I talk about fashions from the period using whichever re-enactors volunteer as examples and speaking to all the visitors that have come to check out the day's activities.  Learning about historic clothing and making my own clothes for re-enactments is really how and why I learned to sew!
Well, now I'm off to pack the car, and until next time, I'll be sporting a corset and hoop skirt and lots of undergarments.  Here's to a good weekend!